Passing a Product Manager Interview
Some PM interview questions apply to senior roles in ENG and TPM
Many of the PM interview components apply to senior roles in engineering and program management e.g how you handle conflict, make a decision, build a product/program, use metrics, influence others.
There is a lot written about PM interviews thus here we simply summarize some scoring criteria including: analytics, product sense and leadership/behavior.
Analytics Evaluation
I conducted 100s of PM interviews and was the Analytics/Metrics PM interview bar raiser/mentor/evaluator, who determines if PMs can interview other PMs on this topic.
My go to question: You are the product manager with an idea for a new unreleased product called Shopping at Instagram. This feature allows the merchant to tag any clothes items on their photos and the end user can click on them and follow a checkout flow to buy them. Please explain to the VP of Instagram why this would be a good idea and what metrics we should goal on.
FOCUS AREA: PRODUCT RATIONALE
Product Purpose
FAIL: Overlooks the purpose of a product and jumps straight into discussing goals or metrics without rationale; connects very loosely to organization's mission e.g. I always wanted to build a shopping site in IG, let’s get that buy button under each picture of a product and measure the revenue.
PASS: Describes the purpose of a product and why it matters to goals, metrics, and trade-offs; connects the product and its purpose to key business objectives and compares to the industry/market e.g. Instagram's purpose is bringing people together and shopping for clothes is one of the core experiences how people express themselves. Our goal at IG is to maximize meaningful interactions and shopping flow would increase that metric. Competitors like tik tok have already doubled down on multiple shopping experiences.
Connects metrics and product problem/purpose/jobs to be done
FAIL: Does not connect what problem a product is solving for to metrics and measurement strategy e.g. We should measure Revenue as the KPI for this product. I would like us to nail 4M USD in the first year.
PASS: Proactively details how the most important product problems tie to the overall metrics and measurement strategy using expert knowledge e.g. We are creating meaningful connections between merchants and buyers. Buyers are struggling to get the latest fashion trends that they see on IG and are often disappointed when they fail to find the item on the merchant website. Merchants struggle to convert consumers’ intent and are forced to maintain a complex payment infrastructure that requires multiple link hops/logins. Long term our solution will measure the number of successful transactions down the purchase funnel. While short term we will measure the number of merchants that will hire us to connect their products with consumers.
Defines success
FAIL: Does not have a sense of what makes a product successful; does not develop goals or metrics to test e.g. I want us to hit the revenue so that merchants have a good experience.
PASS: Proactively defines how a product is successful to use as a starting point for building out goals and metrics e.g. Success is when merchants and IG users connect based on their shared love for products and shopping. A positive experience for both sides including learning about each other communicating, developing a brand understanding and possibly transacting. One potential success would be a merchant discovering a new customer segment they traditionally did not consider e.g. male razors purchased by women.
FOCUS AREA: GOAL SETTING
Clarifies the objectives, requirements, and definition of product success
FAIL: Defines product success in terms that are unrelated to the product, features, target users, ecosystem, and/or product stage; does not define why a product should be successful (e.g., provides a metric instead of an outcome); does not ask clarifying questions about the product
PASS: Anticipates and defines product success features in terms of target users, the ecosystem, and business objectives (e.g., data-driven, intentional design choices, privacy); proactively clarifies subtle objectives, requirements, contextual considerations, and product stage e.g.
Sets measurable goals that define product success
Insufficient: Sets general goals that are unrelated to product success and cannot be impacted by others (e.g., product adoption); goals are too broad or too narrow
PASS: Crafts goals that define product success; sets goals that are inspiring and easily actionable by multiple teams e.g. we should aim for 1M tagged items in our first 3 months with 10M revenue in the first 12 months.
Breaks larger goals down into impactful actions
FAIL: Misses opportunities to break large, general goals into actions for team use
PASS: Breaks general goals down into specific, actionable subgoals that comprehensively supports the success of the topline goal; justifies why particular goals should be prioritized e.g. while 1 M tagged 3 months items and 10 M in revenue 12 months are our top line goals we should have a number of subgoals on merchant side: number of merchants on our system, items diversity, selection, and on buyer side: clicks, add to cart, transactions, returns, target groups, repeat orders.
