“Their résumé fit the job description, the interview went great — and it’s not working out.” Every hiring manager has said some version of it. In Cipher, Craig della Penna traces that sentence to its root: the résumé was matched against a job description, and a job description was never a definition of success. It’s a wish list with a salary band.
A Cipher is the replacement: a one-page definition of what success in the role looks like — the charge (the change this person is here to make), the outcome (how success will be measured), the deliverables (the specific work products), and the efforts (the observable actions underneath them). Small document; different physics.
What changes when the Cipher exists
Sourcing sharpens. You screen 250 resumes (the average per corporate posting1) against specific accomplishments instead of proxy keywords, and the pool shrinks to the people worth meeting.
The team aligns — before the candidate arrives. 80% of recruiters believe they understand what the manager wants; 61% of hiring managers say recruiters have a low-to-moderate understanding.2 That gap closes in the working session that builds the Cipher, which is cheaper than closing it in the third round of interviews.
Interviews produce comparable evidence. Every interviewer probes deliverables from the same definition. “If you interview three people, and ask them all different questions, how do you know which one is best?”3
The decision has a standard. Ratings against deliverables, independently, evidence first. Data, not feelings.
And the results move. Across thousands of interviews, the Cipher-based approach has run at roughly 90% hiring success — against the coin-flip the traditional method delivers: 46% of new hires fail within 18 months, and only 19% clearly succeed.4
It outlives the hire
The Cipher doesn’t retire on start date. It’s the onboarding document — the new hire knows what matters from day one instead of spending 90 days reconciling their boss’s, their boss’s boss’s, and their peers’ expectations. It’s the performance conversation: are the deliverables being delivered? And role clarity is a performance driver in its own right — M.P. McEnrue’s research found job performance is a joint function of competence and role clarity, with competent employees hurt more by ambiguity than less competent ones.5
Three ways in
- Build one now, free. The free Cipher tool turns a job description into a draft Cipher in minutes — no signup.
- Learn the method. The HireBest courses teach Cipher creation and the interviewing discipline around it, from the team that developed it.
- Run it as your hiring system. The HireBest platform carries the Cipher through sourcing, structured interviews, and evidence-based ratings — exactly the flow in the film above.
“If you can’t define the destination, the journey to get there is impossible.”
Frequently asked questions
What is a Cipher in hiring?
A structured, one-page definition of success for a role: the charge (the change the person is hired to make), the measurable outcome, the specific deliverables, and the observable efforts beneath them. It replaces the job description as the standard candidates are sourced, interviewed and rated against.
How is a Cipher different from a job description?
A job description lists responsibilities and requirements; a Cipher defines results. One says what the person will be responsible for; the other says what will be true in eighteen months if the hire succeeded — which is the only version you can interview against.
How do you create a Cipher?
Start from the outcome the role exists to produce, then work down: charge, outcome, deliverables, efforts — agreed with every stakeholder who’ll judge the hire. The free tool drafts one from a job description in minutes; the courses teach the full method.
Sources
- Economy, P. “11 Interesting Hiring Statistics You Should Know.” Inc., 2015 — as cited in della Penna, Cipher (Third Act Publishers, 2026), ch. 2. ↩
- iCIMS, “Best Practices Rolling Out iCIMS to Your Hiring Managers” (2020) — as cited in Cipher, ch. 2. ↩
- della Penna, C. Cipher: A Proven Framework to Hire the Best People. Third Act Publishers, 2026, ch. 11. ↩
- Murphy, M. “Why New Hires Fail.” Leadership IQ, 2011 — as cited in Cipher, ch. 1. The 90% figure is Aesop Partners’ track record across thousands of structured interviews (Cipher, ch. 1). ↩
- McEnrue, M.P. “Perceived competence as a moderator of the relationship between role clarity and job performance.” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 34(3), 1984 — as cited in Cipher, ch. 1. ↩
Video transcripts
Craig on the CODE (Foundations): We will teach you the way to define the role better than you've ever done before. That's called a Cipher. The Cipher is a one to two page document that brings radical clarity and transparency to what matters most in your hiring decision. And that cipher is built around a code. The code is a four part acronym of charge, outcome, deliverables, and efforts. Let's learn about each of them in time.
Product demo: Every great hire starts the same way: by defining what success in the role actually looks like. In HireBest, that definition is a Cipher. Start from the job. Open the Cipher tab — no Cipher yet — and click New Cipher. That starts a conversation, not a form. This is Henry, your Cipher Coach. He asks about the role one question at a time, and you answer in plain English — type a reply, or tap a quick suggestion. And if you pasted a job description when you created the job, HireBest drafts the whole Cipher for you in the background. Now watch the right-hand side. As you talk, your answers are being structured in real time. The Charge — why the role exists. The Outcome — the measurable result. Then the Deliverables, and the Efforts underneath them. When the draft is complete, the editor opens. Everything Henry drafted is yours to shape. Each section offers suggestions you can apply or refresh. The app tracks the structure as you go — five to seven deliverables, each with its own efforts — so you always know what's missing. Drag to reorder, and add the things you know that Henry doesn't. When it reads right, share it for review. Your hiring team weighs in before anything is locked, and finalising it — that's the next video. From here, every interview and every rating scores against this definition. That's hiring with the target defined before you aim.