You know what you've accomplished. Do you know how the market is reading it?
The difference between being qualified for your next leadership role and being seen as the right person for it often comes down to positioning. The Insider Brief gives you an experienced hiring-side read on the gap between the executive you are and the signal the market is currently receiving.
Your experience may not be the problem. Your market signal might be.
You've built the experience. Led teams. Delivered results. Navigated complexity. But hiring decisions aren't made on everything you've accomplished — they're made on what the people on the other side of the table understand about you. And those aren't always the same thing.
You're applying to roles that genuinely fit, but you're not getting the response you expected.
Your experience looks right. Something about the way it's being interpreted isn't translating into enough conversations.
You're interviewing, but the process keeps stalling.
The conversations seem positive. Then momentum disappears, or you never get enough feedback to understand why.
You're targeting VP or senior leadership roles, but aren't sure how the market reads your level, scope, or story.
You know what you've done. You don't necessarily know what a recruiter or hiring committee concludes from it.
You're approaching compensation conversations without enough context for your actual market position.
You don't want to price yourself out — or discover later you left compensation on the table.
At this level, you don't need more generic career advice. You need to understand what's happening on the other side of the hiring table.
You've never heard what they say after you leave the room. I have.
For more than 20 years, I've worked inside the hiring process, including McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase, Publicis Sapient, Navan, and retained VP+ searches across Design, Product, and Brand.
I've seen what makes an accomplished candidate immediately make sense. And I've seen what creates doubt.
Most candidates never get to hear that side of the conversation. That's the perspective I bring to your search.
Not another opinion about your résumé. Not a generic assessment. Not a career-coaching template. A hiring-side read on how the market is actually experiencing you.
The Insider Brief
See the gap between your experience and your market signal.
You've spent years building the credentials. The question is whether the market is receiving the same signal you think you're sending. The Insider Brief shows you the difference.
It's a private executive market-positioning engagement for senior Design, Product, and Brand leaders who want clarity before making their next move. I evaluate your experience, positioning, target market, level, compensation, narrative, and current search through the hiring lens I've developed over more than two decades.
Then I answer four questions:
Not a résumé critique. Not coaching homework.
A private strategic briefing built around your career. There's a consistent strategic framework behind every engagement. But no two Briefs are the same — the analysis follows what I find.
Where is the gap between your credentials and your market signal?
I assess how your experience is likely being interpreted by recruiters, hiring managers, and executive decision-makers — narrative coherence, level appropriateness, role-market fit, differentiator strength, compensation alignment, search readiness, target-company quality, and overall market positioning.
The point isn't a score for the sake of a score. It's to expose where the strength of your actual experience and the strength of your signal diverge. That gap is often where the opportunity lives.
Where does your experience have the strongest value?
I look at where your background creates leverage — roles and levels where your experience maps most naturally, industries where it creates advantage, company types worth investigating, geographic markets, warm-network paths, and current market signals.
Are you positioning yourself at the right level — and valuing yourself accordingly?
Titles don't mean the same thing from one organization to another. I'll give you my read on how your experience maps to the market before you enter compensation conversations. Not a generic salary range — a strategic read on your position.
What does the market need to understand about you that it isn't hearing yet?
I look for the experience that explains why you think the way you do, the throughline connecting a career that currently looks too broad, the sentence buried in your intake that says more than three paragraphs of professional summary.
What is your search trying to tell us?
Getting recruiter calls but not advancing? Stalling at the same stage? Attracting roles below your actual level? I look for the pattern and tell you what I believe it's signaling — and where there isn't enough evidence, I'll tell you that too.
Insight is only useful if it changes what you do next.
DO NOW — what deserves immediate attention. DO NEXT — what to tackle once priorities are addressed. HOLD OR WATCH — what matters, but isn't worth distracting you yet. No 27-item checklist. Priority creates momentum.
"I'm not filling in a template because a section exists."
One leader may need a sharper executive narrative. Another may be pursuing the wrong level. Your Brief follows the questions your search actually needs answered — not a fixed set of pages.
Stop wondering why. Start knowing what to do next.
After the Insider Brief, you'll have an experienced outside read on:
- How the market is likely interpreting your career
- Where your current positioning is helping you
- Where your market signal may be weaker than your actual credentials
- What makes you meaningfully different from other candidates at your level
- Where your experience has the strongest market value
- Whether your target level matches the scope you've actually held
- How I'd think about your compensation position and leverage
- What I would change, keep, and prioritize next
You can't control every hiring decision. But you can stop walking into those decisions without understanding how the other side of the table is likely reading you.