Sets and prioritizes goals despite ambiguity
FAIL: Waits on direction when encountering an ambiguous or ill-defined situation
PASS: Prioritizes goals in response to an ambiguous or ill-defined situation(s); efficiently fills in information gaps where needed e.g. we prioritize merchant side goals over buyer side goals because it is a two sided market and market creation on the merchant side is harder. Thus we make the hard trade off to focus our energy on getting merchants to tag items even with the short term drop in number of transactions or revenue.
FOCUS AREA: MEASURING AND MONITORING IMPACT
Identifies and monitors metrics for product goals
Insufficient: Focuses on metrics that do not apply to the goal or that focus on completely irrelevant information; does not identify/monitor metrics that other teams would be able to feasibly impact
Exceptional: Measures a series of testable data (e.g., A/B testing) or principle (e.g., privacy, quality-oriented, user empathy, intentional design choices) metrics that are related to product and business success; proactively identifies metrics that address short, medium, and long-term success as appropriate e.g. we start with tagged items by merchants and getting at least 100 merchants to participate in our beta program, we focus on ensuring diversity of items and high quality products not just fidget toys that truely create a relationship for our customers and brands.
Translates behaviors or observations to actionable metrics
Insufficient: Struggles to describe metrics that are appropriate for outlined goals or product success; may describe metrics that do not make sense or that are not actionable
Exceptional: Proactively ties observations and behaviors to measurable metrics; demonstrates a nuanced understanding of why behaviors occur and how a team can impact it e.g. we think that merchants tag items on a cyclical basis, and when they have a new collection or they have inventory they need to reduce on the other hand our users are interested in latest fashion trends and getting access to discounts. We should consider sub metrics under diversity and high quality that measure state of the art of the items or discount level.
Presents metrics in a logical manner
Insufficient: Presents metrics in isolated terms (e.g., not logical or in a framework); does not connect metrics to business objectives, product health, counter-metrics, or other factors
Exceptional: Presents a comprehensive framework of metrics that encompass the full product lifecycle and align to business objectives; provides counter-metrics for highly incentivized metrics e.g. we start with merchang/buyer side metrics divide. On the seller side we offer product tagging to the revenue funnel. On the buyer side we follow the product purchase funnel (click, add, buy, return). Counter metrics include: same product, same brands, bias in cost of quality of items, returns, repeat purchases. We also want to measure the usual metrics like DAU/MAU, Ads revenue and make sure we don’t decrease the overall Facebook experience.
Identifies metric opportunities or gaps
Insufficient: Misses opportunities to explain reasoning or context behind their solution; struggles to identify or evaluate opportunities despite repeated guidance
Exceptional: Proactively sizes attainable opportunities or gaps that are complex and ambitious; ensures opportunities and trends are feasible and are aligned with key business priorities e.g. since our long term goal is meaningful interaction between users/merchants we need to measure items like brand loyalty before and after the experience or find other proxies like revenue with a merchant.
Monitors team impact against business and partner needs
Insufficient: Struggles to describe how to monitor performance, or describes a generic and ineffective approach for doing so
Exceptional: Prioritizes evaluating varied, nuanced data or principles to understand impact and performance against core objectives and business needs
FOCUS AREA: EVALUATING TRADE-OFFS
Outlines key tradeoffs and dependencies
Insufficient: Unable to explain reasoning or context behind decisions; does not understand the consequences behind their and/or team decisions
Exceptional: Anticipates and walks through key pros/cons and considerations of their decisions on the overall product landscape; drives decisions across the organization to impact large-scale user and product outcomes (e.g., analysis or business-aligned principles)
Leverages multiple sources of information to make decisions
Insufficient: Uses irrelevant information when making decisions (e.g., considers only one source of data or point of view, makes faulty assumptions)
Exceptional: Carefully weighs the relative importance of information and perspectives to make timely and well-informed decisions (e.g., considers the relevance, quality, and context of various data)
Makes decisions without all of the information
Insufficient: Is uncomfortable making decisions without complete information; relies too much or too little on others (e.g., reluctant to ask for help, over-delegates)
Exceptional: Understands when a quick 80% solution is appropriate and comfortably makes high-quality decisions with incomplete information; considers factors beyond meeting immediate needs when seeking help e.g. while we don't have all the information on the exact Ads$ lost or impact on DAU/MAU we can launch while watching the counter metrics with a number of products that are least in competition with Ad$s.
