Hiring for BizOps, Part 2: Case presentation round

After a candidate has passed the behavioral interview round with our BizOps team at Zendesk, they move on to a case study presentation where they can demonstrate their technical skills to a panel.

Our BizOps team didn’t always have a case presentation round — I introduced it because it accomplishes two important goals:

1. We get to see the candidate’s skills in action. It’s one thing to describe what you’ve done, but demonstrating it live reveals so much more.
2. The candidate gets firsthand experience of the type of work we do. This gives them better insight into whether they’d enjoy the role.

How it works

In advance of the presentation, we provide the candidate with a 2-page case study about a challenge from a project similar to one they may encounter once they join the team. (We typically give them the case one week before the presentation and advise that 4 hours is appropriate prep time.)

The goal of the case study round is to evaluate 3 things:

• Content: What is their analysis and approach to the case?
• Presentation style: Can they clearly and confidently communicate their point of view?
• Q&A: How do they handle follow-up questions to their presentation?

As with the behavioral round, there are no “right” or “wrong” answers — there isn’t a single silver bullet solution or specific conclusion that a candidate should reach.

Instead, we choose a scenario that covers two key qualities we want to see:

1. An understanding of how to do BizOps work and an awareness of challenges. Often the case will involve bringing together groups from multiple organizations in the company, who may have different goals or levels of engagement. Candidates should be able to describe techniques for bringing these groups together, and also understand the possible obstacles or difficulties they will need to overcome. Company-specific nuances described in the case should be reflected in the candidate’s approach.
2. An ability to think beyond just what is written on the page. We often embed subtle “red flags” or incomplete information in the case that should catch a candidate’s attention and prompt them to ask for clarification. In the Q&A, we ask the candidates what questions they had that the case didn’t cover. We sometimes ask them how they might change their approach if we gave them an additional data point — this gives us a sense of how they think on their feet.

At Zendesk, our case studies are inspired by actual projects that BizOps has recently worked on, which gives our panelists a familiar point of reference and makes the challenges real. One risk to using a challenge very similar to one you recently solved is that the candidate obviously won’t understand every nuance of your company, your BizOps team, and your typical approach.

Don’t expect a candidate to have a perfect presentation that matches what your BizOps team did! The best measure of a successful candidate presentation: You feel confident that they could start working on a BizOps project on day 1.

Finally, one critical piece of the case presentation round: It shouldn’t feel contentious, stressful, or like an inquisition — you want this person to be part of your team! I always open and close the case presentation interview with a sincere thank you to the candidate for their work, and I encourage the panelists to be warm and feel free to praise the candidate’s presentation where appropriate.