Interview Questions

Question 1

-Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

Answer 1

Are Right A Lot

Question 2

-Tell me about an error in judgment you made in the last year or two. What was it and what was the impact of it?

Answer 2

Are Right A Lot

Question 3

-Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision and the learning from the experience enabled you to make a good decision later. What did you learn that you were able to apply?

Answer 3

Are Right A Lot

Question 4

-Give me an example of a significant professional failure. What did you learn from this situation?

Answer 4

Are Right A Lot

Question 5

-Give me an example of when you had to make an important decision in the absence of good data because there just wasn’t any. What was the situation and how did you arrive at your decision? Did the decision turn out to be the correct one? Why or why not?

Answer 5

Are Right A Lot

Question 6

-Tell me about a business model decision or key technology decision or other important strategic decision you had to make for which there was not enough data or benchmarks. In the absence of all the data, what guided your choice and how did you make the call? What was the outcome?

Answer 6

Are Right A Lot

Question 7

-Tell me about a time when you felt your team was not moving to action quickly enough. What was the situation? What did you do? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently?

Answer 7

Bias For Action

Question 8

-Give me an example of a calculated risk that you have taken where speed was critical. What was the situation and how did you handle it? What steps did you take to mitigate the risk? What was the outcome?

Answer 8

Bias For Action

Question 9

-Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information. How did you make it and what was the outcome?

Answer 9

Bias For Action

Question 10

-Tell me about a time you had to make a quick judgement call without time for deep analysis.

Answer 10

Bias For Action

Question 11

-Describe a situation where you made an important business decision without consulting your manager. What was the situation and how did it turn out?

Answer 11

Bias For Action

Question 12

-Tell me about a time when you had to analyze facts quickly, define key issues, and respond immediately to a situation. What was the outcome?

Answer 12

Bias For Action

Question 13

-Tell me about a time when you have worked against tight deadlines and didn’t have the time to consider all options before making a decision. How much time did you have? What approach did you take?

Answer 13

Bias For Action

Question 14

-Give an example of when you had to make an important decision and had to decide
between moving forward or gathering more information. What did you do? What information is necessary for you to have before acting?

Answer 14

Bias For Action

Question 15

-Tell me about a time when you were faced with a challenge where the best way forward or strategy to adopt was not “clear cut” (i.e., there were a number of possible solutions or the situation was ambiguous). How did you decide the best way forward?

Answer 15

Bias For Action

Question 16

-Tell me about a time you used customer feedback to drive improvement or innovation. What was the situation and what action did you take?

Answer 16

Customer Obsession

Question 17

-Give me an example of when you did not meet a client’s expectations. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?

Answer 17

Customer Obsession

Question 18

-Describe a dificult interaction you had with a client. What was the situation and what action did you take? What was the outcome?

Answer 18

Customer Obsession

Question 19

-Tell me about a time you handled a dificult customer. What did you do? How did you manage the customer? What was her/his reaction? What was the outcome?

Answer 19

Customer Obsession

Question 20

-Tell me about a time you put the customer first, regardless of what peers or higher management directed. What was the outcome? How did this impact day-to-day interaction with your peers and/or management?

Answer 20

Customer Obsession

Question 21

-Walk me through a time when you helped a customer through a dificult process and what that looked like.

Answer 21

Customer Obsession

Question 22

-Most of us at one time have felt frustrated or impatient when dealing with customers. Can you tell me about a time when you felt this way and how you dealt with it?

Answer 22

Customer Obsession

Question 23

-When do you think it’s ok to push back or say no to an unreasonable customer request?

Answer 23

Customer Obsession

Question 24

-Tell me about a time you had to compromise in order to satisfy a customer.

Answer 24

Customer Obsession

Question 25

- Tell me about a time a customer wanted one thing, but you felt they needed something else.

Answer 25

Customer Obsession

Question 26

-When was a time when you had to balance the needs of the customer with the needs of the business?

Answer 26

Customer Obsession

Question 27

-To try to meet the high expectations of our customers, we sometimes promise more than we can deliver. Tell me about a time when you overcommitted yourself or your company. How did you resolve the issue?

