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For boutique search · founder-led recruiters · in-house TA

Send better
shortlists.
Get faster
decisions.

Shortlistr turns every shortlist into a partner-quality briefing room — it sources candidates with an AI agent, drafts the brief for each one with quotes from their own resume and LinkedIn, and sends your client a single private link. They read it, click Advance / Hold / Pass, and the decision lands back in your inbox. No login, no PDF attachments, no follow-up call.

Briefing Room ·Staff Product Designer · Linear-stage fintech, Series B
Live · 2 of 3 decided
Reviewers·HMR2CAviewing
  • Slate · 3 candidates
  • IAIris AhlströmStockholm, SEADVANCE
  • MOMalik OseiLondon, UKMAYBE
  • HKHana KobayashiRemote (NYC)REJECT
Open · SBJ-014-AStaff Product Designer
IA
Iris Ahlström

Shipped Klarna's checkout redesign. Now consulting; wants to go in-house again.

Yrs11
Comp€140–155k
Notice4 weeks
Their verdictAdvance
Advance
One private link · No login for reviewersSample
01 ·Intake

Intake the brief.

The JD lands at 4:47pm on a Friday. Paste it — must-haves, dealbreakers, reviewers, comp band are pulled out for you.

§ 01

You start sourcing before your competitor finishes scoping.

Brief №2026-014Dated 12 MAR 2026
Status · Drafting
Step 1 of 4Role intake
Role
Staff Product Designer
Company
Client A · Series B
Must-haves
8+ yrs shipping0→1 surfaceVisible craftEU/US EastFintech a plus
Reviewers
HM
Hiring Manager
VP Design · decision-maker
Invited
R2
Reviewer 2
Eng partner · technical fit
Invited
Auto-derived from JD
  • · Comp band: £140–170k + equity
  • · Timezone: EU / US East
  • · Dealbreaker: pure agency, no in-house
Briefed
02 ·Imports — two methods

Candidates arrive two ways.

Either an AI agent runs the search and you read its thinking, or you drop any ATS export and the model maps the columns. Both end as parsed candidates.

§ 02

No re-keying. No spreadsheet limbo. Pick the method that fits the role.

Find the candidates

An AI agent runs the search. You read the thinking.

Hand it the role. The agent plans sweeps, considers profiles, refines its query in the open, and ships a shortlist with verbatim evidence — never a black-box score. Run state persists across refresh; you can leave and come back.

Agent · thinking
  • Planning sweep · staff product designer · EU
  • Searching · design systems, 0→1, eng-adjacent
  • Considered 412 profiles
  • Refining · tighten on tenure ≥ 3y
  • Sweep II · broaden geography to UK + DACH
  • Shortlisting top matches with verbatim evidence
Considered · 412Sweep II of III
Candidate A
Staff Product Designer · a top EU fintech → consulting
92
Verbatim ✓8y tenureLed 0→1
Candidate B
Principal Designer · Linear
87
Verbatim ✓Design systemsPublic talks
Candidate D
Senior Staff · EU design tool
81
Eng-adjacentHiring lead
Milestones
  1. Pass I
    Broadened ICP
  2. Pass II
    Tightened tenure
  3. Pass III
    Shipped shortlist
Shipped
12 / 412
shortlisted · with evidence
Or import your own list

Any ATS export. The model maps the columns.

Drop the .xlsx or .csv your ATS or sourcing tool spits out. The model reads the headers and a sample of rows, infers what each column means, and saves the mapping per shape — next time the same export lands, it's mapped automatically. Optional LinkedIn enrichment after import.

Drop export
candidates_q3_export.xlsx
1,284 rows · 14 columns · 312 KB
Reading headers + sample rows…
Detected · Greenhouse export · 96% confidence
Mapping preset · saved for this column-shape
Column mappingSource · Shortlistr field
Spreadsheet column
Canonical field
Candidate Name
full_name
LI Profile
linkedin_url
Current Role
current_title
Company
current_company
City, Country
location
Notes
notes
1,002 / 1,284
03 ·Brief

Every line carries its receipts.

“Why this person?” — the question you answer five times per shortlist. Each sentence in the brief links back to the CV, the rec, the portfolio.

§ 03

Answer it once. The brief answers it forever.

