The Step That Makes or Breaks Every Hire (and no, it's not the interview)
Most hiring advice starts with the interview.
What to ask. What red flags to watch for. How to avoid bias.
But by the time you’re in the room with a candidate, you’re already downstream.
The real damage happens earlier (much earlier) when the role gets defined.
And most of the time, that step is rushed, vague, or skipped entirely.
Hiring doesn't break in the interview. It breaks in the definition.
Think back to the last role you hired for.
Was everyone on the same page about what success in that role looked like?
Or were you hoping it would “click” when the right person showed up?
(I've been guilty of this myself so don't be shy)
The fact is, in most teams, hiring starts like this:
Someone resigns or a new need pops up
A manager copies an old job description
A recruiter gets a handful of vague bullet points
Interviews begin with no real alignment on what “great” means or how success will be measured.
The process isn’t broken because people aren’t smart. It’s broken because no one defined success at the start.
You can’t select well if you haven’t defined well.
Hiring is a decision problem.
And in every other high-stakes decision, we define what we’re looking for before evaluating options.
Architects create blueprints before building
Product teams define user needs before designing
Investors set a thesis before screening deals
But in hiring?
We skip the blueprint. We skip the definition. We start selecting without knowing what we’re selecting for.
That’s what creates misalignment, mis-hires, and regret.
A better starting point: mission, outcomes, and competencies
What if you started with clarity?
Before writing the job ad or running interviews, define:
The mission: Why this role exists
The outcomes: What success looks like in 6–12 months
The competencies: The attributes needed to deliver those outcomes
When you do this upfront, the rest of the process sharpens:
You attract the right candidates
You ask better interview questions
You align faster as a team
You reduce hiring noise and speed up good decisions
It sounds simple. It is.
But it’s also the step most teams skip.
This is why we built Klareda
Klareda is an AI hiring co-pilot built to help managers and teams get this step right.
It guides you through defining your role clearly from mission to outcomes to competencies.
And then it generates:
A structured interview plan (with interview questions)
A clear job description
A scoring system that brings alignment
All in a few minutes, not days.
It’s designed for busy leaders who want clarity, not clutter. And to make hiring faster, sharper, and more aligned right from the start.
Want to see how it works?
👉 Book a short demo: https://calendly.com/konstanty-schoolofhiring/klareda-demo
Hiring doesn’t have to be a guessing game.
It just has to start with the step most teams skip.
