Evaluate expert relevance before booking a call: check the work, not the title
Judge an expert by the work they personally did and when they did it, then let the first call decide whose perspective you need next.
To evaluate expert relevance before booking a call, look at the work the person has personally done, not their title. If your question is about daily operations, start with someone who ran those operations. If it is about approving a purchase, find someone who made that buying decision.
One person does not have to answer everything. Pick a useful first call, then let it tell you whom to call next.
Start with the question, then compare people
Here is a made-up example. You are building software for commercial laundry companies, and you want to understand what happens when a hotel changes its laundry pickup time at short notice. Three people have described relevant experience:
| Person | What they have done | When to speak to them |
|---|---|---|
| A regional operations manager | Handled dispatch and last-minute route changes | First, to understand how a pickup change gets handled |
| A former national executive | Negotiated hotel contracts and approved service policies | When you need to understand what a provider promises its customers |
| An implementation consultant | Helped companies replace scheduling software | When you need to understand how a new system would be introduced |
For the pickup question, start with the operations manager; the other two answer different questions. In a real search, compare described responsibilities. The Home Office's recruitment guidance likewise starts with what you need to find out and who has the relevant experience.
Check the details that could change your choice
Check three things about the operations manager: did they handle changes personally, how recently, and does their operation resemble yours? A manager of a small regional service may cover the dispatch desk. At a national provider, dispatch may be a separate department. Both can help, but only one may know what happened when a driver was already on the road.
If the background is unclear, weigh that against the call's price. When you already have a way to contact the person, ask one brief question: "Did you personally coordinate changed pickup times, or did another team handle that?" Otherwise, name the work you want to discuss in the invitation and confirm their role at the start of the call. The experience-checking guide gives more examples.
Current or former employee depends on which period you need
Someone still employed may no longer do the task, and someone who left may be exactly right for an earlier process. In the laundry example, a former dispatcher could explain pickup changes under the old scheduling system. To understand the replacement, find someone who helped roll it out. For today's process, find someone who handles those changes now.
Ask when they did the work and which changes they took part in, and don't ask a former operator to guess how a later system works. (They will often try, kindly.) A balance of current and former employees is not a goal.
Make the invitation specific enough to say no to
For this example, the request could say:
I'm exploring software for regional laundry services. I'd like a paid 30-minute call about how you handled changes to hotel pickup times: who received the change, how dispatch responded, and what made it difficult. Please use examples you can share without naming customers or revealing confidential information.
That is enough for the person to judge the fit. Save the detailed questions for the call.
Some subjects a person cannot discuss at all. Leaving a company does not by itself give permission to share its information. GLG requires its experts, for example, to decline projects that conflict with their obligations and to avoid sharing confidential information. If your question depends on private plans, change the question or use a different source.
Let the first call pick the second
Suppose the operations manager says changes often arrive without a clear deadline. Then call a hotel employee who sends those requests, and ask how they pick the new time and what they pass along.
If the call reveals that the old scheduling system cannot accept updates, call the implementation consultant next. If accounts conflict, check what each person actually experienced before booking another call.
Write down the question left open after the first call, even if answering it takes you beyond your original shortlist.
In Instant Expert, search for the responsibility you need, review the person's background and shown price, and write an invitation around that one question. The person decides whether to accept. If you don't have a shortlist yet, start with the guide to finding people to interview.