Hiring Guidelines for Insights Talent

What do I tell HR when looking for people to join the insights team?

Sometimes analysis and insights are hard to quantify from a traditional job requisition perspective.  Here's a quick open letter. 

Hey HR:

Before we talk about experience and skills, let's outline the real requirements.

• We need a very scarce skill.  So, I need a compensation model that doesn't require senior level staff to manage people, products or places.
• We know we have the need, but we can't articulate the job details.  So, I need the flexibility to specify objectives, outcomes and success criteria in the broadest terms.
• We are going to ask big questions that cause all kinds of disruption.  So, I need to provide him with the freedom to work across P&Ls, business, and technology without fear or roadblocks.
• We are creating gold, not mining for it.  So, I need a culture that embraces experimentation; in return we will apply the learnings broadly.
• We need to support this role to provide job satisfaction.  So, I need an organization that asks "What do the data say?"  "What do they imply?" to give her a fighting chance of succeeding.

Now that we have the important bits out of the way, I just need an alchemist.  

cheers
anthony