Judgment Flashcards
Describe a situation which you were under pressure to make a decision or choice that was not right or appropriate.
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
“Situation: We were under contract on a dream house in a great location with great schools that was on 12 acres BUT through 4 different inspections (because we aren’t experts) the inspectors found it had some significant issues.
Task: Knowing which issues we should demand the owners take care of or those that we would inherit was stressful.
Action: We enlisted the help of a realtor to guide us through the decision making. Many ““normal wear and tear”” issues come with a house and property but we were dealing with termites in the barn, pool that was near end of life for many components, roofing slope issues, septic that was very old and couldn’t be found, etc. These were major issues but we needed to be able to understand how big of a deal some of these issues were. And if asked, would be willing to take money off the purchase of the house to cover them? So I came up with estimates of the major issues of what it would cost to fix each issue (with a low and a high estimate).
Result: My wife and I ended up using the estimates and input from our realtor to decide ahead of the final negitation how flexibile and what adjustments we were willing to take.
Lesson: ask for help from experts. Stand ground if its within your power to do so.”
What are some examples of important types of decisions or recommendations you are called upon to make in your past/present position?
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
Testing Tool. FMCSA compliance of our primary product. Client Account Management dispositin.
What would you do if one of your employees complained that one of her coworkers was sexually harassing her?
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
1) Inform supervisor. 2) Review HR procedure. 3) Meet with revelant people to verify information and discuss next steps. 4) Take appropriate actions. 5) Follow up when all is complete. 6) Inform supervisor.
Have you had to manage a personnel situation that had a potential legal impact? Please describe what your role was and what you learned from it.
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
“Situation: Contractor hired to oversee deliverables different company/vendor. Deliverables on schedule at first. Slowed to the point where asking for updates, trying to get staff onsite, and trying to hold people accountable failed to get the deliverables over the finish line.
Task: At 11 months overdue, I noticed contractor wasn’t paying other company/vendor for work I had signed off on. Raised suspicion.
Action: I notified my supervisor and performed analysis to account for the entire payment history of the program. I then presented this information to my supervisor and we came up with a plan of addressing the situation: I would direct the program manager to make payment to the company/vendor up to 69% of deliverables being satisifed.
Result: That caused the program manager to send a letter to the company/vendor about quality issues with the deliverables. We ended up having to enlist our legal counsel to pursue legal actions against the program manager who in the end owed us (or their company/vendor) $36k. My role was to oversee the program manager’s deliverables thus I was responsible to wind down the program with that individual, ensure we recovered as much money as we could, pursue legal action by working with legal, log a complaint with BBB, and keep all parties (including supervisor) updated on all developments and progress.
Learned: you have to track and manage all plans, tasks, assets, and financials against a baseline and be able to explain differences no matter how small they may be. I learned to trust my experience (i.e. gut) that if something seemed off, it was worth investigating early. Problems are not like wine: they don’t get better with time.”
Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
””””"”Situation: Our QA cycle happens about once every three months and is very time consuming.
Task: Despite previous QA cycles taking 5 or 6 weeks, management had stated they wanted it all completed in 3 weeks this time.
Action: So to figure out what was actually achieveable in 3 weeks, I decided to download the timecards from the team for the last cycle, I looked at how many cases we did during that time, and divided to get how many test cases we get per hour of work. With the team’s forcasted ability, I was projecting that if we tested every test case on every configuration (of device) it would take 9 weeks. We could hit 3 weeks if we limited to 1800 test cases which meant management had to make decisions about which configurations to target (risk vs. reward). I put all the informatin in a spreadsheet and walked management through the data and decision points. Management then decided on Android Tablet and random iOS devices.
Result: I took the QA team through the same data so they knew what information management was making a decision from and then also revealed to them the decision about targeting Android Tablet and ramdom iOS devices.
Lesson: It’s easy to get buy in when you do analysis, show your work, present options and then share management decisions.”””””
Tell me about a difficult decision you’ve made in the last year.
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
Describe a time when you set your sights too high (or too low).
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
“Situation: QA was taking 5 or 6 weeks and trending up. We had 5 part-time testers.
Task: In September, I was told we needed to hire 30 part-time college students by November so that we could “crush” the QA time and bring it down. I was thinking we should just hire 5 more testers (100% growth) and slowly grow the team.
Action: I created a job posting. I changed the name of the title and listed the job twice (in case people were scared off by QA Analyst vs. Software Tester). I worked with our graphics team to come up with a flier that was catchy, had tear off tabs that contained a URL to the job listing. I meet with the dean at a local college (TriCounty) and he posted the flier in the IT wing. Some of my part time workers took the flier to the college campus they were on. I worked with our marketing manager to come up with facebook and google ad word campaigns. I then created a 3 step process and reviewed it with my team lead. 1) Resume review, 2) Phone screen, & 3) onsite interview.
Result: We started with 5 and got up to 18 by the end of Nov and 23 by the end of December. Currently we are at 26 and should be at 30 by end of Jan.
Lesson: Hiring 30 quality candidates quickly necessitated a multifaceted effort through a controlled process and the goal of 30 was a bit too high but if we had an easier goal, we probably wouldn’t have been as creative or formal in our process.”
What was your most difficult decision in the last 6 months? What made it difficult?
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
We were under contract on a dream house in a great location with great schools that was on 12 acres BUT through 4 different inspections (because we aren’t experts) the inspectors found it had some significant issues. Knowing which issues we should demand the owners take care of or those that we would inherit was stressful. We enlisted the help of a realtor to guide us through the decision making. Many “normal wear and tear” issues come with a house and property but we were dealing with termites in the barn, pool that was near end of life for many components, roofing slope issues, septic that was very old and couldn’t be found, etc. These were major issues but we needed to be able to understand how big of a deal some of these issues were. And if asked, would be willing to take money off the purchase of the house to cover them? So I came up with estimates of the major issues of what it would cost to fix each issue (with a low and a high estimate). My wife and I ended up using the estimates and input from our realtor to decide ahead of the final negitation how flexibile and what adjustments we were willing to take.
What kind of decisions do you make rapidly? What kind takes more time? Give examples.
Judgment. To discern what is appropriate, practical, and realistic in a given situation; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
When the risk or consequenes are small and consensus is shared, the decision is fast. When risk or consequences are medium to high and consensus isn’t achieved, then analsys and research or input is needed.
