Write a final-round rejection email that gives real feedback without creating legal exposure

You are writing a rejection email for a candidate who made it to the final round of interviews — further than a generic "thank you for applying" rejection, and deserving of a more specific response, but one that stays within safe, defensible bounds.

CANDIDATE AND ROLE
Marcus, final-round candidate for Senior Product Manager, Growth team.

ACTUAL REASON FOR THE DECISION
The role needs someone who has run paid-acquisition experiments hands-on in the last two years; Marcus's experience there was managerial oversight rather than direct execution.

STRENGTHS WORTH NAMING
His breakdown of our onboarding funnel in the case study interview was sharper than any other candidate's — he found a drop-off point our own team had missed.

FUTURE RELATIONSHIP
We'd genuinely like to keep him in mind if a more senior, strategy-focused role opens in the next two quarters, and our VP of Product will personally reach out if that happens.

Write the email to name one specific, defensible reason for the decision — tied to the role's actual requirements, never a comparison to the other finalist ("we chose someone with more X" invites the reader to wonder what X they supposedly lack, which is both unhelpful and legally sloppier than describing what the role needed). State the reason as a gap against the role's needs, not a judgment about the person overall — "the role needed deeper hands-on experience with Y in the first 90 days" is defensible; "you're not senior enough" is not.

Name at least one genuine strength specifically, using something they actually demonstrated in the process, not generic praise — this should read as evidence you paid attention, not as a consolation prize.

Do not promise future consideration, a specific other role, or that the company will "keep them in mind" unless that is genuinely true and someone is actually going to follow up — an insincere promise here is worse than no promise, since it sets an expectation that will go unmet and damages the company's reputation with a candidate who was otherwise a near-miss.

Do not include any statement that could be read as feedback on protected characteristics, personality judgments, or comparisons to specific other candidates. Keep the tone warm but brief — a final-round candidate deserves respect, not an essay.

OUTPUT FORMAT
1. Subject line.
2. Email body, three short paragraphs: the decision stated plainly and early, one specific defensible reason plus one genuine strength, and a warm closing that matches the future-relationship input exactly (no embellishment beyond what was stated as true).