206. Interview prep 🙋🏿

The question bank I use to create interview templates for my teams

Feb 16, 2021

Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. You can click the heart button 💙 above or below to share some love. And you can reach out to me anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Links that are worth your time:

How to set diversity OKRs that make a real difference, Part One
Diversity OKRs, Part Two
Further proof that paid ads aren’t the only way to grow: Netflix ranked fifth in ad spend among streaming competitors in 2020

”Behind-the-newsletter” interview with Delia Cai who writes one of my favorite curated roundups, Deez Links

At Polly, we’ve been talking recently about this Twitter thread re: company culture …

Andrew Chen @andrewchen

👇Thread. The Head/Heart/Hands framework - or in emoji form, 👩/❤️/✋- for company cultures and personalities at work. The idea is that every work culture can be described as a pie chart of these three factors. (credit to my friends/coworkers at Uber who first described to me)

Hi there 👋

My first days at Polly have been full of hiring, go-to-market planning, and marketing strategy. I’ll be sure to share lots more on the latter two pieces in coming weeks — including the marketing strategy template I use to keep things on track. But in this newsletter, I’m happy to share a resource that I’ve used time and again on the hiring front: all my favorite interview questions. Hope it comes in handy for anyone who’s building out a team or looking to get hired somewhere new.

Wishing you a great week,
Kevan

My 27 go-to interview questions

Full list available here in Notion. Feel free to copy. ✌️

Whenever I have the privilege of hiring new teammates, I try to be as thoughtful, fair, and organized as can be. (Usually “organized” is the first attribute to go out the window.)

I want every candidate’s experience to be similar.

I want to remove as much of my own bias as can be.

And I found that one of the best ways to do this is to be prepared for each interview with

A list of questions, ideally the same ones you ask of each and every candidate
A sense for what you’re looking for with each question (“why am I asking this?”)
A framework for ideal answers and pause answers, so I’m not just going with my gut

Less gut, more planning. 😉

To help me make progress toward these three goals, I’ve spent the past few years jotting down my favorite interview questions. They are all here in Notion, and you’re welcome to have them.

In addition to the questions themselves, if you scroll further down the page, you’ll see:

What it tells you — A section explaining the “why” behind the question

Ideal answer & pause answer — A hopefully more objective way of measuring a candidate’s response to the question

Big thank yous to my friends at Buffer who helped me be a better interviewer and hiring manager. I still have a long way to go, so any advice or feedback is very welcome. Hopefully this Notion doc is a good start, and hopefully it may be helpful to you and your next hires!

About this newsletter …

Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙

About Kevan

I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Polly (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer and Vox.