Placing product roles you can't assess yourself
Recruiters placing product and design roles are paid for judgment they usually can't exercise: almost nobody in recruitment can assess design or product craft. An assessment attached to your shortlist turns “here are five CVs” into “here are the three closest to your team, and what to ask each of them”. That difference is what your fee is supposed to buy.
What usually happens
Your client's hiring manager can evaluate the work. You can't, and both of you know it. So your shortlist is built on CV pattern-matching, company names and a conversation, and when a placement fails at month three, the credit you lose is out of all proportion to the reason.
Meanwhile every other recruiter approaching that client is sending the same profiles from the same LinkedIn searches.
15–25%
Of first-year salary, the standard contingency fee. That's for a shortlist built without any assessment of the craft being hired for.
The objection we hear
“Adding a step will lose me candidates.”
It will lose you some, and it's useful to know which. The format is built to keep that number low: fifteen minutes, a fictional company, nothing to prepare, and candidates sit it once rather than once per company.
The candidates who complete it also become more placeable. A fit report attached to a profile is a reason for a hiring manager to take your call over the next recruiter's.
How it fits your process
01 / 03
Assess before you submit
A shortlist that arrives with evidence changes the conversation with the hiring manager. You stop defending a CV and start discussing a result.
02 / 03
It compounds across searches
Someone you assess for one client is already assessed for the next. The report belongs to the candidate and travels with them, so your network becomes progressively more valuable to place.
03 / 03
Charge it through, or absorb it
At $89 against a fee of several thousand, most recruiters absorb it and use it as a differentiator. Some itemise it. Either works.
Roles you probably hire
Product Designer
The CEO: “We need a guided onboarding with tooltips. I saw it at a competitor and it works.”
Product Manager
The CRO: “Sales lost three deals this quarter because we don't have SSO. Put it in the next sprint.”
UX Researcher
The Head of Product: “Run some user interviews and tell us whether people want this feature.”
Questions from recruiters
Yes, that's what it's for.
Yes, always. Assessing someone without telling them who is looking would be indefensible, and they consent before starting.
Then check what it measures. Most general libraries score knowledge with multiple choice, which answers a different question from this one. If they measure judgment already, you don't need us.
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