Interview Q's

Question 1

Tell me about a decision for which data and analysis weren’t sufficient to provide the right course and you had to rely on your judgment and instincts. Give me two to three examples. They don’t have to be big strategic decisions – could be big or small.

Answer 1

Are Right a Lot

1. Mining example
2. Price gouging

Question 2

Tell me about a time you made a difficult decision and how you knew it was the right solution (probe on how they evaluated the options, if they received input, what data they reviewed, etc.)

Answer 2

Are Right a Lot

1. Price Gouging
2. Live Plants
3. MAW audit package

Question 3

Give me an example of when you have 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 3

Are Right a Lot

1. Price gouging
2. SMB

Question 4

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 4

Are Right a Lot

1. SFP GVS

Question 5

Tell me about a time when you have been 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). How did you decide the best way forward?

Answer 5

Are Right a Lot

1. SMB
2. MAW audit package

Question 6

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

Answer 6

Are Right a Lot

1. SFP GVS
   2.

Question 7

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 7

Bias for Action

1. SMB
   2.

Question 8

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 8

Bias for Action

1. Live Plants
2. SMB

Question 9

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 9

Bias for Action

1. Price Gouging
2. World Cup

Question 10

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 10

Bias for Action

1. SMB
2. World Cup

Question 11

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 11

Bias for Action

1. SMB
2. MAW audit package

Question 12

Give me an example of a time you used customer feedback to drive improvement or innovation. What was the situation and what action did you take?

Answer 12

Customer Obsession

1. Mining Example
2. World Cup

Question 13

Give me an example of your most difficult customer interaction and how you worked through it. What was the outcome?

Answer 13

Customer Obsession

1. MAW NY
2. Mining Example

Question 14

Tell me about a time a customer wanted one thing, but you felt they needed something else. How did you approach the situation, what were your actions and what was the end result?

Answer 14

Customer Obsession

1. MAW Cyber
   2.

Question 15

Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty for a customer. Why did you take the action you did? What was the outcome?

Answer 15

Customer Obsession

1. Mining example
2. MAW Cyber

Question 16

Most of us at one time or another have felt frustrated or impatient when dealing with customers. Can you tell us about a time when you felt this way and how you dealt with it? When do you think it’s appropriate to push back or say no to an unreasonable customer request?

Answer 16

Customer Obsession

1. SMB
2. Tchibo

Question 17

Can you give me an example of when you’ve been able to see around the corner to meet a customer need or delight a customer with a solution or product they didn’t yet know they needed/wanted?

Answer 17

Customer Obsession

1. World cup
2. Mining example

Question 18

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 18

Customer Obsession

1. World Cup
2. SMB

Question 19

Tell me about a time when you had to balance the needs of the customer vs. the needs of the business. How did you manage this situation?

Answer 19

Customer Obsession

1. Tchibo
   2.

Question 20

Tell me about a time you were driving toward a goal and were more than half way to the objective when you realized it may not be the best or right goal or may have unintended consequences. What was the situation and what did you do? [testing for achieving the right result versus driving goal for sake of goal achievement. May want follow up questions regarding to determine if the person was willing to take hit on goal attainment to achieve the right result and test long term versus short term thinking.]

Answer 20

Deliver Results

1. SMB
2. Tchibo

Question 21

Tell me about a goal that you set that took a long time to achieve or that you are still working towards. How do you keep focused on the goal given the other priorities you have?

Answer 21

Deliver Results

1. SMB
2. SFP GVS

Question 22

Tell me about a time where you not only met a goal but considerably exceeded expectations. How were you able to do it? What challenges did you have to overcome?

Answer 22

Deliver Results

1. SMB
2. Mining example

Question 23

Give me an example of a time when you were able to deliver an important project under a tight deadline. What sacrifices did you have to make to meet the deadline? How did they impact the final deliverables?

Answer 23

Deliver Results

1. SMB
2. SFP GVS

Question 24

Tell me about a time you had significant, unanticipated obstacles to overcome in achieving a key goal. Were you eventually successful?

Answer 24

Deliver Results

1. Live Plants
2. SMB
3. Sports categorization cleanup

Question 25

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 information proved most valuable? How did you use that information to help solve the problem?

Answer 25

Dive Deep 1. Cologne attacks

Question 26

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 26

Dive Deep 1. Cologne attacks

Question 27

Tell me about a time when you linked two or more problems together and identified an underlying issue? Were you able to find a solution?

