Insights · Do Better Consulting

THE CONVERSATIONS most people AREN'T HAVING.

Direct takes on hiring, talent strategy, and career positioning. Written for founders and HR and talent leaders who are done with generic advice.

Featured

November 2026

EVERYONE HAS A COMP PHILOSOPHY. ALMOST NOBODY HAS A TALENT PHILOSOPHY.

Most companies can explain how they pay. Few can explain who they hire and why. What a talent philosophy is, the five questions it answers, and how to build one.

Hire Right

8 min read

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Hire Right

WHAT IS TALENT STRATEGY CONSULTING? IT STARTS BEFORE THE SEARCH OPENS.

Talent strategy consulting is the work of deciding who a company hires, why, and what those people need to succeed, before any search opens. What a talent strategy consultant does, how it differs from recruiting, and when to bring one in.

November 20267 min read

Sell to Talent

NEW AI HIRING LAWS ASK FOR A NOTICE AND A HUMAN. THE HUMAN IS THE HARD PART.

Colorado and California join Illinois and New York City in requiring AI hiring notices on January 1, 2027. The notice is the easy part. The human path behind it is what most talent teams haven't built.

October 20266 min read

Executive Search

AI CUT THE COST OF EXECUTIVE SEARCH. THE LOGO KEPT THE PRICE.

AI made the research behind executive search cheaper than ever. Retained fees still sit at one-third, and the price per search is rising. Here's what that fee is actually buying, and what to ask before you sign.

October 20267 min read

Hire Right

PWC JUST TOLD YOU WHAT IT THINKS RECRUITING IS WORTH

PwC eliminated its entire Talent Acquisition and Development department the same year it spent $1.5B on AI. Here's what that trade actually costs, and what it means for founders making the same call.

September 20264 min read

Hire Right

YOU STOPPED HIRING JUNIORS. YOU JUST MADE EVERY HIRE A SENIOR HIRE.

Cutting the entry rung did not reduce your hiring. It repriced all of it. Every role now requires someone who arrives already knowing, and most founders have never priced what that costs.

September 20269 min read

Sell to Talent

WHAT 21% CONFIDENCE ACTUALLY MEANS

Only 21% of recruiters are confident their AI screen isn't cutting qualified candidates. The real story isn't the accuracy gap. It's that most hiring teams built a filter and never stopped to ask what it was deciding.

August 20265 min read

Hire Right

THE HIRING REBOUND ISN'T COMING. HERE'S WHAT TO BUILD INSTEAD.

The low hire, low fire environment isn't a pause before things go back to normal. It's the new operating reality. Here's what founders who are ahead of it are doing differently.

August 20264 min read

Hire Right

WHO CATCHES A BAD HIRE NOW THAT MIDDLE MANAGEMENT IS GONE?

Middle management used to catch bad hiring decisions before they got expensive. As organizations flatten and lean on AI, most have not built anything to replace what they cut.

August 20267 min read

Hire Right

WHY DEIB WAS NEVER BUILT TO SURVIVE A BUDGET CUT

DEIB doesn't get cut because leadership stops caring. It gets cut because it was never load-bearing, and the data shows exactly why.

August 20264 min read

Executive Search

BOARDS ARE BUYING SPEED AND CALLING IT RIGOR

AI has made executive shortlists faster than ever, but record CEO turnover and rising interim appointments suggest boards optimized for the wrong metric.

July 20268 min read

Hire Right

SKILLS-BASED HIRING ISN'T FAILING. IT NEVER ACTUALLY STARTED.

Skills-based hiring adoption is at an all-time high, but outcomes aren't following. Here's the real gap, and the three layers most companies skip.

July 20269 min read

Sell to Talent

YOU CAN'T OUTSOURCE DISCRIMINATION. THE COURTS JUST PROVED IT.

A federal ruling in Mobley v. Workday just gutted the "we just bought the tool" defense. Here's what the AI hiring liability shift means for talent leaders in 2026, and what it demands of you now.

July 20267 min read

Executive Search

WHY SMART COMPANIES DON'T HIRE ALONE

The real cost isn't outside hiring help. It's a critical role sitting open for four months, or rebuilding after the wrong senior hire six months later.

June 20268 min read

Hire Right

WHEN SHOULD A STARTUP HIRE ITS FIRST TALENT LEADER?

Most startups don't hire their first talent leader because they're ready. They hire because they're tired. The question isn't whether you can afford a talent leader. It's whether you can afford what hiring without one is already costing you.

April 20258 min read

Hire Right

WHY FOUNDERS MISTAKE HIRING SPEED FOR HIRING STRATEGY

Founders are trained to move fast. But the same instinct that drives early growth often undermines hiring as companies scale. Hiring is a low-reversibility decision hiding inside a high-speed company, and it deserves a different kind of rigor.

April 20257 min read

Sell to Talent

YOUR HIRING TECH STACK ISN'T BROKEN. YOUR HIRING JUDGMENT IS.

The global HR tech market is growing toward $70 billion. And candidate experiences keep getting worse. Recruiting doesn't have a tooling problem. It has a capability problem, and you cannot automate your way out of it.

March 20259 min read

Sell to Talent →Hire Right →Executive Search →

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