Considers the impact of decisions
Insufficient: May be indecisive or wait too long to make decisions when presented with complexities and trade-offs
Exceptional: Comfortable with tough decisions; quickly weighs pros and cons before making decisions e.g. see the decision by traffic light section interim of how to phrase the decisions but basically we have a trade off between ads and shop revenue. We have a number of options (1. Not launch the feature, 2. Take a decrease in Ads$, 3. Focus on product areas that don't compete with Ad$ etc) and criteria to address them (Ads$ decrease, additional shops $, time to implement features, etc).
Articulates the impact of design decisions on business outcomes
Insufficient: Makes most choices with no real consideration of their differential impact on goals or project outcomes
Exceptional: Articulates the impact of decisions by proactively linking them to the most insightful and business critical success metrics e.g. increase in revenue from merchant transactions might have an impact on ads revenue that is an acceptable trade off as long as the connections with brands continue to be at the center of IG experience.
Product Sense Evaluation
My go to question: You are the product manager for Meta Travel. I’m the VP of Facebook. Please pitch me the idea.
FOCUS AREA: PRODUCT MOTIVATION AND CONTEXT
Defines product purpose
Insufficient: Overlooks the purpose of a product and jumps straight into discussing the product solution
Exceptional: Details the purpose of a product and provides detailed rationale to connect it to business and company mission and strategies e.g. Meta’s mission is to connect people and travel is one of the deepest forms of connections especially with cultures you have the least in common/experience.
Considers the relevant product landscape
Insufficient: Does not apply understanding of the relevant product landscape when defining a product goal purpose
Exceptional: Distills unique insight about the complex ecosystem and identifies strategic product opportunities; leverages expert-level knowledge to consider the product landscape when defining a product goal purpose e.g. there are multiple products in this space like Kayak, google travel and booking.com but Meta has special customer data that helps us understand suggest more relevant travel destinations based on your past history and your friends travels, which might be the strongest signal amongst them.
Understands the big picture
Insufficient: Does not understand the big picture or how internal and/or external factors impact overall product purpose and strategy
Exceptional: Understands how internal factors and the external landscape (e.g., competitor, market, economy) impact product purpose
Understands and describes product motivation and mission
Insufficient: Struggles to describe the motivation / drive behind a product, including what makes it stand out and the high-level purpose the product serves
Exceptional: Demonstrates a deep understanding of the motivation / drive behind the product and its mission; identifies a product’s unique value proposition to customers and the business e.g. travel as the core of connection between people and Meta has the necessary deep knowledge of user interests and friends to suggest and design the deepest travel experiences.
FOCUS AREA: DETERMINING TARGET AUDIENCE
Identifies and empathizes with the user base
Insufficient: Picks users randomly, or ignores other important stakeholders
Exceptional: Defines and prioritizes a user base to identify what problems to solve for; uses a systematic approach to narrow down to a general user base from a broad set of people; proactively explains why certain users were not identified e.g. there are two main sides of the market, traveler and destination host, other participants are regulators, government which we won’t focus on as we don't have any special data on them. Destination providers are in many cases small businesses which Meta is focussed on already with our Ads products and has a lot of data on. Travelers' interests and their friends are the strongest predictors when suggesting travel.