Answer 27

Customer Obsession

Question 28

-In your opinion, what is the most effective way to evaluate the quality of your product or service to your internal/external customer? Give an example when you used these measures to make a decision. (Manager)

Answer 28

Customer Obsession

Question 29

-Give me an example of a change you implemented in your current team or organization to meet the needs of your customers. What has been the result? (Manager)

Answer 29

Customer Obsession

Question 30

-Give me a situation in which it took you asking why five times to get to the root cause.

Answer 30

Dive Deep

Question 31

-Tell me about a time you were trying to understand a problem on your team and you had to go down several layers to figure it out. Who did you talk with and what info proved most valuable? How did you use that info to help solve the problem?

Answer 31

Dive Deep

Question 32

-Tell me about a problem you had to solve that required in-depth thought and analysis. How did you know you were focusing on the right things?

Answer 32

Dive Deep

Question 33

-Walk me through a big problem in your organization that you helped to solve. How did you become aware of it? What info did you gather, what was missing, and how did you fill the gaps? Did you do a postmortem analysis and what did you learn?

Answer 33

Dive Deep

Question 34

-Can you tell me about a specific metric you’ve used to identify a need for change in your department? Did you create the metric or was it readily available? How did this and other info influence the change?

Answer 34

Dive Deep

Question 35

-It can be dificult to set goals for a team that are challenging yet achievable. Tell me about a time when you hit the right balance. How did you approach setting the goals? What was the outcome?

Answer 35

Deliver Results

Question 36

-Tell me about a time when you were able to remove a serious roadblock preventing your team from making progress.

Answer 36

Deliver Results

Question 37

-Tell me about a time when you went way beyond the scope of the project and delivered.

Answer 37

Deliver Results

Question 38

-Describe a time when you had to face a particularly challenging situation while working on a project and what you did to overcome it. (Note: The challenge could be with respect to timeline, scope, people, etc. or a combination thereof.)

Answer 38

Deliver Results

Question 39

-Tell me about a time where you not only met your goals but exceeded them.

Answer 39

Deliver Results

Question 40

-Give me an example of a time when you didn't think you were going to meet the commitments you promised. How did you identify the risk and communicate it to stakeholders? What was the outcome?

Answer 40

Deliver Results

Question 41

-Tell me about a time when you uncovered a significant problem in your team. What was it and how did you communicate it to your manager and other stakeholders?

Answer 41

Earn Trust

Question 42

-Describe a time when you significantly contributed to improving morale and productivity on your team. What were the underlying problems and their causes? How did you prevent them from negatively impacting the team in the future?

Answer 42

Earn Trust

Question 43

-Give an example of a time where you were not able to meet a commitment to a team member. What was the commitment and what prevented you from meeting it? What was the outcome and what did you learn from it?

Answer 43

Earn Trust

Question 44

-Tell me about a piece of direct feedback you recently gave to a colleague. How did he or she respond?

Answer 44

Earn Trust

Question 45

-Tell me about a time you had to communicate a big change in direction for which you anticipated people would have a lot of concerns. How did you handle questions and/or resistance? Were you able to get people comfortable with the change?

Answer 45

Earn Trust

Question 46

-Tell me about a time when you needed the cooperation of a peer who didn’t want to give it. How and did you convince them to support you?

Answer 46

Earn Trust

Question 47

-Tell me about a time when you and a peer had competing goals but you needed their support to deliver your goals?

Answer 47

Earn Trust

Question 48

-Describe a time when you had to decide whether or not to award or ask for additional resources. What criteria did you use for making the call?

Answer 48

Frugality

Question 49

-Give an example of a time when you challenged your team to come up with a more eficient solution or process. What drove the request? How did you help? What were some of your biggest challenges? What were the results?

Answer 49

Frugality

Question 50

-Tell me about a time where you thought of a new way to save money or eliminate waste within your operation.

Answer 50

Frugality

Question 51

-Tell me about a time when you had to work with limited time or resources.

Answer 51

Frugality

Question 52

-Describe a time when you improved a process with a limited budget. How did you weigh the options? What was the result?

Answer 52

Frugality

Question 53

-Tell me about a time you have created organizational or customer value through either increased revenue stream or lowering the cost structure.

Answer 53

Frugality

Question 54

-Give me a time you requested additional funding/budget to complete a project. Why was it needed? Did you try to figure out another approach? Did you get the additional resources? Why or why not?

