01
Supervision begins with the brief
A talent team should not have to choose between inspecting every search result and losing sight of candidate conversations. The useful question is which decisions need a person, and which parts of the work can continue under that person's direction.
A job description often mixes requirements, preferences, and employer branding. A sourcing agent needs the trade-offs behind them. For a senior designer, for example, 'B2B SaaS experience' may really mean comfort with complex workflows, close work with engineering, and experience improving adoption. The title alone will not tell the agent which of those matters most.
Describe what the person will own, who they will work with, which requirements are firm, and what could make the move appealing. Include what is known about the hiring process. Candidates may ask about scope, salary, flexibility, or team structure; when an answer is unknown or negotiable, that question belongs with a person rather than in an invented commitment.
- The work: what this person will own and what success would look like.
- The team: reporting line, collaborators, and management responsibility.
- The trade-offs: true requirements, preferences, and acceptable alternatives.
- The conversation: facts the agent can share and questions a person should answer.
02
Choose a review level for the role
A familiar, repeatable search may need a different level of attention from a confidential executive role or a mission whose brief is still moving. Speiros is designed around that choice: the team decides how closely to supervise the agent while it carries out the search and conversation.
For a new mission, review the first cohort and the reasoning behind it. Are the selected people's experiences relevant to the actual work? Which signals are observed and which are assumptions? Does the outreach give each person a concrete reason to consider this move? Feedback at this stage can sharpen the search before the team spends time on more profiles or messages.
As the mission becomes clearer, let the agent carry the repetitive work while retaining the option to step in when the role changes or the conversation needs human judgment. The principle is to review decisions that change the direction of the mission, rather than recreating every step of the agent's work by hand.
03
Correct the reasoning, not the number of profiles
Fifty plausible profiles can look like progress without producing one good conversation. The team needs to know why selected people belong in the search. A useful candidate note separates what is visible in their experience, why that may matter for this role, and what remains unknown.
Specific feedback changes the next pass. 'Not a fit' leaves the agent guessing. 'Strong enterprise experience, but this person has not owned a product from discovery through launch' explains the trade-off. Positive feedback should be just as precise: name the signal that made someone worth contacting and the role need it answers.
That reasoning also makes a shortlist easier to challenge. A hiring manager can disagree with an interpretation without losing the observed facts; a recruiter can adapt the brief without starting the search again.
04
Keep the candidate conversation moving
The first reply is often where the real work begins. A candidate may ask whether the role leads a team, what the first six months involve, or how the hiring process works. Speiros is designed to use the role, company, and process context while answering relevant questions and following up under the team's chosen level of supervision.
The boundary should be clear. The agent can share established facts and carry open questions forward. A recruiter or hiring manager should take over when a response requires a new promise, a sensitive judgment, a negotiation, or a substantive change to the role. This preserves the human relationship without asking a person to repeat every known answer.
A useful supervision pattern is to check the questions candidates actually ask. If several people raise the same concern, that may reveal a gap in the brief or the offer, not a messaging problem. Update the context so the next conversation starts with a better answer.
05
Make the handoff useful before the meeting
'Candidate interested' is not enough preparation for a first call. The recruiter should see why this person was approached, what attracted them, what they asked, which answers they received, and which questions still need a person. The complete thread matters more than a generic interest label or a match score.
Speiros's intended handoff is a candidate ready to speak, accompanied by that context. The human can then conduct the meeting, test the open questions, and make the hiring decision. An agent should make that conversation better prepared, not make the decision on the team's behalf.
- Why was this person selected for this specific role?
- What did they say they wanted or worried about?
- What facts about the company and role have they already heard?
- What should the person taking the meeting clarify next?
06
Measure movement toward a good human conversation
Track discovery, selection, outreach, replies, substantive exchanges, and meeting-ready candidates as separate stages. Otherwise a large search can hide weak selection, and a high reply rate can hide conversations that go nowhere. Review the quality of a small sample at each stage and use what you learn to improve the brief.
The useful outcome is not an invisible agent or the largest possible contact volume. It is a talent team spending more of its time on conversations and decisions that genuinely require a person, with enough context to make those moments count.