Prioritizes the target user
Insufficient: Does not focus on and prioritize problem(s)/concerns of the target audience; misses opportunities to differentiate between priority levels of users and their needs
Exceptional: Defines and prioritizes products/features that solve the problem(s) of the target audience; leverages thorough understanding of priority levels of users to properly address their needs e.g. traveler goes through following stages a. Dreaming of travel, active browsing and deciding, booking, returning home and sharing. Key problem that of dreaming of travel would maximize our company goal as one can dream travel to multiple destinations and build many more connections to the people and places compared to the actual travel that only happens a few times a year.
Defines audience rationale
Insufficient: Does not sufficiently consider or define their customer or target audience
Exceptional: Systematically describes rationale for audience identification by evaluating the target customers’ market space and relevant criteria; discusses opportunities and trade offs for going beyond the target audience e.g. Meta has the customer attention inside feed and unique information about customer interests, compared to other companies like kayak and google travel. Expending the target audience beyond dreaming of travel to booking and returning will be a natural next step after you nail the first experience.
Considers target audience's end goals
Insufficient: Does not actively work to understand the target audience's end goals and key needs; or, assumes they know target customer's end goals
Exceptional: Works to deeply understand the target audience’s goals at the onset of projects and incorporates touch points throughout work to address changes e.g. travelers end goals and to experience joy and learn about new places, be entertained and decide on new locations and destinations we might learn more about specific situations like local vs global travel, or travel hot spots like plan new holidays after initial travel.
FOCUS AREA: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Understands the problem and target users
Insufficient: Struggles to understand the problem or overlooks the problem a product is solving; does not make a connection between the audience and the problems to be solved
Exceptional: Provides clear logic and rationale when identifying, organizing and structuring the problem(s) a product is solving; suggests thoughtful products/features that solve identified concerns of target users e.g. users see pictures of Eifel tower and Bali beach but have problems visualizing themselves in exotic location, with lots of questions and concers, like where will I stay, how do I get there, what will be the weather, is it safe?
Breaks problems down into digestible pieces
Insufficient: Addresses problems broadly rather than breaking down into digestible pieces; does not adjust specialized content for different audiences
Solid: Attempts to simplify broader problems into smaller components; adjusts communication of specialized content for different audiences
Exceptional: Breaks problems down into individual, easy to understand components to drive solutions within a team; proactively adapts communication style to best match key content needs for the intended audience
Prioritizes key problems
Insufficient: Unable to prioritize which problems are most important for a product to solve (e.g., unable to explain why a product/feature should be developed or why it was developed); over focuses on a single component of a problem
Solid: Identifies insights/assumptions regarding important problems and leverages them to prioritize products/features
Exceptional: Provides rationale for which products/features should be prioritized; identifies key aspects of the most important problems to respond to dynamic product and target audience needs
Demonstrates comfort making decisions without the full picture
Insufficient: Delays moving forward until all relevant details and context are known; is not comfortable making decisions without full picture
Solid: Demonstrates comfort making decisions without the full picture; leverages known details and context to inform decision-making
Exceptional: Thrives in situations requires making decisions and acting without the full picture; effectively manages the associated risk
FOCUS AREA: SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT
Develops a working solution that addresses key aspects of the problem
Insufficient: Designs a solution that does adequately address the problem (e.g., product and features are too complex or already exist in other products)
Solid: Identifies an appropriate solution and aligns it into a product system that addresses core parts of the identified problem
Exceptional: Creatively and sustainably incorporates the prioritized product(s)/feature(s) into a solution(s) that drives value
Considers the broader landscape to inform solutions
Insufficient: Does not explain reasoning or context behind their solutions; lacks big-picture thinking
Solid: Provides acceptable explanations for conclusions while considering real-world practicality of solutions
Exceptional: Leverages given information and own expertise / experience to make thoughtful solutions; looks beyond obvious or surface answers
Accounts for scalability to growing user base
Insufficient: Creates a design considering only a small scale of users
Solid: Considers how solutions may be scaled to the target audience and identifies potential scaling issues
Exceptional: Proactively identifies a scalable design across a wide range of users
Designs with the user base and problem in mind
Insufficient: Makes choices that do not reflect how the solution may provide value to users or address the problem; struggles to describe how the end user might react to the product
Solid: Infers sensible design considerations based on previously identified target audience and user problems
Exceptional: Incorporates insights for how features come together to make a viable and valuable product for the users; leverages deep understanding of how the end user might react to the product when designing a solution
Leadership Evaluation
Depending on the company and the level you are applying, leadership/behavior interviews can be an important part of the full package. I normally prepare around 3 stories per category (100s of stories total), while the behaviors for each role like ENG, or TPM might differ, the methodology is the same.