Answer 27

Dive Deep 1. Cologne attacks

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Dive Deep 1. Sports Categorization 2.

Question 29

Can you tell me about a specific metric you have used to identify a need for a change in your department? Did you create the metric or was it already available? How did this and other information influence the change?

Answer 29

Dive Deep 1. SFP 2. Sports categorization

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 1. Cologne attacks

Question 31

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 31

Earn Trust 1. SMB - Low morale for team

Question 32

What three things you are you working on to improve your overall effectiveness?

Answer 32

Earn Trust 1. Guard my time preciously and be very clear on prioritization. Example: Dealing with SeSu and Retail requests. 2. Influencing - Learning from the training and learning by doing. 3. Asking a lot of questions at the beginning - e.g. Price gouging

Question 33

Give an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received. What was it and what did you do about it?

Answer 33

Earn Trust 1. SFP GVS 2. SMB

Question 34

Give me an example of an idea you had that was strongly opposed. Why was there so much resistance? How did you handle the negative feedback?

Answer 34

Earn Trust 1. Live Plants 2. Tchibo

Question 35

Give me an example of a significant professional failure. What led you to making the wrong decision? What did you learn from this situation?

Answer 35

Earn Trust 1. SFP GVS 2. MAW NY - CEO listening in

Question 36

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 36

Earn Trust 1. Live Plants

Question 37

Building trust can be difficult to achieve at times. Tell me about how you have effectively built trusting working relationships with others on your team.

Answer 37

Earn Trust 1. SMB 2. SFP GVS

Question 38

Describe a time when you needed the cooperation of a peer who was resistant. What did you do? What was the outcome?

Answer 38

Earn Trust 1. Sports Categorization Cleanup 2. World Cup

Question 39

Tell me about a piece of direct feedback you recently gave to a colleague. How did s/he respond? How do you like to receive feedback from others?

Answer 39

Earn Trust 1. SMB - picture quality

Question 40

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 40

Earn Trust 1. SMB 2. Live Plants

Question 41

Give me an example of how you have helped save costs or eliminate waste within your operation.

Answer 41

Frugality 1. Mining example 2.

Question 42

Tell me about a time when you had to make tradeoffs between quality and cost. How did you weigh the options? What was the result?

Answer 42

Frugality 1. SMB

Question 43

Tell me about a time you had to get something done with half or two thirds of the resources you thought you’d need for the project or initiative.

Answer 43

Frugality 1. SMB

Question 44

Tell me about a time when you generated a creative solution to a problem or project without requiring additional resources. What was the problem? What was the solution and how did you come up with it?

Answer 44

Frugality 1. SMB

Question 45

Tell me about a time you didn’t have enough resources to do something you felt was important but found a creative way to get it done anyway. What drove you to seek out creative solutions?

Answer 45

Frugality 1. SMB

Question 46

Give an example of 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 46

Frugality 1. SMB

Question 47

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 47

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Tchibo

Question 48

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 48

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Tchibo

Question 49

When do you decide to go along with the group decision even if you disagree? 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 49

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Tchibo

Question 50

Describe a time where you felt really strongly about something but ultimately lost the argument. How hard did you press the issue? What was your approach after you lost the argument?

Answer 50

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Tchibo

Question 51

Give an example when you submitted a good idea to your manager and he/she did not take action on it? How did you handle it? What was the end outcome?

Answer 51

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Live Plants "I feel there are two parts to this question. One is being able to show backbone and defend your idea, but I also think a large portion of it is showing bias for action. One example I am thinking of is where I had a great idea, but my manager didn't take action, more because I think she was overloaded rather than against the idea...."

Question 52

Tell me about 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 52

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. MAW Cyber package 2. Mining example

Question 53

Provide an example of a time when you have had to make a difficult decision under pressure and then defend and justify it. Was it the right decision?

Answer 53

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 1. Price Gouging 2. Tchibo "I feel there are two parts to this question. One is being able to show backbone and defend your idea, but I also think another side of the question it is showing bias for action. One example I am thinking of is where I was under pressure to make a decision where there wasn't great information available, but I felt a quick decision was more important than further deep dive..."

Question 54

Give me an example of one of the best hires of your career. How did this person progress through their career? What did you identify during the hiring process that drove his or her success?

