Why the Briefing Session Matters
Most founders and CEOs approach the briefing session as a formality — an explanation of what they already wrote in the job description, followed by a handoff to the search firm. This is the wrong framing.
The briefing session is the most information-dense moment of the entire search. A search firm that emerges from the briefing with a clear, nuanced picture of what success looks like can source precisely. One that emerges with a generic job description will source generically.
What to Prepare Before the Briefing
Your company's current state, honestly
ARR, headcount, funding status, and the specific challenges the company faces right now. Not the pitch version — the operational reality. A search firm that understands your real situation can match candidates accurately. One working from a sanitized version will produce candidates who look good on paper but don't fit the actual environment.
What failed in previous attempts
If you've tried to fill this role before — internally, through a different firm, or via job boards — what happened? Why didn't it work? This is often the most useful information a search firm receives. Previous failure contains the real constraints of the search.
The mandate for the first 12 months
Not the job responsibilities — the specific outcomes you expect from this person in year one. What does success look like? What has to change? What has to be built? The more specific this answer, the more targetable the sourcing.
Your non-negotiables and your real preferences
There's a difference between "must have" and "would be great." Be honest about which requirements are genuinely non-negotiable and which are preferences you'd trade for something else. This prevents the search from being designed around a phantom candidate.
What the Search Firm Should Ask You
A good search firm will push back on vague requirements, ask about the candidate profile rather than just the credentials, and want to understand the CEO relationship dynamic for the role. If a search firm accepts your brief without asking challenging questions, treat that as a warning sign — they are not doing the work that produces accurate sourcing.
The Best Briefing Question
"Tell me about someone who tried to do this job and didn't succeed -- and why." This question produces more useful information than any brief document. It surfaces the real failure modes, the culture constraints, and the organizational dynamics that formal job descriptions never capture.
See: How to Write an Executive Brief | Majhi Search Framework | Search Readiness Assessment
"41 days. A $275K search. Two firms failed in 60+ days. That's not luck -- that's a different system."
-- Majhi Group placement record. Read the full process anatomy