FOCUS AREA: DRIVING RESOURCEFULNESS AND RESULTS
Balances action and analysis to complete tasks
Insufficient: Unable to balance competing objectives or becomes overwhelmed with multiple tasks; may overanalyze tasks without taking action (or vice versa)
Solid: Demonstrates effective methods for organizing and prioritizing tasks; balances taking action and analyzing the situation
Exceptional: Creates a clear plan or strategy to carry out projects and meet commitments; navigates the complexities of a task using expert-level judgment to take a well-informed and decisive action
Delivers high-quality and sustainable results
Insufficient: Does not push hard for results or may give up easily without considering various approaches; misses opportunities for connecting how results could be improved in the future
Solid: Delivers results that meet objectives; offers suggestions for how results could be improved in the future
Exceptional: Energized by driving self and others to meet and exceed goals; considers and defines various strategies to reach high-quality results; creates impactful improvements for the future e.g.
T: Two other PMs failed to succeed to build the product. Our product forms better than Google ReCaptcha v3.
S: Shortly after joining CF in charge of ML Product. I was charged in leading the Bot Man project that was unsuccessfully attempted in 2017 and 2018.
A: Clearly defined the use cases and broke down the problem into manageable chunks to energize the engineering team. In particular, credit stuffing is different from scraping, hoarding, and fraud. Identifying automated traffic is different opposed to solving good vs bad bots.
R: Google has infinite resources, data and machine learning experts. They have been developing their ReCaptcha solution for many years, currently operating in v3. Our solution was superior to theirs (we can catch 8x more true positives and closed +$1m of ACV.)"
Rallies others to complete work
Insufficient: Progresses through projects without clearly engaging and communicating with others
Solid: Communicates with immediate team members around purpose and importance of the project, information/resource needs, and key decisions
Exceptional: Proactively communicates across teams to align on information / resource needs, key decisions, and project progress e.g.
T: After initial customer interviews I identified a hidden need that lead to +$1M in revenue.
S: We provide cyber risk scoring for businesses and their vendors. Most companies don't know their vendors (Shadow IT).
A:
Option 1: Ask customers to provide a vendors list
Option 2: Interviewed customers to establish market need. Interviewed industry experts to assess feasibility. Gained CEO support and Eng funding. Built prototype to find vendor list automatically, lead contractor team. Launched product from 0 to 100 in 6 months.
R: Out performed our competitor by launching before them and forcing them to announce a non existent product. Sold to insurance, hedge funds. Increased our revenue. Purple cow in meetings with customers."
Articulates resource needs
Insufficient: Has difficulty communicating resources needs in a clear or concise manner
Solid: Articulates resource needs concisely and clearly to help reach desired results
Exceptional: Communicates resource needs in a clear, concise, and compelling manner; articulates complex information or conflicting views in an easy-to-digest way
FOCUS AREA: GROWING CONTINUOUSLY
Demonstrates self awareness and interest in continued development
Insufficient: Does not express interest in learning or development; fails to recognize areas for their own continued development; offers surface-level or superficial areas for development or overestimates their own capabilities
Solid: Demonstrates interest in learning new skills and expanding their capabilities; recognizes their primary strengths and major areas for improvement
Exceptional: Demonstrates passion for continuous learning and development; proactive to learn and incorporate new skills into their work; keenly aware of their own strengths and development areas e.g.
