What Is Talent Mapping?
Talent mapping is market intelligence for hiring. Before you launch a search or open a role, I research the talent landscape and hand you a clear, structured picture of it: who the qualified people are, where they sit, how the competitive org charts are built, and what it will realistically take to win the hire. It's the difference between going to market based on the data and going to market based on assumptions.
Launching a search blind is one of the most expensive mistakes a growing company can make. A talent map answers the questions every leadership team should resolve before committing budget and time: Can we actually hire this role? Where are the right people? And how do we win the best of them?
It's a fixed-scope research engagement with a defined deliverable, a low-risk way to de-risk a much larger decision.
Who I Work With
I build talent maps for founders, HR leaders, and C-suite executives planning a critical hire, and for retained search firms that need additional research bandwidth.
• Founders and leadership teams planning a critical hire who want to know it's achievable and what it will cost, before they commit.
• HR and People leaders who need a defensible, data-backed view of the market to guide a search or a headcount plan.
• Retained search firms: talent mapping services are also available to retained search firms in need of additional research bandwidth.
Intelligence Tiers
Each engagement is scoped to your role and market, at one of three levels of depth:
1. Essential Market Map
Best for early-stage exploration or validating an internal promotion.
• Role & Market Definition: intake strategy call, functional requirements, and diversity considerations.
• Target Company Mapping: competitors, adjacent industries, and emerging players, segmented by size, geography, and growth stage.
• Executive Talent Profiles: comparable leaders with names, titles, companies, locations, experience summaries, and education.
2. Comprehensive Talent Map
Best for pre-search due diligence or board-approved hiring plans. Everything in Essential, plus:
• Talent Availability Assessment: direct outreach to gauge timing (Ready Now / Ready Soon / Not Viable).
• Contact Information: email addresses and LinkedIn profiles for viable candidates.
• Strategic Sourcing Insights: talent gaps, hiring challenges, sourcing difficulty, and recommended approaches.
• Ranked Candidate Pipeline: preliminary assessments and prioritization by relevance.
3. Premium Strategic Intelligence
Best for C-suite hiring, competitive market entry, or deep organizational planning. Everything in Comprehensive, plus:
• Competitor Organizational Mapping: org structures, reporting lines, leadership composition, headcount estimates, and recent hires and departures.
• Strategic Market Intelligence: talent availability analysis, competitive positioning insights, and hiring strategy recommendations.
• Market Compensation Insights: typical salary ranges and equity expectations, coordinated through a credentialed compensation specialist rather than presented as an in-house deliverable.
Optional Add-On
• Quarterly Talent Market Updates: ongoing competitive intelligence to track market shifts, emerging talent, and organizational changes.
Why It's Worth It
A talent map represents a small fraction of the cost of a retained search or a mis-hire, yet it's the foundation that makes both go better. You present stronger candidate slates, waste less time chasing people who won't move, and go to market with a strategy instead of a guess.
Timeline varies by role complexity, geographic scope, and stakeholder availability.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a talent map take? Timeline varies by role complexity, geographic scope, and stakeholder availability.
What's actually in the deliverable? It depends on the tier. At minimum, a structured view of the market and comparable candidate profiles. At the Comprehensive and Premium levels, direct outreach to gauge availability, contact information, and a ranked candidate pipeline. Full detail is in the Intelligence Tiers above.
Does the fee count toward a future search? Yes. A talent map often precedes a search, and I credit mapping work toward a retained engagement if you move forward.
How is this different from just starting a search directly? A search finds and closes one candidate. A talent map gives you the full landscape first, so you know whether the role is realistic, what it will take to fill, and who's actually out there, before you commit budget to a search.
Is compensation data included? Compensation insight is available at the Premium tier, coordinated through a credentialed compensation specialist rather than presented as an in-house deliverable, so the numbers you receive are sound.
Map My Talent Market
Tell me the role and the market you're evaluating. I respond personally within 24 hours.
Not sure talent mapping is the right fit? Compare all three models → /compare-services