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Client DNA

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Client DNA is Lovelio's record of what a great hire looks like at each of your clients. It is five traits plus a short written reflection, built automatically when a client is created with a website, and refined over time from your notes and from real client feedback. Every client has at most one DNA record, and the AI uses it everywhere it judges candidates for that client's jobs: assessments, phone screens, AI screening, interview questions, and job ad copy.

The five traits

Every Client DNA has the same five sections, always in this order:

  • "Great Hires" - who has worked out at this client and why
  • "The Signals" - the positive markers they look for, with weightings
  • "X Factors" - the qualities that make someone stand out there
  • "Red Flags" - what rules a candidate out, with severity
  • "How You Test" - the questions and techniques used to probe fit

Each trait shows a short synthesis paragraph plus the specific phrases captured, and the record carries a reflection - a few sentences summing up the client's hiring taste.

How the first pass is built

When a client is created with a website, Lovelio enriches the record in the background: it reads the client's public web presence, fills in the profile (name, industry, description, locations), fetches a logo, and then writes the Client DNA from that public footprint. No setup, no interview, no forms. The client record shows a status pill while this runs. This works the same wherever the client is created: the dashboard, Ask Lovelio, the Chrome extension, or the V1 API.

If the client is created without a website, no DNA is built and the DNA tab says "No DNA yet". Adding the website later does kick off the build, as long as the client has not already been enriched. The build can also fail if the site cannot be read; the client then stays without DNA. A DNA note cannot be added to a client that has no DNA yet - the error message says so.

Some sites do not have enough on them to build a DNA from: a contact page, a holding page, or a site that is mostly error pages. Lovelio will not invent a company from nothing, so in that case it writes no DNA and the tab shows "No DNA yet", the same as a client with no website. That is deliberate. A made-up DNA reads perfectly well and quietly makes every assessment, phone screen and AI score for that client worse, and a consultant would end up repeating invented details to candidates. Add what you know as a note once the client has a DNA, or tell us what the client is about and refine from there.

Where to see it

Open the client and go to the DNA tab in the client slideout. It shows the version number (v1, v2, ...), when it was last refined (or "first pass from their public footprint"), the reflection, the five traits, and a log of every refinement note with the date, its source, and which version it was applied in.

Refining the DNA

Refinement is notes only. There are three ways to add a note:

  • The "Refine this DNA" box on the client's DNA tab. Type anything you learned about what great looks like at that client, tick "From a client meeting" if it came from one, and click "Add note". Notes are capped at 4,000 characters.
  • Ask Lovelio or Cmd+K: the "Refine Client DNA" action, e.g. "note on Acme: they now weight team leadership over solo shipping". Its source can be text, meeting, or voice.
  • Automatically from client feedback. When a client responds to a submission with substance - a rejection with a reason, or any verdict with a written note - that feedback is appended to the DNA on its own, attributed to the consultant who sent the submission. A bare thumbs-up or thumbs-down teaches nothing so it is skipped. These show in the log as "client feedback".

Every note is append-only: notes are never edited or deleted, they stack in order. Adding one immediately kicks off a re-analysis - the AI re-derives all five traits from the first-pass baseline plus every note in order, then bumps the version number. While that runs the tab shows a "Refining with your notes" badge and refreshes itself; it takes a minute or two. If it fails, the tab shows "Refinement failed - try the note again". Newer notes override the baseline where they conflict, and everything not contradicted survives.

Where the DNA is used

Whenever the AI works on a job, it looks up the DNA through the job's client. If that client has a completed DNA, Lovelio uses it in these places:

  • Candidate assessments and AI screening: the DNA adds client-specific criteria to the scoring
  • Phone screens: the DNA informs the questions written for the call and how answers are scored
  • Interview questions: the DNA informs the questions the AI writes
  • Job ads and job descriptions: the DNA gives the generator client context (the ad is written in the client's voice, but the client is never named in the copy)
  • Rejection email drafts, spec profiles, and answers when you ask Lovelio questions about a client

There is no agency-level fallback. If a client has no DNA, these features still work - they just run without the client-specific taste layer. Your own personal Hiring DNA (from account setup) never feeds job ads; only the client's DNA does.

Limits and edge cases

  • One DNA record per client, exactly.
  • Refinement is forward-only: a new version changes future assessments and scores, never past ones. Each assessment records which DNA version it used.
  • Notes need a signed-in user. An API key with no acting user cannot add a DNA note.
  • Feedback-driven notes are attributed to the consultant who sent the submission, since the client contact is not a Lovelio user.

Common questions

  • "Why does a client have no DNA?" Three reasons: they were created without a website, their site could not be read, or their site did not have enough on it to build from (a contact page or a holding page). Lovelio writes no DNA rather than inventing one.
  • "Can I edit the traits directly?" No. You refine by adding notes; the AI rewrites the traits from the full history. Say what changed in a note and it is applied in the next version.
  • "Can I delete a note?" No. Notes are permanent. Add a new note that corrects the old one - newer notes win where they conflict.
  • "How long does refinement take?" The app says a minute or two. The DNA tab shows a live badge and refreshes on its own.
  • "Does DNA from one client affect another?" No. Each client's DNA is fully separate and only applies to jobs belonging to that client.