Week of April 28th, 2025
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Using LLMs for Recommendations on How RecOps Pros Can Adopt a PM Mindset by Jeremy Lyons
Since LLMs have become the new go-to when it comes to getting tips and tricks, I thought it might be good to ask a few of the ones I use what their thoughts on how RecOps professionals could adopt a product manager mindset. I’ve included links so you can see the full threads and prompt. I strongly recommend reading the threads because I’ve asked all models to consolidate their answers for space.
According to ChatGPT
Model/Link: 4.5, Link 🔗
Treat Candidates as Customers: Continuously gather feedback and insights to proactively shape candidate and stakeholder experiences.
Develop a Recruiting Roadmap: Align and prioritize recruiting initiatives strategically, communicating clear goals and timelines.
Embrace Data-Informed Experimentation: Regularly test and measure improvements through metrics to drive iterative recruiting enhancements.
Strengthen Cross-Functional Communication: Build influential partnerships across teams by clearly translating recruiting needs into compelling strategic initiatives.
According to Perplexity
Model/Link: R1 1776, Link 🔗
Align metrics with business outcomes (e.g., retention rates vs. requisitions closed) and create iterative hiring roadmaps balancing immediate needs with long-term planning.
Conduct user research to identify candidate/hiring manager pain points and design tailored solutions (e.g., automated updates, bias reduction).
Test hypotheses via A/B experiments (e.g., job ads, sourcing channels) and predictive analytics to optimize processes and forecast talent demand.
Partner cross-functionally (e.g., Finance, Marketing) to secure resources and align talent strategy with organizational goals.
Build adaptable systems (e.g., reusable interview scorecards, AI automation) to sustainably scale operations instead of relying on ad-hoc fixes.
According Gemini
Model/Link: Flash 2.5 (experimental), No link available to be provided for 2.5 Flash but here is one for 2.5 Pro courtesy of Perplexity
Treat the Candidate and Hiring Manager Experience as a "Product": Think like a PM responsible for user satisfaction. Map out the entire journey for candidates and hiring managers. Identify pain points, gather feedback (like user research), and prioritize improvements based on impact and user needs, not just internal convenience. This means actively designing and refining the experience itself.
Develop a "TA Operations Roadmap": Just as a PM has a product roadmap, TA Ops can create a strategic plan for the evolution of recruiting processes, technology, and data capabilities. This involves understanding business goals, identifying key operational challenges (like market needs), and planning initiatives over time to address them strategically, rather than just reacting to urgent requests.
Prioritize Initiatives Based on Data and Business Impact: Move beyond simple reporting. Use TA data (conversion rates, time-in-stage, source effectiveness, feedback scores) to identify the biggest operational bottlenecks or opportunities. Prioritize which processes to fix or which tools to implement based on which will deliver the most significant measurable improvement to efficiency, quality, or experience, much like a PM prioritizes features with the highest potential impact.
According to Claude
Model/Link: 3.7 Sonnet, Link 🔗
Treat Hiring Managers and Candidates as "Users" - Apply UX methodology to deeply understand stakeholder needs and prioritize solving their most impactful recruitment challenges instead of just responding to requests.
Build and Manage a Strategic Roadmap - Create and communicate a multi-quarter vision that connects TA initiatives to business outcomes rather than working reactively.
Use MVP Thinking and Iteration - Test recruitment solutions in limited scope, gather feedback, and improve incrementally instead of aiming for perfect comprehensive rollouts.
Leverage Data to Drive Decisions - Replace opinion-based discussions with recruitment funnel metrics and A/B testing to shift from order-taker to strategic advisor.
Facilitate Cross-Functional Collaboration - Position yourself as the connector between all stakeholders, creating feedback loops and governance structures that inform recruitment strategy.
Final Thought:
Like with nearly everything, it is important to compare all the information and align it for themes before making a decision or a path. As we can see, almost all mention some form of defining the user, leveraging data, and experimentation. Again, these only capture parts of the threads. Within each (with the exception of Gemini 2.5 Flash), all contained pretty cool chart breakdowns.
