People management primer for tech interviews (competencies, questions, resources)

This article was written in collaboration with interview coach Nupur D. A former Technical Program Manager for Google, Nupur has coached more than 300 people over her career. She currently works as a TPM for a fintech company in India.

Six hiring best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Planning for team growth

Talk about how you create a forecast for team headcount and get it approved, as well as how you manage salary and recruiter fees within a budget and time constraints.

2. Building a diverse candidate pipeline

Hiring happens faster when you’ve got a pool of qualified talent to choose from. If you’ve built or helped build a candidate pipeline already, explain your sourcing strategy (e.g. LinkedIn, networking, referral programs, etc.), your template for a job description that attracts the right talent, how you maintain contact with potential candidates, and how you turn prospects into new hires.

3. Fine-tuning the interview process

Show your interviewer that you put thought into every step of the interview process. Explain how you screen resumes and applications, and mix interviews with practical exercises in order to test the right skills and values.

4. Interviewing for skills

Lay out how you assess candidates’ skills through technical exercises or take-home assignments. Talk about when it is appropriate to teach certain skills on the job, and when it is not.

5. Interviewing for values

While many skills can be taught on the job, values cannot. Show your interviewer how you test candidates’ values while removing as much bias as possible. List the objective traits you look for and the types of questions you ask to test them.

6. Closing the candidate

When you’ve met a candidate that is the best fit for a role, explain how you sell the role to that candidate early in the process. Prospective candidates should understand why this is a great team for them to join and how it is the best opportunity for them. When you do make an offer, talk about how you work with recruiters to close the candidate by answering their questions and helping them understand the benefits of the role.

People management example questions: Hiring 

• How do you ensure you are hiring a healthy spread of diverse thinking in your team?
• How would you create a headcount forecast to staff your team?
• What do you look for in a resume?
• What do you put in a job description?
• You have to ramp up your team headcount quickly. Would you prefer waiting for the right candidate? Why or why not?

Four training best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Giving actionable, transparent, and timely feedback

Show your interviewer that you know how to tailor and deliver constructive criticism, rather than tearing them down. Highlight your use of empathy, and give examples of how your use of feedback has helped your past reports.

2. Teaching new skills

Discuss examples of when you’ve identified room for improvement and helped employees get the training they needed to act on it. If applicable, explain how you have trained someone in one of your areas of expertise. 

3. Customizing your approach to each employee 

Demonstrate to your interviewer that you can correctly evaluate your reports’ output with respect to their level and abilities. Talk about how you spell out tasks for those with low task-relevant maturity and lend autonomy to those with high TRM.

4. Running a process for your direct reports’ career growth

Managers are expected to help their direct reports understand what they need to do to get promoted. Explain how you identify areas of improvement and chart out a plan of action in collaboration with your reports. Give examples of people you’ve helped succeed in the past.

People management example questions: Training

• Give an example of how you have helped a new employee in your team ramp up effectively
• How do you structure the feedback you give to your team?
• How do you deliver criticism to someone who doesn’t take feedback well?
• Have you helped someone in your team go for a promotion? 
• How do you evaluate the performance of your team members?
• Have you ever mentored someone in your team? What were the results of that mentorship?

Four motivating best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Adding meaning to assigned work

Your team should always understand why they are working on a project. They should ideally know how their projects fit into your team’s strategy and the company strategy. Overall, they should have a good grasp of the difference they’re helping to make.

2. Give ownership to your reports

Your interviewer is not looking for a micro-manager. Show that you’re capable of allowing your reports to lead. Give examples of when you’ve left space for your team to make and solve their own mistakes, or when you’ve asked them to challenge one of your own solutions.

3. Connect with the team

Managing people does not necessarily entail being their friend; however, you should know your reports well. Talk about how you build relationships with your team, keep an open door policy, and ensure that they're connected with the rest of the company.

4. Acknowledge good work

Show your interviewer that you praise your team more often than you criticize them. Talk about how you publicly acknowledge their work and give specific praise, rather than vague compliments (e.g. “thank you for turning in that report a day before deadline” versus “good work”).

People management example questions: Motivating

• How do you motivate your team?
• Your team is demotivated because they feel the project is not important. How will you go about fixing this?
• How do you deal with low performers?

Five management processes to discuss in your interview:

1. Onboarding

You’ll be the first point of contact for the members of your team, so show your interviewer that you will give them all the tools they need to work and connect in their first weeks on the job. Discuss when it’s appropriate to assign mentors, source training materials or courses, ask for them to shadow a current employee, etc.

