You already know they're good.
We tell you whether they'll work here.
Pressure Match is the final check before a consequential senior appointment in a PE-backed company. By the time you reach us, capability has been tested through interviews, references, track record and usually some form of assessment. The untested risk is the interaction under pressure. We assess how your preferred candidate's pressure pattern will interact with the CEO, the leadership team and the demands of the plan, and within two weeks we give you one answer, go, conditional go or no-go under the current conditions, with the reasoning shown. Six months later, we test our own verdict against what colleagues actually observe.
"We believe this is the person. Before we commit, tell us what we're missing."
That is the moment Pressure Match is built for. The search has done its work, the process has narrowed to a preferred candidate or a final two, and the people who will make the decision have a settled view of capability. What remains open is the question the process cannot answer: what happens when this person's pattern under pressure meets the CEO's, inside this team, against what the plan will demand over the next twelve to twenty-four months.
It is designed for PE-backed companies making critical C-suite and senior functional appointments: CFO, COO, CRO, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief People Officer and equivalent heads, where the relationship with the CEO is fundamental to the appointment succeeding. It is commissioned by the CEO making the appointment, by the CPO or Head of Talent running the process, or by the investor supporting it; whoever commissions it, the CEO takes part. It works particularly well where an organisation already runs a sophisticated hiring process in-house and wants an independent final-stage assessment that does not repeat the work already done on capability. It is one input to the decision, never the whole of it.
The best time to talk to us is at shortlist stage. Whether the process is run by your internal Talent team or by an executive search partner, we prepare the scorecard and the assessment before the preferred candidate is named, start on the day they are, and finish before the offer. Where the choice has already been made, we still run it, and the two weeks start from confirmation.
Not another assessment of the candidate
Pressure Match is not a competence assessment and does not repeat work already done on capability. It does not rank a shortlist, it does not produce a fit score or a percentage, and it is not onboarding, which starts after the appointment.
It never says a candidate is a poor leader. A no-go means this pairing will not work under these conditions, and every no-go states what would change the answer.
Your process establishes capability. We do not repeat it.
Structured interviews, scorecards, references, case studies and psychometrics can establish whether a candidate has the experience, competence and attributes the role requires. Pressure Match adds the question those methods cannot easily answer on their own: what happens when this candidate's behaviour under pressure meets this CEO, this leadership team and the demands of the plan. It is an independent validation layer at the end of an existing executive hiring process, not a replacement for it.
The front of the leadership lifecycle
Pressure Match applies the same method as our Pressure Profile, Team Diagnostic and Performance Sprint work, immediately before an appointment rather than after it. What follows, the first ninety days, the new executive's own Pressure Profile and the team's ongoing work, builds on the same evidence.
We assess the interaction, not the individual.
Executive assessment answers whether a person has the attributes to do the job. Pressure Match answers a different question: what happens when this person's pattern under pressure meets this CEO, this team and this plan. Every verdict is reached the same way, through four lenses, so what you hear is a method rather than two people's impression. The role requirements run through all four.
Candidate × CEO
Where the two pressure patterns compound and where they collide. Who withdraws and who escalates when the first miss lands. What the CEO does when a direct report disagrees, and what the candidate does when overruled.
Where the CEO will intervene in the executive's function, and how the candidate will read it.
Candidate × Team
What the candidate needs from an environment in order to perform, and whether this team provides it. The team's current state on the execution disciplines that separate the highest-performing leadership teams from the rest.
Where the candidate will have to adapt, and where the team will.
Candidate × Plan
What the next twelve to twenty-four months will demand in pace, ambiguity, cost pressure, integration or fundraising. Which of those conditions activate the candidate's strengths, and which expose the vulnerabilities.
The first foreseeable moment at which plan and pattern collide.
Candidate × Role
The specific pressures this seat creates, measured against a role scorecard agreed with you before assessment begins. Where the candidate gets stronger under this role's pressure, and where performance is likely to deteriorate.
The scorecard is written in the first two days and approved by the hiring leader.
Three independent channels on the candidate. Three on the environment.
Candidate evidence comes through three channels that do not share a source, and every finding in the memo is labelled with the number of channels supporting it. Where the candidate's self-image and their behaviour part company, that gap is reported; it is usually the most valuable finding in the memo.
Environment evidence is gathered with the same discipline, because a match has two sides. Executive assessors profile candidates in isolation. Through our Pressure Profile work we often already hold the pressure data on the other side of the hire, and where we don't, we build it.
The interview the product cannot work without
The CEO interview is the one most likely to be resisted, because a CEO who has already decided is a reluctant witness to a no-go. It is framed around the appointment succeeding, not around the CEO being assessed. Where Track Record already coaches the CEO, the interview confirms what we know rather than discovering it. Without CEO access there is no verdict: the engagement is declined or converted to a candidate-only Pressure Profile.
One answer, on the match as the conditions stand.
The verdict is on the match, never on the candidate's worth. Both founders sign every verdict. Nothing in the memo claims certainty; the language is patterns that recur under pressure, not behaviour that is predicted.