Answer 54

Hire and Develop the Best 1. SMB

Question 55

Tell me how you help your team members develop their careers. Can you give me two to three examples of specific people in whom invested and how you helped them develop their careers including one who wasn’t being successful but you saw potential and chose to invest?

Answer 55

Hire and Develop the Best 1. SMB

Question 56

Give me an example of a time you have provided feedback to develop and leverage the strengths of someone on your team. Were you able to positively impact that person’s performance? What were your most effective methods?

Answer 56

Hire and Develop the Best 1. SMB

Question 57

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

Answer 57

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. Sports Categorization 2. Mining example

Question 58

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

Answer 58

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. Sports categorization

Question 59

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

Answer 59

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. SMB

Question 60

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

Answer 60

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. SFP 2. SMB 3. Mining example

Question 61

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 61

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. SFP

Question 62

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

Answer 62

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. Live Plants 2. Mining example 3. MAW Cyber

Question 63

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 63

Insist on the Highest Standards 1. SMB 2. Sports Categorization

Question 64

Tell me about the most innovative thing you’ve done and why you thought it was innovative (can also probe with: That sounds more evolutionary than revolutionary – tell me about something you’ve done you feel was truly revolutionary? Ask for one or two additional examples to see if it’s a one off or pattern.)

Answer 64

Invent and Simplify 1. SMB 2. Mining example

Question 65

People often say the simplest solution is the best. Tell me about a particular complex problem you solved with a simple solution

Answer 65

Invent and Simplify 1. SMB 2. World Cup

Question 66

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

Answer 66

Invent and Simplify 1. Live Plants

Question 67

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 67

Invent and Simplify 1. Live Plants

Question 68

Give an example of a creative idea you had that proved really difficult to implement. What was the idea and what made it difficult to implement? Was it successful?

Answer 68

Invent and Simplify 1. Live Plants

Question 69

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

Answer 69

Invent and Simplify 1. Mining example 2. MAW Cyber

Question 70

Give me an example of how you have changed the direction or view of a specific function/department and helped them embrace a new way of thinking? Why was a change needed?

Answer 70

Invent and Simplify 1. Mining example

Question 71

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

Answer 71

Learn and Be Curious 1. Cologne attacks

Question 72

Tell me about a time when you realized you needed to have a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well?

Answer 72

Learn and Be Curious 1. Cologne attacks 2. Mining example

Question 73

When we enter into a new role or problem space, it is common to come in and see things with a fresh perspective. Tell me about a time when you realized that you might have lost that fresh perspective? What ended up happening?

Answer 73

Learn and Be Curious 1. SMB

Question 74

Tell me of a time when you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding?

Answer 74

Learn and Be Curious 1. Mining example 2. SMB

Question 75

Tell me about a time when you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem?

Answer 75

Learn and Be Curious 1. Sports categorization 2. Mining example

Question 76

Example of a time when you pushed the existing boundaries beyond what was normal and expected for your space and you explored new territory?

Answer 76

Learn and Be Curious 1. Mining example 2. SMB

Question 77

How have you kept up to date with market and competitor trends, and used that information to improve your company’s products / services?

Answer 77

Learn and Be Curious 1.

Question 78

Give me an example of a time when you challenged the notion that something had to be done a certain way because it had always been done that way?

Answer 78

Learn and Be Curious 1. Sports categorization 2. Mining example

Question 79

What are you working on to improve your overall effectiveness at work?

Answer 79

Learn and Be Curious 1. Elev8

Question 80

Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility. Why was it important? What was the outcome?

Answer 80

Ownership 1. Mining example 2. SMB

Question 81

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 81

Ownership 1. SMB

Question 82

Tell me about a time you made a hard decision to sacrifice short term gain for a longer term goal.

Answer 82

Ownership 1. SFP GVS 2. Tchibo

Question 83

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 83

Ownership 1. SFP GVS

Question 84

What steps do you take to ensure projects you complete get transitioned effectively to new owners? Give an example where you elected to re-engage on a project that you had already transitioned to someone else. What was the situation and why did you feel it was important to re-engage?

Answer 84

Ownership 1. SMB 2. Live Plants

Question 85

Give me an example of a radical approach to a 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?

Answer 85

Think Big 1. Live Plants

Question 86

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 86

Think Big 1. MAW Cyber

Question 87

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 87

Think Big 1. Mining example

Question 88

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 88

Think Big 1. Price Gouging

Question 89

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 89

Think Big 1. SMB

Question 90

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

Answer 90

Think Big 1. World cup