I was working with a client recently, and one of the managers declared, “What we really need are a bunch of innovators. All of our open reqs–let’s hire some innovators.”
Well, there’s a little bit about creating an environment in which innovation can flourish (e.g. ending the multitasking, giving people a little slack time, building trust among the technical staff and between the technical staff and the manager), but there are ways to look for people who are innovators.
When I look for innovators, I look for people who see problems and solve them. I don’t specifically look for geniuses who think big thoughts and create big breakthroughs. I’m from the innovate-a-bit-at-a-time school, and after you do enough of those, the big idea occurs to at least one person in the organization. I look for people who see broken things and fix them, as well as general problem-solving skills, and what they do when they are stumped–can they work across the organization to get things done?
So, here are some questions to assess problem-solving and innovation ability:
“Give me a recent example of a time you saw something that bugged you.” …(wait for the answer) “What was it?” … “What did you do about it?”
“Have you ever noticed something wrong in a system or product you had some responsibility for?”…” What was it?”…” What did you do about it?”
“Give me an example of a time you had a great idea that required other people to implement or clear an obstacle to your solution.” … “What did you do?”
Those are just three jumping-off questions. You’ll start a conversation with these questions and keep going. If you have other questions you like, please comment.
Hiring for innovation doesn’t have to be the big-bang theory of “We’ll get great people and innovate!” As long as you look for people who are great problem solvers, you’ll be ok. Let me know what you do.
Way back in November, I taught a half-day tutorial called “Hiring for an Agile Team” at Agile Development Practices. The participants had several questions I thought you might find useful.
Several participants wanted to know how a candidate would deal with challenging others and taking “criticism” during the workday. They had these questions:
Tell me about a time when you participated in a debate on differences of opinion
Tell me about a time when you went along with a team decision you disagreed with
Tell me about a time you needed info from elsewhere but were initially unable to get it
All of these questions help an interviewer see how a candidate manages the day-to-day interactions with others, including the issue of initiative and getting along with a team.
Several participants thought they needed people who were “out of the box” thinkers. (No, I don’t know what that means, those were the participants’ words.)
Tell me about a time when you were successful at getting/having the team take a different approach?
Tell me about a time when you challenged the team’s direction.
Some participants were more interested in how a candidate would remove impediments to the team:
Tell me about your day to day activities as a scrum master
Tell me about your most challenging impediment on your most recent project
When I lead this tutorial, I always hear about “negative feedback.” Esther has renamed this to correcting feedback, and I much prefer her term.
Tell me about a time you received feedback. How did you respond to it?
This question could be about reinforcing feedback too (what other people call positive feedback).
Several people wanted to know about flexibility in terms of role:
Tell me about a time you started in one rule and transitioned to another role?