Weekly Survey
RecOps - The GPT
RecOps - Available in the OpenAI store and free to use.
Articles / Industry News
📖 🎧 Articles/Graphics/Podcasts/Posts On Our Radar (sorted by type - Bolded denotes individuals)
Sangeet Paul Choudary’s The many fallacies of 'AI won't take your job, but someone using AI will' (article) - Editor Note: If you can only read one more article about AI in a week, this is 1000% the one to read.
Mario Espindola’s Smarter scaling: A startup's guide to headcount, capacity, and location strategy with Jim Miller (article)
Brighthire’s Essential Candidate Fraud Training Guide (article)
Growth by Design’s The AI-Enabled Recruiter: Skills and Teams for the Future (newsletter)
PURPL’s Does TA Need a Product Mindset (newsletter)
Metaview’s Your Next-Level AI in Recruiting Playbook (playbook)
Gem’s How does Gem Use AI (post and video)
Emily Dydzak’s Why Recruiting Operations Should Be Your Next Strategic Investment (post)
Logan Marsh’s Every TA Leader Should Spend Time in a TA/RecOps Role (post)
candidate.fyi’s You don't notice great recruiting coordination when it's working (post)
📰 Product News
Dover (ATS/Screening) - Product update: Group jobs on your careers page, Duplicate outreach campaign Product Marketplace: Enhanced reporting, Improved hiring team collaboration
Endorsed (Resume Review) - Product Update: AI Deep Company Research for Applicant Review
Gem (AiO) - Steven Bartlett to keynote Gem Summit
Greenhouse (ATS) - Product Updates: April, Paaras Parker named as CPO
Poetry (Hiring Enablement) - Feature Enhancement: Colleague Stories
SCALIS (ATS / Job Board) - Feature release: Pipeline Upgrade: Custom Views, Filters & Columns, Core Reports, Location Enhancements for Listings. Upcoming Features: AI Interview Notetaker, Custom Report Builder, AI Sourcing Agent
TeamOhana (Headcount Planning) - Closed a seed round and rebrand
TestTrick (Assessments) - Feature enhancement: Updated Coding Questions Library
Permanent Articles
Recruiting Operations: Dictionary & Resources
Events
Week of May 5th
Week of May 12th
Week of May 19th
Week of May 26th
Week of June 2nd
Talent Collective’s Talentsphere Summit. For an additional 10% off, use the code RECOPS.
Greenhouse’s Open for Ops (SF)
Growth by Design Talent’s Becoming a Trusted Advisor Training
Week of June 9th
Greenhouse’s Open for Ops (NY)
Week of June 23rd
Week of July 21st
Week of September 29th
Week of November 3rd
Job Search
Veterinary Emergency Group - Director, Recruiting Operations
Salesforce - Senior Analyst, Global Recruiting Operations (Contract) and Recruiting Operations Senior Analyst
Here is the list of previously listed jobs, which may or may not be available.
Additional Resource
We consolidated this section into job search resources on our Linktree
Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search
We’ve consolidated our list of Boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out the list here. Kaitlyn Elting also built a generator for you if you are worried about your attention to detail.
Thank you to Steve Levy for contributing so many beautiful and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent Boolean and sourcing content.
#YourNextHire / People Looking In the RecOps Community
Are you a RecOps professional looking for work? If you have 5 minutes, take the opportunity to complete this quick questionnaire. Not only will you be featured in an upcoming Roundup, it will also help us mention your name when people ask for referrals.
Here is a Google Sheet View for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.
🎉 Reminders and Disclaimers 🎉
If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
Please use this form if you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section. The only condition is that you are a RecOps professional.
Disclaimer #1: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author. As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. They are not to be held in perpetuity.
Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one, as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.
Until next week, Regulators 😊