T: Received feedback to do more loud listening
S: Tend to interrupt people
A: Use KPIs to measure my improvement. Introduced 3sec pauses after someone stopped speaking, use summaries to measure if someone tells me I summarized it better than them.
R: Recognition from piers to be an attentive listener
Supports the development of others
Insufficient: Does not express interest in helping others develop and reach their goals
Solid: Provides encouragement and expresses support toward helping others reach their goals
Exceptional: Identifies development opportunities for others and expresses sincere commitment toward helping others reach their goals; creates opportunities for cross-functional learning and development e.g.
T: Mentored our designer from low performer to star.
S: A junior designer started with little scope and performance doubts because she had no ownership and didn't drive things to impact.
A: I gave her clear mid cycle feedback, positioned her to succeed on important projects, and coached her to communicate impact.
R: She became a star performer, got promoted and moved on to a cool new team in Shopping. Helped me with my promotion.
Seeks feedback to avoid missing out on learning moments
Insufficient: Does not seek out or express openness to feedback from others; may react defensively to constructive feedback
Solid: Seeks feedback from others and applies learned insights to new situations
Exceptional: Reflects on critical learning moments; applies lessons learned to new situations; models best practices with regard to feedback (e.g., invites feedback from team members)
Energized by working towards challenging goals
Insufficient: Does not enjoy working towards challenging project goals and may prefer to commit to easily-attainable solutions
Solid: Enjoys challenging work and is not deterred from setting stretch goals, though prefers to commit to achievable goals as opposed to very stretch objectives
Exceptional: Highly energized by working towards challenging objectives and enjoys setting stretch goals for self
Applies lessons learned from past situations to new situations
Insufficient: Struggles to learn in new situations; does not consider previous lessons learned or demonstrate that they evolve their approaches
Solid: Applies insights learned from past situations to new and different situations
Exceptional: Extracts lessons learned from previous successes and failures; is quick to apply those insights to novel situations e.g.
T: Turned round team over the course of 6 months
S: Team had unhappy customers because of DevX
A: Worked with Design and EM to common strategy, presented to XFN and customers, quantified the customer pain points with UXR and DS Metrics. Escalated to leadership to add to performance evaluation. Culture change, Dogfooding.
R: Turned round the ship to 40% of investments are now DevX focussed. Customers are willing to take on aggressive goals. Agreed on common metrics and reviewed with ENG and leadership on a regular basis. Biggest improvement in metric history 75% to 150% NSAT
FOCUS AREA: RESOLVING CONFLICT
Facilitates open communication to resolve conflict
Insufficient: Avoids conflict or addresses it with a narrow scope; overlooks chances to seek out differing views and does not promote open dialogue
Solid: Remains open to hearing differing points of view besides own; facilitates open dialogue with individuals involved
Exceptional: Fosters open discussion by encouraging differing perspectives; facilitates productive group discussions by bringing in the right people to gain support
Manages emotions during conflict
Insufficient: May be quick to react, noticeably tense, or frustrated when faced with conflict; may react defensively or impatiently during disagreements
Solid: Remains calm and sensible during conflict or challenging situations
Exceptional: Tactfully acknowledges and addresses unproductive dialogue; remains composed when faced with conflict and pivots conversation away from emotions and towards practical solutions
Views conflict as opportunities
Insufficient: Avoids conflicts, or struggles to productively address disagreement; does not identify or remains passive during conflicts
Solid: Views conflict as an opportunity to explore options and build enhanced solutions
Exceptional: Welcomes and frames disagreements as opportunities for enhanced solutions; encourages others to see the potential value in conflicts as well
Seeks to find common ground to build agreement
Insufficient: May seek to “win” arguments rather than find areas of agreement; does not help build consensus; may overly focus on their point-of-view
Solid: Looks for common areas of agreement to help build consensus
Exceptional: Proactively leverages relationships and multiple perspectives to find and build common ground e.g.
T: Huge conflict with new EM.
S: New EM joins the team of 7 but used to manage 400 ENG (Brings big ambition for a small team). My strategy to merge the team with 17 other teams with the same scope.
