About this document: This playbook documents the complete arc of the search process Work Shouldn't Suck was invited to lead for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Head of External Relations role, conducted November 2022–March 2023. It includes every memo shared with the YBCA team throughout the search and the full suite of materials used along the way — from dot connector scripts to rubrics to candidate communications.
It’s shared here as a resource for practitioners who are reimagining how hiring can work. Immense gratitude to the YBCA search committee and broader team for co-creating this process with us, and to the candidates who brought themselves so fully to it. Some details have been anonymized, generalized, or lightly adapted to protect candidate confidentiality, staff privacy, and internal organizational context.
