A sourcing plan translates a role into the evidence a candidate must show, the backgrounds likely to contain it, and the places worth searching first. Strawberry can help turn the brief, hiring notes, and existing team context into a concrete plan and a reviewable research workflow.
01
Separate outcomes from credentials.
“Five years of experience” is not an outcome.
Define what the person must have done: closed a specific sales motion, shipped a complex product, built a finance model, or managed a hiring process at a given scale. Then list the evidence that would make you believe it.
02
Build several search routes instead of one perfect Boolean string.
Use adjacent titles, target companies, former employers, communities, portfolios, and published work. A strong plan contains three or four routes because the best candidate may not use the title the role description started with.
03
Make the first 30 profiles a calibration sample.
Review the initial set with the hiring manager and ask what was genuinely relevant, what was missing, and what signals were misleading. Update the plan before scaling volume. This is faster than sourcing 300 profiles against a brief nobody actually agreed on.
04
Save the research rules after the hiring manager agrees with them.
A validated sourcing plan can become a reusable skill for the role, including the evidence rubric and quality checks. A routine can prepare new research batches, while a recruiter or hiring manager keeps ownership of candidate judgment and outreach.