The Calavion Real-Work Method
Short answer. The Calavion Real-Work Method is a six-stage way of hiring: a company brings work it has actually handled, Calavion prepares a tailored interactive environment from it with the company, the company approves an exact version, applicants investigate, communicate and act inside it, the employer inspects Replay and compares the evidence, and people make the shortlist and the hiring decision. Calavion does not decide.
The method is designed to be adapted to roles with bounded work: records, rules, people and consequences. Each case is prepared by hand with the company, from that company’s own work, for the role it is hiring. The cancellation case on this site is one worked example.
The six stages at a glance
| # | Stage | What happens | What exists afterwards | Who is accountable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bring | The company selects a handled piece of work and supplies its files | Source material (never shown to applicants) | Company |
| 2 | Prepare | Calavion reads it, states what it understood, flags assumptions and gaps, reconstructs the environment and replaces identifying details | A draft environment and a “what we understood” sheet | Calavion |
| 3 | Approve | The company reviews the prepared case, every assumption and a preview of what applicants will see, then approves an exact version | An approved, unchanging version | Company |
| 4 | Work | Applicants read an orientation, then inspect records, apply company rules, write messages, take actions and deal with consequences | A recorded session per applicant | Applicant |
| 5 | Replay | The session is preserved as a readable record: what was available, what was done, what changed, what stayed open | Replay | Calavion keeps it; the employer reads it |
| 6 | Compare and decide | The employer reads Replays side by side against its own approved requirements, interviews from specific moments, and decides | The employer’s own notes and decision | Employer |
Stage 1. Bring: start from work that already happened
A good starting point is a situation the company has already handled and understands, so there is a known trail and a known outcome to talk about. It should be bounded (one responsibility, not a whole job), have records, involve at least one rule that constrains what the person may do, and have a consequence that depends on the choice. Our guide to choosing real work for a hiring exercise goes through the test, and Suitable work lists what fits.
Stage 2. Prepare: show our reading before anything is built
Preparation is where most of the care goes, and it is done with the company, by people. Calavion reads the material and writes a short sheet in which every statement is labelled by where it came from:
- From your records: a fact in a file you supplied.
- Your rule: a policy or limit quoted from your material.
- Our assumption: something the exercise needs that your material does not state.
- Not found: something we looked for and could not find.
Only the first two are the company’s. The other two are ours, and they are shown precisely so that the company can correct them.
Calavion also replaces identifying details by hand. This is careful, not magic: material a company provides has already left its own systems, and the company still approves what applicants see.
Stage 3. Approve: the company owns the version
Before any applicant sees the environment, the company reviews the full prepared case: starting records, available actions, delayed messages, and possible endings. The company approves an exact version before any invitation is sent, and approval is tied to that exact version. If the company later changes its mind, a new version is made and approved separately. Earlier invitations keep the version they were approved with.
The method Calavion is building adds a review of the criteria the company will use: which endings it considers acceptable, partial or unacceptable, and which conditions it declares critical. If it declares none, none is treated as critical; Calavion does not choose. A historical response is a reference, not an answer key: more than one defensible route may exist.
Stage 4. Work: applicants do the work
Applicants open an invitation link, read a company-specific orientation, and work inside a controlled environment that is not connected to any real customer or production system. They investigate records, apply the guidance, write to the people involved and take actions. Actions can have immediate or delayed consequences, and leaving work honestly unfinished and handed over is an option. Everything an applicant does inside the environment is recorded and visible to the employer in Replay.
Stage 5. Replay: a record people can read
Replay records what was available at each point, what the applicant did and wrote, what changed as a result and what stayed open. It is not a video, not a screen capture, not a score and not an AI judgment. It does not claim to read private thinking. See Replay.
Stage 6. Compare and decide: people judge
Employers read Replays against the approved requirements and keep three things apart. We call this the observation, opportunity, interpretation distinction:
- Observation: what the record shows was done.
- Opportunity: whether the environment let that behaviour be seen at all.
- Interpretation: a judgment formed on an observation. Reasonable people can differ.
The employer then interviews from specific moments (“what did you notice before you replied?”) and decides. The employer orders its own shortlist. Where Calavion points to evidence it cites the recorded moment, and where the record has gaps it says so. See how to discuss applicant work without reducing it to a score.
What the method does not do
- Calavion does not give applicants an overall score, generate an ordered shortlist, or recommend whom to hire. People decide, with a record they can open. Anything the record cannot settle is left for a person to review.
- It does not promise to eliminate bias, predict performance or guarantee a hire. One environment is one source of evidence.
- It is not a template library. Each case is prepared with the company, so each role takes preparation.
Source and method notes
This page describes how Calavion is designed to work and how it has worked in its own test runs. It is not a study. Claims about the surrounding research on work samples are on What research says about seeing applicants perform real work. Terms are defined on Definitions and What is real-work hiring?. Measurements of what preparation involves are on What it takes to prepare a case.