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ProFinda Learning

Demand intake and triage · lesson 3 of 5

Clarifying a vague request

In this lesson

  • Extract matchable detail from an underspecified request
  • Push back on vagueness without slowing the requester down

“Need a good manager for a client thing starting soonish, someone like Sarah.” Requests like this arrive weekly, usually from senior people, and the temptation is either to run a match anyway or to send back a form-like list of required fields. Both are mistakes.

Why you should not just run it

A shortlist produced from a vague request anchors everyone. The requester sees five names, picks one, and the real requirements only surface in week two when the fit fails. Worse, the people on that shortlist may have been pencilled against real requests in the meantime. Running a match is cheap; unwinding a bad allocation is not.

Ask about the work

Requesters go vague when asked about fields and specific when asked about the work. Do not ask “what skills should I enter?” Ask three questions:

  1. What will this person actually do in the first month? The answer contains the skills; you translate them into the .
  2. When must they be on the ground, and for how long? “Soonish” usually collapses into a real date when the client meeting is mentioned.
  3. What made Sarah the reference point? “Someone like Sarah” is information. Open Sarah’s profile, look at her top skills, and you have a draft skills list to confirm.

Three questions, one short call or message, and the request becomes matchable. You did the translation, which is your expertise, and the requester never touched a form.

Write it back

Before running the match, send the requester a one-line restatement: “Manager, financial due diligence and SPA support, 1 September, three months, full time. Right?” This takes ten seconds, catches misunderstandings while they are free to fix, and trains requesters over time on what a complete request contains. Several firms report that the write-back habit alone measurably improves the quality of first-time requests within a quarter, because requesters start pre-empting the questions.

Key takeaways

  • Ask about the work, not the fields; translate the answers yourself
  • Three targeted questions resolve most vague requests
  • Never run a match on a request you know is wrong; the shortlist anchors expectations
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