WHAT? A guitar tuner with only one button (product design with a constraint) HOW? WHY? Ask the designer to think about a Feel free to swap the guitar tuner for guitar tuner which only has one button. It something else (eg, an alarm clock or a needs to be able to: TV remote) if the candidate isn’t familiar 1. Turn off and on with the functions of a guitar tuner. The 2. Tune the guitar basic idea of this exercise is to see how the 3. Change between 5 alternate designer thinks about creative and unique tuning patterns approaches to user interaction with a NONO 4. Be easily viewable from a difficult constraint, and also to get them out TION TTION T distance (ie, on stage) of their digital comfort zone with a real life product design. ALENT AALENT A “Tell the candidate that you’ll start simple and make SS it more complex as you work through the problem.” SESSES SMENTSMENT – Greg Badros, Founder, Prepared Mind Innovations 6. ASSIGN INTERNAL ROLES Pick who will be involved from your hiring team. Get separate people to a) score, b) assist the test takers, c) provide feedback to the candidate. Remember, keep your notes and thoughts to yourself in order to avoid members of the hiring team being influenced by each other or prioritising conforming over stating their true feelings. 7. IMPRESS THE CANDIDATE Make sure you tell the candidate early in the process and in clear terms what is expected and how the test process works. Hiring is a two-way street and you have to manage the candidate’s expectations and keep them happy and interested throughout the process. 8. ALWAYS IMPROVE After your hiring cycle ends make sure you analyse whether the test turned out to be a good predictor of performance and employee longevity. As the company passes through fundraising stages this data will become better and better. If correlation is low or negative, make changes to your test. 6262