2. Setting OKRs

Talk about your collaborative process for setting up OKRs with your team. Ensure that your reports have clarity in their objectives, and that the key results that lead up to them are concrete. Your reports should be completing the majority of their OKRs independently, with your input at the end.

3. Running weekly one-on-ones

Much of what we’ve previously discussed (giving feedback, motivating, building relationships) can be maintained in weekly one-on-ones. So talk about how you create an open dialogue with your reports and make this weekly meeting about their needs, rather than yours.

4. Sprint planning & daily standups

When it comes to team meetings like sprints or daily standups, your interviewer wants you to be able to run them efficiently. Tell them the methods you put in place to keep everybody on task and goal-oriented, how you document the meeting, and how you continuously improve the process.

5. Delivering performance reviews

Explain that the information in your performance reviews typically doesn’t come as a surprise for your reports, as you maintain a regular feedback loop with your employees. Talk about how you organize peer reviews and set goals for improvement.

People management example questions: Running a team

• What are OKRs? How do you gather team OKRs? How will you grade OKRs for your team?
• A person in your team has asked to skip being on-call. How will you handle this?
• How do you conduct one-on-ones with your team?
• Give an example on how you measured and improved the performance of a team you were leading.
• During a meeting, the most senior engineer on your team says that a technical problem cannot be solved within the deadline. What will you do?

Three company culture best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Leading by example 

Interviewers will not be interested in candidates with a “do as I say, not as I do” mentality. So indicate to your interviewer that you will refer to the company values when making decisions and behave in a way that aligns with them. 

2. Introducing new team members to company values

Explain how you will align new hires with the company’s culture by setting aside time to go over the company values. If new reports are already aware of the values, you should find a way of making sure they're able to fully understand and absorb them.

3. Assigning culture mentors where needed

Managers don’t always have the time or expertise to walk new reports through every aspect of a company’s culture. So talk about how you identify people in the organization who can be good culture mentors. Discuss the qualities of a good mentor, and how you approach both the mentor and mentee to set up the relationship.

People management example questions: Upholding company culture 

• How do you ensure culture is maintained when the team is remote?
• You have recently joined a team whose culture isn’t aligned with the overall company culture. Do you think this needs to be fixed urgently?  What will you do to fix it? 
• Your report has expressed that they noticed a bias against them. How will you go about resolving this?
• How do you handle conflicts in your team?

Three retaining best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Watching for distress signals

Managers must be able to keep up with the mental and emotional state of their team, ready to perform check-ins, and careful with assigning unsatisfying tasks. Talk about these methods and any other practices you put in place to check the pulse of your team.

2. Addressing distress signals before it's too late

When a team member has made it clear that they are dissatisfied, you should be ready to devote attention to their needs. Discuss with your interviewer how you identify and address a report’s pain point, then make a plan to act on it. If there has been a time that you were unable or unwilling to address a team member’s issue, explain why that was the case and what was the final result (e.g. letting them go, transferring them, asking for help, etc.).

3. Handling departures

If a report does decide to leave, show your interviewer that you are capable of handling this maturely. Discuss examples of past departures and how you took advantage of the moment to facilitate their transfer or give them a boost in their career growth.

People management example questions:  Retaining

• Give an example of how you have helped chalk out someone's career and helped them achieve their career goals
• How do you help an underperforming teammate become better?
• If you had to advise your VP on preventing attrition, what would you say?

Three letting go best practices to demonstrate in your interview:

1. Taking preventative measures

A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) or a termination should never come as a surprise to one of your reports. Talk with your interviewer about how you have initial conversations about your team’s performance and give them clear and actionable paths to improvement before taking harsher measures. 

2. Creating performance improvement plans

Talk to your interviewer about the conditions that must be met before you assign somebody a PIP, and how you put the plan together. The PIP should include clear and achievable objectives that your report can meet in order to remain on the team. If applicable, give examples of past reports who have passed their PIP and gone on to add value to the team.

3. Communicating with HR and managers

When letting a team member go is absolutely necessary, talk about how you handle it with HR and the employee in a sensitive yet firm way. List the steps you take to facilitate the process with other members of the company. Underline your efforts not to burn bridges and to keep team morale intact after the departure.

People management example questions: Letting go

• Talk about a time when you had to make a difficult decision about letting go of someone in your team
• Have you ever assigned a performance improvement plan? What were the circumstances that led up to it?