Behavioural Questions
Name a small improvement you made that had a big impact.
Introduction of Parallel For Each into some old processes. Defy the open-closed principle.
Introduction of creating our own invoices rather than waiting/relying on a third party.
Bug whereby cancelled users were still uploading invoices for processing
Name a time that you learnt from a mistake.
Ability to end all other active sessions by removing the session from Redis cache. My belief was that a next click sign out would be sufficient, but the product owner wanted it to happen immediately. Which meant polling and endpoint. We have no web sockets or signal r set up on AutoEntry. This took the site offline when released into the production environment.
Learning point was that I shouldn't have given in so easily to my concerns. I should have done deeper analysis on the impact by working out how many users would typically be online at any one time and how many extra calls this would make. I could have raised that analysis as a concern and offered a compromise where polling only happens on data sensitive pages or when more than one session for a user is logged in.
I've learnt from many mistakes and this is reflected in the number of proverbs that I now carry through my career.
1) If it can happen, it will happen. Be wary of open edge cases. When you scale a solution, a team and client base the chances increase that these edge cases will cause major issues also increase. Even if you're not scaling at any rate there always remains the possibility that if it can happen, it will happen. Deleting of user table (not by me). Lessons: “if it can happen, it will happen”. System failure that it was able to happen. Collective responsibility should be taken. Developer should not have had ability to delete the table.
2) It's always something simple: My lesson for fixing bugs is that no matter how significant or damaging or all encompassing the bug, the issue is nearly always something very simple and small. Most difficult are taking in environmental behaviours. For example, uploading bug with mobile, dropped signals. Processing payments on the reading databases that is a few milliseconds behind the write database and code does not pick up the correct status.
- What was a design difference of opinion that you had in the past and how did you handle it?
Above issue with deleting sessions.
Credits not syncing quickly enough compromising the processing speed of invoices.
Document counting project. Junior colleague initially suggested using booleans. A time I was wrong.
Document counting.
- What was a recent mistake in the past and what did you learn from it?
Make assumption about someone's understanding.
Had two colleagues with strong and controversial political opinions. My mistake is that I tried to engage with them and try to teach them why their opinions were problematic. This only led to create a toxic environment and only further entrenched their views. Around the time of the acquisition he was told that his views in Sage would be unacceptable.
- how did you handle customer feedback and how did it change your product?
My customer was the product owner or at least he is the person who represents the customer to me. So he often came to me and said we need to this and I would have to temper his enthusiasm often times, dig deep into what he was really looking for. This has been many things from simple ui changes to big bugs.
Customer feedback that credits balance was cumbersome and annoying
- pause subscriptions
- smart subscriptions: credit subscription changes on annual trend.
- fixed price subscriptions
- trusted client unlimited overage: clients with no payment disputes with AutoEntry for more than six months are given an unlimited overage.
- what was something you found difficult to learn and how did you handle it.
Many times I have found something difficult to learn. Especially in contracting I would often have to learn new javascript frameworks in a short space of time to fulfil the contract. The key is to break the task down. I've learnt to not skip the fundamentals. It might be tempting and encouraging to get anything to work but if you don't understand the fundamentals than the foundation will be quite brittle.
HMH 35 games
Castrol contract where I had to create a chat room and a vc room from twillo and backbone.
- describe a time when you were working with a reduced spec and how did you deal with that?
Early days at AutoEntry. Activity page.
- describe a time when
1. **Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a challenging team member. How did you handle it?**
Team member with strong political opinions.
Guy who wouldn't work. Arrogant, too good for the team. Stole bananas.
2. **Describe a situation where you had to meet a tight deadline. How did you prioritize tasks and ensure completion?**
Fixed price subscriptions was on a tight deadline and there was no obvious way from the outset how to achieve it. Ran through plan Bs with product manager. Plan B: AE to manage the subscription and use single payments with Stripe.
3. **Can you share an example of a project where you demonstrated strong leadership skills?**
A lot of strong leadership is about leading by example, it's about setting the standards and creating a culture and defining processes. Dealing with issues were app has crashed. Keep calm, investigate and rectify the issue.
