The Most Effective Video Interview Structure: The Interview Part III with John Driscoll of Naked Development

Key Points for Episode:

Timeline for Video Interviews - 72 hours 

1- 45 minutes 

2- 45 minutes

3- 45 minutes

4- 45 - 60 minutes

Decision  - 24 hours from Final Interview 

You must have your questions pre-written and assigned to the individual Interviewer

Questions designed to gain evidence of cultural alignment

** DO NOT just pick random behavioral questions! 

They must have purpose and be tied to your company values!

Behavioral Questions

Follow up each question with the “How & What”

The purpose of each interview is to get to the “truth” of who this person is and how they align with company core values. Our goal with each question is to find hard evidence one way or the other. Past performance is a key indicator of future performance. We are going granular to understand the core of who this person is to fill your gut with accurate information to make the correct decision. 

The Behavioral Interview: The simplest way to learn the behavioral model is to use STAR methodology. Let each interviewee outline the Situation & Task first. This is just the background of the story that you need to know to make the story make sense. Clear context! Look for difficulty, complexity or size of the challenge. What was the person trying to accomplish and why?

Approach: This is where we focus on the actions taken to address the issue, complete a task, solve a problem or improve the situation. We focus on the WHY here! 

Focus in on this area the most and poke holes in the answers. 

Each answer needs to be tested and must be followed up with why.

Look for Key details and explore them! 

Why did you take that approach? 

Why was that important?

Why did that work?

Results: What is the positive outcome for the story? What were the issues? Where did they fail? We are looking for tangible, supported evidence. 

Video Interviews (Same Day Ideal) 

Ideal to line up back to back

Schedule back to back or split them up 2/2 or 3/1

Build a knockout question for each interviewer

Interview 1 - Cultural Value Alignment I

Interview 2 - Skills Screen 

Live working session to evaluate skills/communication

Interview 3 - Cultural Value Alignment II (optional) 24 hours from interview 2

Final Interview - Cultural Confirmation III & Offer preparation (Decision Maker)  

Decision / Offer (24 hours max)

Best to give immediate feedback

Time kills hires, be decisive

Role Play

Interview Questions

Walk me through the steps you took to prepare for your last project / client presentation (preparation)

What made those steps the most efficient?

How did you do it specifically?

Timeline set?

Potential Challenges identified and how were they prioritized for consideration?

What were the things you missed?

What was the result?

Why was this important to you?

**Give me an example of something you tried that failed miserably (keep light & fun)

(innovate without fear)

What were the circumstances that justified the risk

How was it implemented?

What was the potential upside if it worked? 

What was missing?

What would you have done differently? 

Why did it fail?

What did you learn?

Tell me about a time when it was necessary to admit to others that you had made a mistake. (accountability)

What was the specific mistake

How did you identify the mistake?

How did you handle it? 

Why did you choose that particular approach?

What was the lesson learned?  

What did you do differently going forward? 

Tell me about the last project you worked on where you were major time constraints  (own it/quality effort)

What steps did you take to ensure quality?

What  shortcuts were taken?

What mistakes were made

How did the client receive the work?