Project Background

Google Research wants to improve diversity and inclusion in its Research Scientist hiring process by standardizing how interview panels are formed, how feedback is collected, and how candidate experience is monitored across teams using Google Hire-equivalent internal recruiting workflows, Google Sheets reporting, and interviewer guidance in Google Docs. You are the program owner supporting a 22-person cross-functional group across Research, Recruiting, People Operations, and Legal. Leadership wants a pilot ready before the next university and industry hiring cycle, which begins in 10 weeks.

Key Stakeholders

The Director of Google Research wants a visible improvement in hiring outcomes this quarter. Recruiting wants minimal added process so interview throughput does not drop. People Operations wants stronger inclusion practices and interviewer accountability. Legal requires that any process changes avoid quota-like decision rules and comply with hiring policy. Several senior researchers are skeptical that structured changes will slow hiring for high-priority ML and systems roles.

Constraints

You have 10 weeks, a program budget of $120,000, and no additional full-time headcount. The pilot covers 4 research teams, 65 active interviewers, and an expected 180 candidates in the next cycle. Engineering support is limited to one internal tools engineer at 25% allocation. Any workflow changes must integrate with existing Google Workspace tools and be approved by Legal by week 6.

Complications

1. Two research leads are pushing for exceptions to panel composition standards because they say their domains have a limited interviewer pool.
2. Recruiting reports that current time-to-schedule is already near SLA limits, so any extra coordination could delay offers.
3. Baseline data on candidate experience is incomplete across teams, making success measurement harder.

Your Task

1. Build a 10-week execution plan to launch the pilot.
2. Define how you will balance inclusion goals with hiring speed and researcher capacity.
3. Propose stakeholder alignment and escalation paths for teams requesting exceptions.
4. Identify success metrics, risks, and a rollback or adjustment plan after pilot launch.
5. Recommend what should be standardized versus left flexible for individual research teams.