Lesson 2 of 9 · 6 min

The four documents to write before you post anything

The most leveraged hour of the whole process happens before a job exists. Four short documents decide the job description, the screening test, the first week, and half of the red flags. Founders who skip them hire on a vague picture and get a vague hire.

1. The current-state audit

Sixty minutes, one page, stream of consciousness. Everything you do for the store in a week, and roughly how long each takes: the morning order check, the support inbox, inventory, supplier chasing, app problems, the numbers you look at on Friday. Not a polished procedure; a list. Writing it down surfaces decisions you have been making by habit that a new person will need to be told about explicitly.

2. The role definition

Four decisions, each one sentence. Is this one discipline (support only, say) or generalist operations? How many hours a week, from the audit? How many hours of overlap with your working day, and in which timezone? What is the budget band, which depends on the tier you choose in the next lesson? These four sentences become the top of the job post.

3. The brand voice document

One page. How you address customers. Words you never use and words you always use. The tone in four situations: a refund you are declining, a product question, a complaint, a compliment. Real examples lifted from your own sent emails work far better than adjectives. This document is the thing your VA is tested against in week one, and the thing you point at when a reply sounds like a template.

4. The test task

A small paid task for your two or three finalists, one to two hours of their time, producing something you can judge. Three replies to support scenarios you provide. Three product descriptions from supplier images. An audit of one product page with recommendations. It should look like the actual work, because the point is to see the actual work.