Answer 54

Frugality

Question 55

-Describe a situation where you thought you were right, but your peers or supervisor did not agree with you. How did you convince them that you were right?

Answer 55

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 56

-Tell me about a time that you strongly disagreed with your manager on something you deemed to be very important to the business. What was it about and how did you handle it?

Answer 56

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 57

-Give me an example of when you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers and your leader and you were the outlier. What was it, why did you feel strongly about it, and what did you do?

Answer 57

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 58

-When do you decide to go along with the group decision even if you disagree?

Answer 58

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 59

-Give me an example of a time you chose to acquiesce to the group even when you disagreed. Would you make the same decision now?

Answer 59

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 60

-Give me an example of a time the business gained something because you persisted for a length of time. Why were you so determined? How did it turn out?

Answer 60

Have Backbone: Disagree & Commit

Question 61

-Tell me about one of the best hires of your career.

Answer 61

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 62

-Tell me about a time when you actively coached or mentored somebody. What were your key takeaways? What was the outcome?

Answer 62

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 63

-Tell me about a time when you helped a remote team member develop their career. How did you help them develop across the distance?

Answer 63

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 64

-Tell me about a time when you provided feedback to a member of your team to leverage or develop their strengths. What was the outcome? What methods of feedback/coaching did you find effective?

Answer 64

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 65

-Tell me about a time when you hire someone precisely because they had a skills you didn’t. How were you still able to support their development.

Answer 65

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 66

-Tell me about someone who got promoted in your organisation because of the coaching and development efforts you invested in them.

Answer 66

Hire & Develop The Best

Question 67

-Tell me about a time when you’ve been unsatisfied with the status quo. What did you do to change it? Were you successful?

Answer 67

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 68

-Tell me about a time you wouldn’t compromise on achieving a great outcome when others felt something was already good enough. What was the situation?

Answer 68

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 69

-What measures have you personally put in place to ensure performance improvement targets and standards are achieved?

Answer 69

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 70

-Describe the most significant, continuous improvement project that you’ve led. What was the catalyst for this change and how did you go about it?

Answer 70

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 71

-Give me an example of a goal you’ve had where you wish you had done better. What was the goal and how could you have improved on it?

Answer 71

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 72

-Tell me about a time when you worked to improve the quality of a product / service / solution that was already getting good customer feedback? Why did you think it needed more improvement?

Answer 72

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 73

-Tell me about a time you looked at a key process that was working well and questioned whether it was still the right one. What assumptions were you questioning and why? Did you end up making a change to the process?

Answer 73

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 74

-Give an example where you refused to compromise your standards around quality/ customer service, etc. Why did you feel so strongly about the situation? What were the consequences? The result?

Answer 74

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 75

-Tell me about a time you had to make tradeoffs between quality and cost.

Answer 75

Insist On The Highest Standards

Question 76

-Tell me about a time you were able to make something simpler for customers. What drove you to implement this change?

Answer 76

Invent & Simplify

Question 77

-Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.

Answer 77

Invent & Simplify

Question 78

-Tell me about a creative idea you had that was dificult to implement. What was the idea and why was it so hard to implement?

Answer 78

Invent & Simplify

Question 79

-Tell me about an out-of-the box idea you had or decision you made that had a big impact on your business.

Answer 79

Invent & Simplify

Question 80

-Tell me about the most innovative project you’ve done. Why did you think it was innovative?

Answer 80

Invent & Simplify

Question 81

-Describe a challenging problem or situation in which the usual approach was not going to work. Why were you unable to take the usual approach? What alternative approach did you take? Was it successful?

Answer 81

Invent & Simplify

Question 82

-How did you change the direction or view of a specific function or department, helping them embrace a new way of thinking? Why was a change needed?

Answer 82

Invent & Simplify

Question 83

-Tell me about a time when you enabled your team/a team member to implement a significant change or improvement. What problem were you trying to solve? How did you measure success? What was the end result/impact?

Answer 83

Invent & Simplify

Question 84

-How do you keep up with industry trends, what your competitors are doing, and best practices?

Answer 84

Learn & Be Curious

Question 85

-What is the coolest thing you’ve learned on your own that has helped you better perform your job?