4. **Discuss a situation where you had to adapt to unexpected changes. How did you handle it?**
Main knowledge was out sick and would be for sometime in the middle of a high priority project. Siloed information. A new integration. Drop some minor priority tasks and get devs to drop tasks and switch to new task.
Smart Subscriptions.
5. **Tell me about a time when you successfully resolved a conflict within a team.**
Barry v Patrick. Two different personalities. See handling conflicts. Mistake was that relationship was allowed deteriate. I got on well with Barry because I understood he doesn't do small talk.
6. **Share an experience where you had to work on a project with limited resources. How did you manage to achieve your goals?**
Main knowledge was out sick and would be for sometime in the middle of a high priority project. Siloed information. A new integration. Drop some minor priority tasks and get devs to drop tasks and switch to new task. Prioritise.
7. **Describe a situation where you had to provide constructive feedback to a colleague. How did you approach it?**
Difficult colleague who had not being participating.
DESCRIBE what has been observed.
EVALUATE how this effects the team and the organization.
SHOW what needs to be done.
KNOW and share the consequences of continued low performance.
8. **Discuss a project where you faced failure or setbacks. What did you learn from the experience?**
Session clearing project.
9. **Can you give an example of a time when you had to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds?**
AutoEntry with Indian teams.
10. **Tell me about a situation where you demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills.**
parellel foreach
Remember to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method when answering these questions for a clear and structured response.
Team lead questions
1. **How would you approach building and leading a new team from scratch?**
Clear goals and processes.
Clear identity of the team and what the purpose is.
Set standards for work and create an inclusive culture. run exercises so everyone understands everyone else perspective.
2. **What strategies would you employ to foster effective communication within your team?**
It's important that everyone's perspective is heard and understood. One-to-ones are important that way. Encourage skill sharing. Mentoring system. Sprint review so everyone can show off their work. Create a culture of trust and collaboration and no blame.
3. **Can you share your approach to delegating tasks and responsibilities among team members?**
Understand the individual's strengths and interests. Clear objectives, clear goals. Ensure they have all tools and assistance they need to succeed. Evaluate and learn. Iterate and adjust.
4. **How do you plan to handle conflicts or disagreements within your team?**
Conflict and disagreements are sometimes healthy and are definitely natural within a team environment. It's important that it doesn't cross a line. It's important that it doesn't turn toxic. I think it's important to explicitly state the lines we don't expect people to cross. We create the culture within our team and organisation and here we do not do/say that. There is a degree of professionalism that is always expected. Establish a mediation process. Establish games so people can understand their perspective.
5. **Describe your leadership style and the qualities you believe are important for a successful team lead.**
Servant leadership style. Clear goals. Provide environment and everything for individuals to blossom. Gardener helping plants grow. Some need more attention. Some blossom on their own.
6. **What methods would you use to motivate and engage your team members?**
Setting clear and achievable goals. growth, recognition, and career ambition. Encourage team members to keep a diary of their weekly achievements and experiences. It helps to grow and really helps with the next interview.
Creating a culture of collaboration and appreciation. Having clear processes. Giving team members ownership is very important. Make them part of the process.
7. **How do you prioritize and manage tasks to ensure the team meets its deadlines and goals?**
Use Agile. Break down tasks into small achievable chunks. If there are unknowns around a task create a spike so that there are as few unknowns going into a project.
8. **How would you handle performance evaluations and provide constructive feedback to team members?**
This is done via one-to-ones, gradually over time. Regular feedback on clear goals. Each team member should help set the goals so that we don't inhibit ambition.
9. **In what ways would you promote a positive and inclusive team culture?**
It's important that team members understand each other's perspective. Use DISC profiling and Belbin team members.
10. **How do you stay current with industry trends and technologies to guide your team effectively?**
Have innovative days. Pluralsight, Medium. Encourage innovation and get members to share.
11. **Can you provide an example of a successful project you led, highlighting your role and contributions?**
Subscriptions project.
Quickbooks integrations project.
12. **How would you balance the need for innovation with the stability of existing processes within your team?**
Have one day of innovation. Encourage
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