What questions should I ask a technical leadership candidate? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
Five questions that reveal more than any technical test: what are the first three things you would examine in your first month, and why? How would you explain to me a decision that will cost me money and whose details I will not understand? When did you advise a client or a manager not to build something they wanted? How do you know your team is actually producing? And what are you not good at and need someone else for? That last one separates the confident from the pretender.
Why these questions specifically reveal what they do: “the first three things you would examine” separates someone with a method from someone who will improvise. The explanation question tests what you will live with daily. “When did you advise against building” reveals whether they serve your interest or look for work to build. And measuring team output reveals whether they think in outcomes or in activity.
And the fifth question — “what are you not good at?” — is the most revealing and the least asked. An honest answer names a specific area and says how they compensate (“I am not strong in data analysis, I bring in a specialist”). An evasive one turns a weakness into praise (“I am too much of a perfectionist”). The first means someone who knows their limits and will tell you when they reach them; the second means you will not be told.
And add a practical request at the end of the interview: ask them to write you one page on what they understood of your situation and what they would propose in the first month. One page reveals what an hour of conversation does not — whether they actually listened, whether they write clearly, and whether they prioritise. And anyone who declines to write a page will never write you documentation.
- “What are you not good at?” — most revealing, least asked
- “When did you advise against building?” reveals whose interest they serve
- Ask for one written page after the interview
- Whoever declines a page will never write documentation