Brief №2026-014 · 01Dated Brief · Candidate A
Status · Verified
Summary

Candidate A spent 6 years owning end-to-end product surfaces at a top US payments co., including the SMB onboarding flow shipped 2023. Resume p.1

Led a team of 4 designers; recognised by peers as a craft anchor in promotion docs. LinkedIn rec · A. Cho

Public portfolio includes 12 case studies with explicit before/after metrics. portfolio

Coverage~4 of 5 must-haves verified
Evidence verified
04 ·Compare

Three candidates. One screen. Risks already written.

Your hiring manager is opening LinkedIn behind your back to second-guess the slate. The compare view ends that — with the devil's-advocate notes you'd have made on the call.

§ 04

They stop interviewing your shortlist.

Requirement
Candidate A
Candidate B
Candidate C
8+ yrs shipping
MET
MET
MET
0→1 surface
MET
MET
MET
Visible craft
MET
PART
MET
Fintech exposure
PART
MET
MET
EU / US East
MET
MET
MISS
Verdict
Advance
Hold
Advance
Open questions· raised with the brief
  • ?Candidate AComp ceiling close to band
  • ?Candidate BNotice period 4 months
  • ?Candidate CRemote-only · no SF travel
05 ·Reviewer — what happens in the room

They open a link and decide in five minutes.

The PDF you sent last Tuesday is sitting unread in three inboxes. A Shortlistr room is one link, no login, co-branded with your firm — read like a memo, decided in a coffee break.

§ 05

Verdicts arrive while you're still at your desk. Three things happen inside the room — none of them need you on a defensive Zoom.

06 ·
1 · They ask follow-up questions

Answers come from the candidate's own evidence — never invented.

You're not on the call to relitigate the slate. Your client types the question, Shortlistr answers it from the candidate's own evidence — every claim links back to the exact source line. No hallucinated wins, no late-night Slack from you.

HM
Has Candidate A actually shipped checkout at scale?
Brief
Yes — but with a caveat worth knowing.
SMB checkout shipped to 14 markets (+18% conv vs legacy).
Embedded onboarding GA'd in 2017 — smaller surface, similar regulatory weight.
Caveat: she hasn't owned a checkout flow since 2023.
Resume p.2LinkedInPortfolio
072 · They have open questions before saying yes

We've already written them down — with the answer next to each one.

Open questionsOpen

Three things your client will want to know.

  • Has she managed a team in the last 4 years?
    Not directly. Last people-management was 2021 at a top EU fintech (team of 3).
  • Where's the motion / interaction craft?
    Side project — portfolio/motion, shipped 2024. Three case studies.
  • When could she actually start?
    4 weeks notice plus relocation from Stockholm. Realistic start: mid-Q3.
10 ·
4 · They forward it to the decision-maker

Export as PDF or Word — both branded as your firm, not ours.

Every room is co-branded — your firm × your client's. Download the slate as a print-ready A4 PDF or an editable .docx that opens cleanly in Word. Your hiring manager forwards it to their CEO without editing a thing.

PDF + Word (.docx)Your logo, your company nameHide names if you need to
Brief №PR-2026-014 · APDF · Page 1 / 3
Candidate A
Why-fit

She's done the exact 0→1 motion this role requires — twice. a top EU fintech SMB checkout, an embedded banking co. onboarding.

Evidence
"Led the 0→1 SMB merchant checkout from blank Figma to GA across 14 markets."
Resume p.2
Your firm×Client A
.docx · opens in Word
Shortlist — Staff Designer
Candidate A — Advance
Candidate B — Hold
Candidate C — Pass
Editable · tracked styles match your firm
06 ·Engagement

You see the room the way they read it.

Monday standup, “any word from the client?” — gone. Live opens, verdicts, the chase queue sorted by silence, the polite nudge that goes out only when it helps.

§ 06

You always know who's blocked — and you can chase without nagging.

Reviewer engagement
Live · 3 reviewers
Hiring Manager
Opened · 4m ago
Advance · Candidate A
Decided
Reviewer 2
Opened · 11m ago
Hold · Candidate B
Pending
Reviewer 3
Awaiting · chase queued
Chasing
3
Briefs sent
2
Decisions
5m
Median TTR
Who this is for

Built for the people sending the shortlist themselves.

Boutique retained search.

Two to twenty consultants. Your judgment is the product; the room makes it visible.

Solo & founder-led recruiters.

One person, premium clients. Send something that looks like a team wrote it.

In-house TA at design-led companies.

Skip the ATS hand-off. Send the room internally; decisions land same-day.

Try it yourself

Open a sample briefing room.

Shortlistr is in invite-only beta. Walk through a real briefing room first, then open the recruiter app and build your own.