A:
Option 1: Avoid working with her and move to other projects.
Option 2: Find a common goal and metric, DevX and unite against a common problem/enemy.
Option 3: Let her drive the strategy for 6 months. Reveluated progress, escalated to leadership when strategy fails.
R: People remember how you made them feel. Best relationship, strong feedback, building a team together, she doesn't want to leave. Going through lots of difficult times and team members leaving united us.
Uses appropriate information/data to approach resolution
Insufficient: Overly relies on others' input to resolve issues without seeking information or data to build their own understanding
Solid: Draws on own experiences available information to arrive at a solution; incorporates others' input when offered and appropriate
Exceptional: Curates information and data using expert-level knowledge to come to a resolution; weighs pros and cons effectively and considers implications with others when working towards resolution e.g.
T: Used data to prove that our #1 security product of the company is random.
S: Old security feature on 20M domains blocks attacks based on IPs. I wanted to see how our new product was doing. Problem is that unless you take action you don't know your false negatives.
A:
Option1: Block based on new feature
Option2: Used the Old feature: IP blocking and showed that it is randomly distributed across the new feature.
R: Proving that our new feature performs very well. Hard conversation with the senior engineer that designed the original old feature, but gained respect for using data to make my point.
Respects and empathizes with others
Insufficient: Speaks about others in a disrespectful manner; misses opportunities to empathize with the needs and perspectives of others
Solid: Shows respect for others’ who challenged or disagreed with them; demonstrates empathy for others’ needs and perspectives
Exceptional: Models an empathetic, respectful demeanor even under notably challenging circumstances; proactively ensures the needs and perspectives of others are addressed
FOCUS AREA: TAKING OWNERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Takes ownership/accountability for setbacks/mistakes
Insufficient: Fails to take ownership for work-related setbacks or mistakes (and subsequent consequences); may shift responsibility of setbacks or mistakes to others
Solid: Takes ownership for work-related setbacks or mistakes (and subsequent consequences); does not blame others for mistakes
Exceptional: Demonstrates determination and takes accountability for themselves and others in the face of obstacles; proactively works to ensure setbacks or mistakes are not repeated
Anticipates obstacles and barriers
Insufficient: Accepts barriers and misses opportunities to address or anticipate barriers
Solid: Anticipates obstacles and is consistently prepared with appropriate contingency plans
Exceptional: Proactively addresses obstacles with prepared alternative plans; consistently overcomes obstacles and removes barriers for both self and others to complete work e.g.
T: Identify most valuable information and estimate possible revenue without Code
S: Limited engineering resources of a startup. Unclear customer needs.
A: Design and create multivariate testing of insurance reports with real numbers manually entered
R: Clear customer commitment of 1000$ per report with detailed data breakdown and visualization for the engineering team to implement.
Displays a commitment to work
Insufficient: Has trouble meeting project deadlines with work that is up to quality standards
Solid: Demonstrates a commitment to work by ensuring that completion of work is accurate and timely
Exceptional: Exemplifies commitment to work to others/the team by proactively completing high-quality and timely deliverables
Accomplishes objectives despite ambiguity
Insufficient: Waits on direction when encountering an ambiguous problem instead of reviewing resources to determine next steps
Solid: Readily adapts when encountering an ambiguous situation by reviewing information and data to make decisions and accomplish project goals
Exceptional: Proactively fills in information gaps by using expert judgment to review information and data; gives support to others to guide them through the ambiguous situation to ensure project objectives are met e.g.
T: Delivered a feature in 1/10 of the time because my leadership promised the deadline.
S: Leadership promised a product to a customer for a multi million dollar deal that subsequently was undeliverable by him.
A:
Option 1: Refuse to work on it
Option 2: Deliver the feature with the original timeline and fail on leadership promise
Option 3: Rethink the product, removing complexity and unnecessary features like login, thus security/privacy assessment.
R: launched fastest Company Product in only 4 month
To make it easier across companies with different leadership and behavioral metrics. I create a table mapping them and grouping them against my existing stories:
