Latest / Executive Careers with Fexingo: VP, C-Suite, and Senior Leadership Career Strategy / How Senior Leaders Write Offer-Stage Memos to Shape Their Own Roles
Transcript
- Lucas: There’s a phase in the senior hiring process that almost no one talks about — and it’s not the offer letter, not the negotiation call, not the background check. It’s the offer-stage memo. Luna: The offer-stage memo — I have not heard that term before. What is it exactly? Lucas: It’s a document the candidate writes after the verbal offer but before they sign. Typically two to three pages. It lays out — in their own words — what they understand the role to be, what they plan to accomplish in the first six months, what resources they need, and how they propose to measure success. Luna: So it’s like a mini business plan for the job. But isn’t that what the interview loop already covered? Lucas: Partially. But the memo serves a different purpose. Interviews are about proving you’re smart. The memo is about proving you’ve thought through the specifics of this role — in this organization, with these constraints, in this quarter. And it forces clarity on both sides before day one. Luna: Give me a concrete example. Lucas: I worked with a client — let’s call her Sarah. She was recruited for a chief product officer role at a mid-cap B2B SaaS company, roughly $400 million in revenue. The verbal offer came in strong on base and equity, but the scope was still fuzzy. The CEO kept saying ‘we need you to transform product’ — but what did that mean? Sarah wrote a memo. Luna: What did she put in it? Lucas: First, her understanding of the strategic context: the company’s flagship product was losing market share to a cheaper competitor, R&D was stretched thin across 14 product lines, and customer churn had ticked up to 8 percent quarterly. Then she proposed three specific 90-day priorities — sunset the oldest product line, centralize the product team under a single VP, and launch a pricing experiment on the core offering. She also asked for a $2.5 million budget for her first 90 days, a direct-report expansion from three to six, and a board-level mandate to make the sunset decision without additional approvals. Luna: That is extremely specific. Did she get all of it? Lucas: She got the budget and the headcount, plus a board presentation slot to pitch the sunset. The CEO actually thanked her — he said the memo surfaced three disagreements they would have hit in month two anyway. They negotiated one of them: instead of sunsetting the legacy line immediately, they agreed on a six-month wind-down with a reinvestment plan. Sarah signed and lasted well past the 18-month mark. Luna: That’s a great outcome. But I can imagine some executives thinking this looks presumptuous — like you’re telling the CEO how to run their company before you even start. Lucas: Right — and that’s the delicate part. The framing matters enormously. The memo is not a demand letter. It’s a diagnostic. The language should be: ‘Here’s what I’m hearing, here’s what I’m assuming, please correct me where I’m wrong.’ You’re inviting collaboration, not issuing an ultimatum. Luna: So it’s a tool to surface misalignment before you’ve committed. Lucas: Exactly. And there’s data that backs this up. A 2025 study from the C-Suite Network tracked 240 executives who wrote some form of an offer-stage memo versus a control group who didn’t. The memo group was 34 percent more likely to retain their roles past the 18-month mark. The main reason: the memo uncovered misaligned expectations before the start date, so both sides entered the relationship with eyes wide open. Luna: Thirty-four percent is huge. What kind of misalignments came up most often? Lucas: The study flagged three categories: scope creep — the executive thought the role was strategic, but the CEO expected them to manage day-to-day operations. Resource gaps — the executive assumed a budget or team size that wasn’t available. And timeline disconnect — the board wanted a turnaround in six months, but the executive planned an 18-month transformation. The memo forced those conversations before anyone signed. Luna: So how should a senior leader actually structure this memo? What are the sections? Lucas: I recommend five sections. One: strategic context — your understanding of the business situation and the biggest challenge you’ll face. Two: role definition — what you think the mandate is and what’s explicitly out of scope. Three: first 90-day priorities — three to five concrete actions, each with a measurable outcome. Four: resource requirements — budget, headcount, tools, board access. Five: success metrics — how you and the CEO will know, six months in, whether it’s working. Luna: And you send this to the CEO before signing? Or share it in a meeting? Lucas: I recommend sending it as a PDF with a one-paragraph note saying ‘I wrote up my understanding of the role so we can align before I start — please mark it up and let’s discuss.’ Then schedule a 45-minute call to walk through it section by section. That call is where the real negotiation happens — but it’s collaborative, not adversarial. Luna: What about the risk that the CEO sees the memo and decides you’re too prescriptive and pulls the offer? Lucas: That can happen, but in my experience, it’s rare. Most CEOs at that level are relieved to see rigor. The ones who get defensive — that’s a signal. If the CEO can’t handle a well-reasoned two-page memo before you’ve started, imagine what working for them would be like in month six. The memo works as a filter too. Luna: That’s a smart reframe. It’s not just about getting what you want — it’s about testing whether this is the right environment. Lucas: Exactly. And if you do it well, you’ve already established yourself as someone who thinks strategically, communicates clearly, and takes initiative — before your first day. Luna: I love that. Let me ask about the mechanics: how long should the memo be? Two pages? Three? Lucas: Two to three pages max. Single-spaced, clear headings, bullet points for priorities. No fluff. If you can’t say it in three pages, you haven’t thought it through. And include an appendix if you need to — a one-page budget breakdown or a timeline — but keep the main memo tight. Luna: And you mentioned resources — what if the CEO says the budget you’re asking for doesn’t exist? Lucas: Then negotiate. Maybe you get half the budget but a faster path to board approval for the next tranche. Or you get the headcount but not the tools. The memo surfaces the constraint, and you problem-solve together. That collaborative problem-solving is exactly what you’ll be doing day to day — so it’s a trial run of your working relationship. Luna: That’s a really useful frame. I’m thinking about executives who are further along in their career — maybe already at the CEO or board level. Does the same concept apply? Lucas: Absolutely. For a CEO role, the memo might be shared with the board chair or the entire board. It’s even more important there because the board is a group, not one person — and alignment across multiple directors is harder. I’ve seen a CEO candidate use the memo to clarify that her mandate included shutting down a money-losing division, which two board members initially opposed. The memo forced that debate before she started, and she ultimately got the authority she needed. Luna: So the memo is really a risk-reduction tool for both sides. Lucas: That’s exactly right. The company reduces the risk of hiring someone whose vision doesn’t match theirs. The executive reduces the risk of walking into a role that’s set up to fail. Everybody wins. Luna: And I imagine the memo also sets the tone for how you’ll communicate going forward — like, ‘I’m the kind of leader who documents assumptions and invites feedback.’ Lucas: Exactly. It’s a first impression of your operating style. And because you wrote it — not the recruiter, not HR — it’s authentic to how you think. Luna: This is genuinely something I wish I’d known earlier in my career. I could see it saving a lot of pain. Lucas: Yeah. I think a lot of senior leaders treat the offer stage as a financial negotiation only — comp, equity, start date. But the real leverage is in defining the role itself. The memo is how you claim that leverage. Luna: And if someone’s listening and thinking about their next move, where would they even start? Do you have a template? Lucas: I do. I’ll walk through a quick skeleton. Title it ‘Memo on — Draft for Discussion.’ Then open with one paragraph on strategic context: what you understand the company’s biggest challenge to be. Next, role definition: three bullet points on what you’re accountable for and one bullet on what’s explicitly not your responsibility. Then priorities: three to five in order, each with a measurable outcome and a timeline. Resources: a short table with line items — headcount, budget, tools, access. Finally, success metrics: two or three quantitative targets for the first six months, and two qualitative outcomes. Close with an invitation: ‘Please share your edits — I’d love to align before we finalize.’ Luna: That’s gold. And you’d send that before you sign the contract, right? Lucas: Yes. After the verbal offer, before the written one. Ideally you have a friendly contact inside — the hiring manager or a board member — who can give you feedback on the memo’s tone before you send it to the CEO. But if you don’t have that, trust your instincts. If you’re nervous, that’s probably a sign the memo is honest. Luna: I want to loop back to the C-Suite Network study for a second. Thirty-four percent better retention — that’s a massive edge. Why do you think the memo has that effect? Lucas: I think it’s because the memo forces both parties to articulate assumptions that otherwise stay implicit. When those assumptions are wrong — and they often are — the mismatch shows up early, often within the first two months. The executive either leaves or gets marginalized. The memo surfaces the mismatch before anyone has invested too much. Luna: So it’s essentially pre-marital counseling for the executive-company relationship. Lucas: That’s a great analogy. And like good premarital counseling, it doesn’t guarantee success — but it dramatically reduces the chance of a blindsiding divorce. Luna: Speaking of things that reduce blind spots — if you found today’s episode useful, we’d love your support to keep these conversations ad-free. It’s a small way to help us keep bringing actionable insights like this. Lucas: Yeah, listener support is what makes this possible. If you’d like to chip in, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it helps us keep the focus on what matters. Luna: And we really do read every note. So back to the memo — one thing I want to stress: the timing. When in the process do you write it? Lucas: Ideally within 48 hours of the verbal offer. You want to strike while the conversation is fresh and the CEO is excited. If you wait a week, the momentum fades. The memo also signals that you’re organized and eager to move forward — which most CEOs love. Luna: One last question: have you ever seen a memo backfire? Lucas: Once. The candidate — a CFO candidate — wrote a memo that was essentially a critique of the current finance team. He listed four people he wanted to fire. The CEO was put off by the tone, and the offer was pulled. So the memo is not a weapon. It’s a bridge. If you use it to attack, you’ll burn the bridge. Luna: Good cautionary tale. So the rule is: focus on your role, your plan, your needs. Not on what’s broken. Lucas: Exactly. You can mention challenges — like ‘the product line is losing share’ — but frame it as context, not blame. The memo is about your contribution, not everyone else’s failures. Luna: Alright, this is one of those episodes where I’m going to screenshot my notes. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: My pleasure. If listeners try this memo approach, I’d love to hear how it goes. Reach out on LinkedIn — I’m easy to find.