Kokoro People

Helping small businesses and nonprofits build teams they can count on.

See what someone can actually do before you hire them.

We help owners and executive directors hire the right people and prepare their teams to keep the business running when a key person is away or leaves. We build practical tools with your team and train them to use these approaches independently, so the skills stay in your business long after we leave.

Hiring soon? Take the 2-minute check Book a call

Trusted by American Ambulance, The Global Good Fund, and Lanna Coffee Co.

“We landed on two candidates, one who had less traditional credentials and the other who had a great resume listing the types of things that we wanted. To our astonishment, the less credentialed applicant had excellent organization and communication skills exhibited in their writing. We dodged a bullet and hired an employee that will be a force in the company’s future.”
Erik Petersen, CAO, American Ambulance

Prove-It Hiring

Hire from real work, not resumes.

Resumes tell you how well someone writes about themselves. We build a hiring process around what the job actually takes, and run it with you for one role.

  1. Define what good looks like

    We turn your job description into a practical guide for hiring and onboarding, prioritize and weight the skills that matter most, and build a scorecard your team can use to evaluate candidates consistently.

  2. Test with real work

    Instead of relying on resumes and ‘Tell me about a time…’ interview questions, we create short, custom work samples based on the real job. You see what they can do, and they see what the work is like.

  3. Train your team to hire well

    We train your team to conduct structured interviews, use the scorecard to evaluate candidates consistently, and run the process independently for future hires.

“Kokoro’s work-based samples made it easy to quickly and objectively evaluate candidates to see their actual capability. Kokoro has saved me countless hours and dollars in the process, delivering a high ROI.”
Bryan Feil, CEO, Lanna Coffee Co.
“Unlike other services, Kokoro provides hands-on support to coach and equip teams to implement and replicate the process independently.”
Anne Rasmussen, former Head of Sales, Copra (acquired by Vita Coco)
The Candidate Experience
“This is the most beneficial hiring process I’ve ever experienced. I plan to stay here a long time.”
Morgan Meyers, hired through the process

Free · about 2 minutes

Before you post the job

Six quick questions about one role you're about to fill. You'll see how clear the role is, what a poor hire could cost, and what to fix before the post goes up.

Check your next hire

Keep the Business Running

Build a business that doesn't depend on you for everything.

When too much of the business depends on you or 1 key person, it's hard to step away, focus on growing the business, or take a real break. Work piles up, decisions wait, and you get pulled back into the details. If you or that person are suddenly unavailable, the business can feel the impact immediately.

You keep a spare key to your house with someone you trust. Your business needs a backup, too. We help you identify what can't stop, capture how the work gets done, and prepare someone else to take it on.

What our package includes

Here's what it looks like to get someone ready to step into a key role, whether it's your role or someone else's.

  1. Map the risks

    Also available on its own

    We talk with you and 2–4 key people to identify the work that's hardest to cover, what would happen if someone were unavailable, and who could step in. You'll get a 1-page map of the gaps, coverage plan, and what to do in the next 30 days.

  2. Capture and transfer the know-how

    Also available on its own

    We capture the tasks, decisions and hard-won knowledge that keep your business running, using multimedia guides, interactive video quizzes and realistic scenarios rather than relying on written SOPs alone. Someone else can learn how to handle the work, practice what to do when things go wrong, and build the experience to step in when needed, without waiting years to encounter every situation on the job.

  3. Develop the next person

    Identify who has the potential to take on greater responsibility, define what they'll need to do well, and assess where they're ready and where they need to grow. We design stretch assignments that build their skills and judgment, with targeted coaching along the way. Through realistic practice scenarios and on-the-job experience, they can build capabilities that might otherwise take years to develop. You'll have a clearer picture of their readiness and what they still need before stepping into the role.

“Kokoro helped develop our most important team members who I’m cultivating for leadership. I witnessed them both grow in their ability to see more strategically, communicate effectively, and adopt more of a coaching posture.”
Matt Strmiska, CEO, Adaptiv
Talk through your key roles

Free · about 2 minutes

What if your key person left tomorrow?

Answer a few questions about one key role. You'll see how exposed the business is, what would suffer most, and get a backup plan for that role by email.

Check one key role

We also support teams with

Culture and valuesPerformance and feedbackPay and promotionManager coachingTeam relationships

In Japanese, kokoro means heart. It also means spirit, mind and soul: who we are at our essence. We believe:

About Us

We ask the questions others don't, and listen to what matters.

Small businesses don't always have the time or space to get to the bottom of what's working and what isn't. We build trust quickly, ask thoughtful questions, and help people surface what others might miss. Then we turn those insights into practical changes that help the business and its people do better.

Kokoro People was founded by Fujii, whose work began in rural Cameroon, co-founding a farming business with women farmers. What started with $100 grew into a year-round operation, and the model was repeated with other ventures. That experience shaped how she approaches hiring and people development. When you get clear on what good work requires, you can hire for the skills that matter, spot potential that resumes miss, and train people to do the job well. For more than 15 years, Fujii has helped organizations across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the US put this approach into practice, including The Global Good Fund, myAgro and Medic.

Organizations we've worked with

The Global Good FundAdaptivAmerican AmbulanceCopraLanna Coffee Co.Red Bay CoffeeStone SoupFood CommonsEvery Neighborhood Partnership
“Kokoro created and executed an application process to vet thousands of people worldwide to help The Global Good Fund select a handful of top-notch candidates. Kokoro knows what it takes to identify and engage top talent.”
Carrie Rich, CEO, The Global Good Fund
“Kokoro provided a clear way for us to be able to vet candidates. What's more, Kokoro gave us a replicable process we can deploy with future hires.”
Victor Thao, former Board Chair, Commercial Banking Market Executive, JP Morgan
“Kokoro helped improve job retention by seeing potential in every person, understanding our team's baseline and training needs. More employees reached their goals and had greater job satisfaction.”
Matt Ford, Warehouse Manager, JD FOODS
“Kokoro is uniquely gifted to flesh out the needs of businesses and to match them with employee talent, on both a market and individual level.”
Scott Rhodes, COO, The Wonderful Company
“Kokoro guided us in realizing our true company values through systematic, empathetic exercises… We are now a more aligned and value-driven organization.”
Founder, IT company

Let's talk about what you're working on.

A short call to hear what's going on and whether we can help. We work with a few organizations at a time, so each one gets our full attention.

Book a call