The pairing works under the current conditions. The memo still names the pressure scenarios most likely to test it and the early warning signal for each.
The match works if specific conditions are met. Each condition is named precisely enough to act on, with who must do what and by when.
This pairing will not work under these conditions. The memo states what would need to change for the answer to change.
Five pages, six at most, in Track Record report chrome.
The verdict
Go, conditional go or no-go, and roughly five sentences of reasoning.
Why it works
The strongest elements of the match, with the evidence count behind each.
Where it could break
The critical interaction risks, mapped to the four lenses and labelled by channel.
Pressure scenarios
The two or three foreseeable situations most likely to test the match in the first six months, each with its early warning signal and repair move.
Conditions for success
What the CEO must do, what the executive must do, what must change in the environment, and the observable ninety-day markers.
A sixty to ninety minute debrief with the CEO, and the investor where relevant, follows. The memo is issued after the debrief, not before. The candidate receives a feedback summary as standard.
From confirmation to verdict in ten working days.
Every interview slot is booked on the day the engagement is confirmed, and the candidate and CEO interviews are always conducted by David and Katherine together. Day one is the first working day after confirmation. Where capacity is pre-agreed, day zero is the day you call. If a referee will not schedule or a survey is late, you hear about it once, on the day it becomes likely, with the revised date.
Six months later, we mark our own work.
Assessment verdicts are rarely tested against what happens next. Ours are, every time, and the record that builds is what proves the method rather than our saying so.
Ninety days
A thirty-minute check-in between the hiring leader and one of the founders, against the ninety-day markers in the memo. This is usually where the conversation about the first-ninety-days work, the new executive's own Pressure Profile or the team's development begins.
Six months
A short observation survey goes to the new executive's colleagues. We write a one-page comparison of the verdict against what they actually observed, and you see the result whichever way it falls. Every comparison is recorded, so that over time the question of whether Pressure Match works is answered by evidence rather than by assertion.
What an engagement involves.
Start at shortlist, finish before the offer
Talk to us when your process, in-house or through a search partner, is down to the final few. The scorecard and consent pack are ready before the preferred candidate is named, the two weeks start that day, and the verdict lands before the offer is signed rather than after it.
Where capacity is pre-agreed, day zero is the day you call and scoping takes fifteen minutes.
Alongside your Talent team or your search partner
If you run executive hiring in-house, we work directly with your CPO or Talent lead: your process establishes capability, experience and track record, and Pressure Match adds the independent final-stage assessment without duplicating any of it. If a search firm is involved, we work alongside it and protect the placement: with your consent we brief the search partner, the memo is never shared with them, and where you agree they receive a short summary of the conditions for success so that onboarding starts on the same page.
Most powerful where we already know you
Pressure Match is most powerful where we already know your leadership environment through Pressure Profile and team work, because the match is only as good as the evidence on your side of it. Where we don't, we establish a Hiring Environment Baseline as the first part of the engagement: the hiring leader's pressure profile, a short team read, the role scorecard and the plan context. It is quoted as part of the same engagement, and it means a first-time client can buy Pressure Match on its own.
The candidate knows exactly what this is
Before the interview the candidate is told in writing that this is an assessment, that it informs a hiring decision, who will see the memo, and that they will receive a feedback summary. They review the factual content of the candidate-side analysis before the memo goes to you and may correct errors of fact. The verdict is not subject to their approval, and environment-side content is never shared with them before the decision.
Interviews are recorded for transcription with the consent of everyone in them. Candidate data is held in one engagement folder and deleted twelve months after the six-month review, or on request.
Quoted per engagement
Investment is quoted by David and Katherine at the scoping call, once they have understood the appointment. The comparison that matters is not the price of a psychometric but the cost of losing six to twelve months of the plan to an appointment that does not work.
For PE firms, Pressure Match can be held as portfolio capacity: a fixed number of appointments a year with guaranteed founder access inside the two-week window.
The evidence keeps working
The memo's conditions for success become the first-ninety-days plan. The candidate evidence becomes the executive's own Pressure Profile. The team read feeds the team's ongoing work. Nothing gathered for the decision is gathered only once.
Before you get in touch.
How is Pressure Match different from an executive assessment or a psychometric?
Do you need to have profiled our leadership team already?
What if the CEO will not take part?
Will this delay the offer?
We run executive hiring in-house. Does Pressure Match still apply?
How does this work with our search firm?
Can Pressure Match be run on a shortlist?
What does a no-go mean for the candidate?
How long does it take?
What does Pressure Match cost?
Tell us about the appointment.
We acknowledge every enquiry the same working day and book a first conversation within two working days. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes and its purpose is to understand the situation: the role, where the process stands, what has already been done on capability, who the candidate will report to, and when the decision is due. A thirty-minute scoping call with David and Katherine follows, at which the investment is quoted.
Assess the appointment that cannot miss
If you are down to a preferred candidate on a role where the wrong choice costs a year of the plan, talk to us before you decide rather than after.
Discuss an appointment