Free guide for founders · Impact Bridge Consulting

Before you hire the person, figure out the work.

The Headcount Gate: six questions to answer before you open any role, and the three possible answers. Founders use it to catch the expensive mistake before the job post goes up.

• The six questions I walk through with founders before any role gets designed
• Greenlight, hold, or solve it another way: know which one you're in
• A one-page version for your next leadership meeting

Chichi Okpara, MAOD, SPHR · Founder, Impact Bridge · Formerly Goldman Sachs, Amazon, AWS

Get the Headcount Gate

Free, and it takes about 15 minutes to use with your team.

4x

Team growth at a venture-backed startup in under 4 months

5x

Series C team growth in six months, with 45% faster hiring

120 days

Of support for every hire we make, so new leaders land

Why this exists

Hiring someone into confusion just gives the confusion a new employee.

A company gets busy, or raises money, and the first move is "we need to hire." Sometimes that's right. But a lot of the time, nobody has decided what the person needs to own, what should be different 90 days in, or whether a person is even the answer. The Headcount Gate makes you answer that first.

1

What business problem does this role solve?

Name the problem, not the title.

2

Why now?

"We just raised" is a reason you can afford it, not a reason you need it.

3

What should be different 90 days in?

If nobody can say, nobody can tell if the hire is working.

4

What happens if you don't hire?

Be specific about what slips and who's carrying it today.

5

Could AI, a tool, or a contractor do this?

Look at the tasks, not the job.

6

Who owns the outcome?

One name. If two people own it, nobody does.

Greenlight

The problem is clear, the 90-day outcome is clear, and one person owns it. Design the role and build the scorecard before you post.

Hold

The need is real, but the answers are fuzzy. Figure out the work first, then decide what the role should be.

Solve it another way

AI, a contractor, someone already on the team, or stopping the work. That's a good result, not a failed search.

What it looks like in practice

The job post that went on hold

A founder sent us another company's job post and asked us to start the search that day. Before we searched, we asked these questions, starting with whether that kind of role even fit how the company sells. Within days, the founder put the role on hold. No search, no wasted months, and no hire made into confusion.

“

Chichi made a transformative impact on our hiring strategies. The improvements led to a more efficient hiring process and a significant enhancement in the quality of our new team members.

Allie Shulman, VP People & Culture, SoundCloud