From your materials to a clearer next move.
Give Me the Context
Complete a private intake and send your résumé, LinkedIn, target roles, compensation goals, and current search context.
I Do the Diagnosis
I review your materials, research what's relevant, and build your personalized Insider Brief.
You Receive Your Brief
Your private strategic briefing, with my assessment and recommendations laid out clearly.
We Pressure-Test It
60 minutes together — we challenge assumptions and translate the analysis into decisions.
This isn't theory. It's 20+ years on the other side of the search.
20+ Years
Inside creative, product, and leadership hiring.
50+ VP+ Searches
Retained executive searches across Design, Product, and Brand.
McKinsey · JPMorgan · Publicis Sapient · Navan
Experience across established organizations and growth companies.
Design · Product · Brand
Deep specialization in the roles you're pursuing.
PE-Backed · Growth-Stage · National
Market perspective across company stages and geographies.
A Small Number, By Choice
This work requires judgment, context, and individual attention. Not a template.
When the positioning changes, what happens next can change too.
"Kate helped me turn a scattered resume into a powerful narrative. Two weeks later, I had three interviews lined up, and one of them became my dream role."
"After our coaching sessions, I finally stopped underselling myself. I negotiated a 22% salary increase and felt genuinely confident walking into every conversation."
"I finally felt seen and understood. Kate helped me navigate an incredibly difficult market."
The Insider Brief
Your private executive market-positioning engagement includes:
- A deep review of your career and current positioning
- Your personalized Insider Brief
- Market research and intelligence relevant to your situation
- Level + compensation analysis, where relevant
- Narrative and differentiator diagnosis
- Search, interview, or opportunity analysis based on what I find
- Clear priorities and recommendations for your next move
- A 60-minute private strategy session with me to pressure-test the analysis
The Insider Brief can't guarantee a hiring decision. It isn't designed to. It's designed to give you something most candidates never get: an experienced view from the other side of the table before your next decision gets made.
Here, you are my client.
I place executives through retained searches commissioned by companies. The Insider Brief is different. I'm advising you on your positioning, career narrative, target market, interview strategy, compensation, and next move.
I won't submit your résumé or contact employers on your behalf as part of the Insider Brief. That separation is intentional — this engagement is entirely about understanding and strengthening your position in the market.
What if the Brief uncovers a bigger problem?
For some leaders, the Brief provides the clarity they need to move forward independently. For others, it uncovers a deeper challenge. If I believe the problem requires deeper work, I'll tell you — longer-term private advisory is available by application.
Start with the Brief. I'll tell you what I believe the next move should be.
Before you start, here's what leaders usually ask.
Is this generic career coaching?
No. I've spent more than 20 years on the hiring side and have run 50+ retained VP+ searches across Design, Product, and Brand. I'm evaluating your positioning through the lens of someone who has participated in the kinds of decisions you're trying to influence.
Do you use AI to build the Insider Brief?
I use AI-assisted tools to help compile research and assemble the draft structure. But every score, every read, and every recommendation is mine — I go through each section myself, verify it against what I actually know about your situation and the market, and make sure it reflects my judgment before anything reaches you. The analysis is built on 20+ years inside the hiring room. The tools help me move faster; they don't do the reading.
Is every Insider Brief the same?
No. There's a consistent strategic framework behind the engagement, but the analysis follows your situation — positioning, targeting, level, compensation, narrative, interview strategy, or something else I uncover.
What exactly will my Insider Brief contain?
Your Brief is built around your situation rather than a fixed set of pages — positioning diagnosis, market intelligence, level and compensation analysis, narrative insights, and more, based on what's relevant to your next move.
What if your assessment isn't what I want to hear?
It might not be. A comfortable assessment that changes nothing isn't particularly useful. An accurate assessment that gives you something to act on is.
Why isn't a call required before I purchase?
The Insider Brief is designed as a clear, standalone starting point — you submit materials, I evaluate, and we use the private session to discuss it. If you're unsure it's right for your situation, you're welcome to talk to me first.
Is our work confidential?
Yes. Your search and materials are treated as private client information and are not shared with your employer or professional network.
I'm not actively interviewing yet. Is this still useful?
Yes — often the best time to do it, before an important opportunity appears rather than mid-interview process.
Does the Insider Brief guarantee I'll land a role?
No. Hiring decisions involve factors neither of us can control. What I can give you is an experienced hiring-side view of your position before the next decision gets made.