Answer 85

Learn & Be Curious

Question 86

-What is a recent book you’ve read and what did you learn from it?

Answer 86

Learn & Be Curious

Question 87

-Tell me about a project that required you to learn something new.

Answer 87

Learn & Be Curious

Question 88

-Tell me about a time you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding.

Answer 88

Learn & Be Curious

Question 89

-Tell me about a time you had to make a short-term sacrifice in order to achieve a long term goal. What was the outcome?

Answer 89

Ownership

Question 90

-Tell me about a time you missed a deadline. What happened and what did you learn?

Answer 90

Ownership

Question 91

-Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation and what actions did you take? What was the outcome?

Answer 91

Ownership

Question 92

-What steps do you take to ensure projects you complete get transitioned effectively to new owners?

Answer 92

Ownership

Question 93

- How do you ensure your team stays connected to the company vision and the bigger picture?

Answer 93

Ownership

Question 94

-Give an example of when you felt a team or individual goal was in conflict with the company vision. What did you do? (Manager)

Answer 94

Ownership

Question 95

-Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Answer 95

Ownership

Question 96

-Tell me about a time when you encouraged a team member or organization to take a big risk. How did you balance the risk against existing business goals? What was the outcome? What did you learn from this situation?

Answer 96

Think Big

Question 97

-Tell me about a time when you established a vision for a team when there wasn't one. How did you gain buy-in and drive execution? What was the outcome?

Answer 97

Think Big

Question 98

-Tell me about a time when you took a calculated risk in order to achieve a big professional goal. What were the tradeoffs? What was the outcome?

Answer 98

Think Big

Question 99

-Tell me about a time you took a big risk – what was the risk, how did you decide to do it and what was the outcome?

Answer 99

Think Big

Question 100

-Tell me about a time you took a big risk and it failed. What did you learn? What would you do differently?

Answer 100

Think Big

Question 101

-Give me an example of a radical approach to a big problem you proposed. What was the problem and why did you feel it required a completely different way of thinking about it? Was your approach successful? What would you do differently?

Answer 101

Think Big

Question 102

-How do you drive adoption for your vision/ideas? How do you know how well your idea or vision has been adopted by other teams or partners? Give a specific example highlighting one of your ideas.

Answer 102

Think Big

Question 103

-Tell me about time you were working on an initiative or goal and saw an opportunity to do something much bigger than the initial focus.

Answer 103

Think Big

Question 104

-Tell me about a time you took part in making your work environment feel more inclusive. Why did you need to do it and what actions did you take?

Answer 104

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 105

-Tell me about a time when you spoke up or acted on behalf of someone less senior or influential that you. Why did you decide to do it and what was the result?

Answer 105

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 106

-Describe a time where you made a change happened that made working at your employer better for you and your colleagues? Why did you think it was needed?

Answer 106

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 107

-Tell me about a time you showed empathy for somone durining a dificult or stressful situation. How did you realise the situation they were in? What did you do? How did it turn out?

Answer 107

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 108

-Tell me about a time when you felt someone was being treated unfairly. Were you able to help?

Answer 108

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 109

-Tell me about a time you worked to create an environment where your team felt able to speak completley freely about anything. What actions did you take, what was the results (Manager)?

Answer 109

Strive To Be Earth’s Best Employer

Question 110

-Tell me about a time you worked on something that had an impact beyond your intended customer/stakeholder. How did you approach the potential impact radius of this work? How did you manage the risks.

Answer 110

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 111

-Tell me about a time you decide to change a strategy/plan/decision because you realised there were negative consequences outside of your business that you had failed to consider.

Answer 111

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 112

-Tell me about a time when you seriously considered the social responsibility element of your project/decision before moving forward. Why was that important to consider? What was the impact of that way of thinking?

Answer 112

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 113

-Tell me about a time when you considered everyone effected by your work not just your customer/client/business

Answer 113

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 114

-Tell me about a time when you had to balance achieving a key goal with environmental or societal impacts

Answer 114

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 115

-Tell me about a time when you left something better than you found it.

Answer 115

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Question 116

-Tell me about a time you influenced an organisational change to bring in new social awareness and responsibility among the teams. What activities or exercises did you employ to promote this awareness? What was the outcome for your efforts. (Manager)

Answer 116

Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility