[derefr]

Maybe the top of the funnel is the easiest part to optimize in a data-driven fashion, so it's what Google has ended up optimizing. And it's probably to their deficit; it seems to me that the only thing widening your funnel at the top ever gets you is more unqualified leads.

When I hire, I don't think about trying to find more people to interview. Instead, I think about designing the interviewing process such that it's short, simple, and fun for the person being interviewed—because the people who I most want, have the least time and patience for me and the most alternatives, so I have to make choosing to "try my job on" as easy as possible.

When I do this, word spreads (both among those who get hired, and those who don't) that "you may as well go and see if you like them, it's not too much of a hassle" and the result is far more inbound (qualified!) leads, and far less friction in outbound lead-gen.