Thanks for the follow-up, Stu. I ended up using ProntoForms as an interview tool twice while doing interviews with financial analysts recently. It was good to see each of them think through a problem and watch them handle the stress of using a new platform during an interview.
To quickly summarize what I did:
- Created a "Financial Analyst Interview" generic login to give candidates during the case study portion.
- Set aside 40 minutes in the interview for the case study (5 minutes crash course on ProntoForms form builder, 5 minutes for candidate to ask questions about the paper form to be replicated, 20 minutes for form building, and 10 minutes for de-brief).
- I used a simple CapEx request form as the base form. Gave candidates a completed version to review and ask any questions they had before they tried to build out the form. Wanted to see if they would jump to the right questions "Should this be a list of companies or a text field? Is this field always a $ amount or can it vary? What kind of employee would be filling out this form?"
- Both candidates had a mix of good questions and some that I would consider irrelevant.
- I told each candidate that I would sit at the other end of the room and work on some emails while they built the form out. Was interesting to see how each of them handled the stress of being handed this tool and an assignment during the interview. Both candidates were visibly uncomfortable at first, but didn't panic too badly.
- The big differentiator to me ended up being the de-brief session at the end. The candidate I ended up hiring quickly moved on from asking questions about the exercise to asking much broader questions about how we use ProntoForms to support our field workers. I really liked that the exercise sparked those questions and showed his natural curiosity. The other candidate got a little stuck on the exercise and the frustrating aspects of the pressure.
Given the contrast between the two I had a nice little insight as to how each of them would think in general and how they would handle pressure. The format was definitely clunky and I could have done a better job of setting up data sources for them to use prior to the assignment. That is probably the main thing I would change: provide a better baseline of information and data for the candidate to leverage in the form building portion.
I will definitely use the case study format again in the future. But what I would really love to see is a case study competition for college students to dive into the platform. Being able to serve on a panel of judges for a competition like that would be hugely valuable in getting some rockstar talent for our company!
------------------------------
Matt Lambert
Vice President of Operations
PrimeLine Utility Services
WA
mlambert@primelineus.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 05-19-2022 10:07
From: Stu Rathbone
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
@Matt Lambert curious to know how this turned out. What approach and questions did you use? Any lessons learned that will change what you do next time?
------------------------------
Stu Rathbone
Program Manager ~ Knowledge, Training & Enablement
ProntoForms
community@prontoforms.com
Original Message:
Sent: 02-15-2022 16:10
From: Lisa Zido
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
Keep us updated with what you come up with and find successful!!
------------------------------
Lisa Zido
Technical Systems Analyst
GOJO Industries Inc.
Original Message:
Sent: 02-15-2022 16:05
From: Matt Lambert
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
Really appreciate everyone taking the time to provide their thoughts. Definitely going to put some scenarios to work in our interview process moving forward!
------------------------------
Matt Lambert
Vice President of Operations
PrimeLine Utility Services
mlambert@primelineus.com
Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2022 15:58
From: Lisa Zido
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
I agree with everyone above. If it were me I would present a scenario needing a form that is specific to your company's needs, and what you are looking to gain (maybe this is a form you already have and know what challenges/questions that came along with making it). I would then have them do what Carol said, ask them what type of questions they would ask to complete this task.
I would also ask them competency based questions: What business tools do you have experience with, and how did you use them? Can you provide examples of your technical skills?
------------------------------
Lisa Zido
Technical Systems Analyst
GOJO Industries Inc.
Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2022 15:05
From: Carol Higgins
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
Hi Matt, This is a really good question. I would agree with Stu when he said "A big part of being a good form builder is being able to extract requirements in order to plan out the workflow and design." There is a big difference between being handed an existing set of data to analyze and knowing how to ask the questions to gather your own data. I would want to know if either candidate had ever created a survey, perhaps for a marketing class, or taken any type of basic programming or app building class.
Another thought would be to create a really basic test for them to complete: Example: You have 5 field workers doing 100 visual inspections of used cars at a dealership and need to gather and analyze basic appearance data. What type of questions would you ask?
Based on what they come up with might give you more insight into their logical thought process, structure, and organizational skills.
Good luck!
------------------------------
Carol Higgins
Manager - IT
IFG
chiggins@ifg.world
Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2022 10:53
From: Pat Cooney
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
This is a great question, Matt. I'd love to hear from some of our more experienced members on this one, I'm sure they could provide some great insight. Maybe @Lisa Zido, @Brian Dowler, @Cecily Stelly, or @Carol Higgins would have some thoughts on this that would be of value.
------------------------------
Pat Cooney
Community Engineer
ProntoForms
community@prontoforms.com
Original Message:
Sent: 02-11-2022 09:30
From: Matt Lambert
Subject: Interview Tips for Financial Analyst/Citizen Developer
Would be interested to know if anyone has suggestions for how to test a job candidate's aptitude for building ProntoForms. I tend to think that if I can hire a financial analyst who is smart and hard-working then they will not have an issue figuring ProntoForms out. However, if I have two good candidates I would like to have a question or two designed to give a sense of their aptitude for this type of work.
------------------------------
Matt Lambert
Vice President of Operations
PrimeLine Utility Services
mlambert@primelineus.com
------------------------------