Interview Q&A

IF YOU CAN'T COMMIT TO SPEAKING JUST YET



So you think I might be a good fit but you’re quite not ready to commit to a call, coffee or email. Here’s a backgrounder on me, as standard interview questions. In a real interview my self-serving answers would be tailored to you, so if you’d like something more specific or just want to skip a lot of reading, just ask me.

So…tell me about yourself

I came to Singapore almost 15 years ago as part of a software skunkworks. I was CEO’s first hire, the GM, and we shipped the product almost 2 years later.

That left us with an online entertainment platform 10 years ahead of our client’s opposition and a team of 30 people. And a very nice billionaire who kept the lights on while we helped him make money on other projects. The CEO retired in his early 30s and I made the case to the new one that we pivot to become a Venture Builder.

Working with startups around the region we continued to scale-up our team, and I experienced all the growing pains of a growth startup -from dealing with suppliers to settling arguments about who took the last of the milk.

Sometimes acting as an angel investor to the venture builder’s startups, sometimes as advisor or very least giving them office space and access to our developers.

Over the next 2-3 years we grew that out to a team of roughly 150, with 100 or so in Clarke Quay, a small team in Myanmar and 30 or so in London.

By 2016 I cashed out, burnt out, taking 12 months off. My triumphant return to the labor market wasn’t as quick as I’d thought so by the time we got to month 15 my wife was referring to ‘the retirement’ and I started my own consulting business called Blue Ant Consulting and from word of mouth have been doing work since then.

Lots of clients, but the two longterm fulltime ones covered helping to set up and run a software studio called Elemental Concept, handling operations for the studio and product for key clients.

I then spent a couple of years with a biotech called Hummingbird Bioscience which had just completed their series C and had to rapidly scale up, build and move into two new research premises and cover a lot of admin while the rest of the organisation works on curing cancer.

That was my first ever move away from digital, focusing entirely on offline operations as Research Operations Director. I hired teams and created processes on day-to-day work and special projects, which after a quarter century of digital pioneering disrupts my CV and makes me even more peculiar.

That contract ended last year, and right now I’m doing some relatively small projects with an eye on going back inhouse, either employed through Blue Ant or direct through my PEP.

 

Tell me how you might handle a difficult customer

The most common situation where I’ve had a ‘difficult’ customer was when I was working in a Product or Account Management role in one of the software studios I’ve helped lead. In most of those situations I’m talking with the CEO or investor in a startup so I know that from their point of view the project carries high personal importance and it’s their job to get as much out of their suppliers as possible.

Sometimes the customer isn’t as highly engaged, and is simply unaware of the difficulties they’re introducing.

I find it’s most helpful to dispassionately frame the discussion in terms of give and take. If they’re routinely late with feedback, then that has these knock-on effects. If they’re adding more and more features to the project, then showing them a prioritised backlog helps them understand what they risk not getting done.

Rather than simply pushing back, I find that by explaining why a behaviour is a problem, and the effect that its having helps improve understanding and over time avoids these situations appearing again.

 

Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?

A lot of the time I’m asked to begin a project with a blank piece of paper. Find out how we approach this audience. Look into how we can set up research without violating the Human Biomedical Research Act. Figure out what features we’re going to need to implement for this upcoming project. How do we fix this process?

I enjoy being able to immerse myself in the research, to have the opportunity to show initiative and make my own decisions – but most commonly, once that groundwork is done I also enjoy being able to surround myself with a team. Particularly when as a leader or stakeholder I know I’m not the smartest person in the room. So whether working with specialists or cross-functional teams there’s always going to be something we haven’t thought of. And if that team can work in a supportive, respectful environment there’s so much that an be achieved.

 

When you’re balancing multiple projects, how do you keep yourself organised?

If I answer this purely from the perspective of my PMP (Project Management Professional) certification then there are documents and processes to keep myself aligned with stakeholders and project progress. Communications plans, stakeholder analyses, gannt charts, standups, retro’s, kanban boards…

But generally I rely on a combination of time management techniques and organizational tools to stay on track. I start by breaking down each project into smaller, manageable tasks and setting clear deadlines for each. I use project management software depending on its nature, and the preferences of the team if I’m not working solo. Software like JIRA, Trello or Asana to keep track of these tasks and monitor progress. If it’s just me and the project isn’t so complicated, there might just be a checklist in my phone or notebook.

I prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance using the Urgent/Important Matrix (either in my head or as a living document) which helps me focus on what needs immediate attention and what can be scheduled for later. I block out time for specific tasks and set reminders for upcoming deadlines. I try and schedule ten minutes or so each day to step back and look at overall progress and any short-term adjustments, and there’s a more specific hour or so in my calendar to review through current and upcoming tasks more systematically.

Regular check-ins and updates with my team are crucial for staying aligned and dealing with any issues promptly. This can be in daily standups in Scrum or ad hoc catchups over coffee.

By staying organized and maintaining clear communication, I manage multiple projects efficiently and ensure that all deadlines are met. This has been particularly important when I’m working with internal and external client projects at the venture builder and software studio I’ve helped create.

 

What did you do in the last year to improve your knowledge?

I’m a great believer in lifetime learning, particularly as many of the job titles I’ve had in my career didn’t exist a few years prior.

The nature of my work means I’m often tasked with learning about new technologies, evaluating markets, or becoming a subject matter expert in a short amount of time so being able to rapidly absorb new information and ideas has been part of my job since the beginning.

I generally ignore courses on LinkedIn, preferring an annual subscription to a platform like Coursera where there’s a greater depth of quality offered by paid courses. For example the IBM AI Developer and other courses to brush up on existing skills in Python, SQL etc.

Sometimes the brushing up is to formally add structure to, and fill gaps in, the skills I’ve picked up along the way. For piece of mind, and to be able to demonstrate industry standard qualifications to clients and employers when my word or the word of others might not count. For example the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certifcate where I was basically pouring years of experience into an expensive course and exam.

Beyond that there’s a steady background of side-projects where I might be playing with a technology because it seems interesting. Heck, this website is hosted for free on a server the size of a cigarette packet at my house. And its design is something I put together on evenings and weekends to replace the one-pager I’ve had for decades with something more robust that can support some blogging.

 

Describe a time when you went above and beyond at work

This is usually the most self-serving answer in the interview and I prefer to be able to choose an example which is most relevant to the interviewer. Trying not to humble-brag I’d say that having worked in and with so many startups, the environment is full of opportunities / demands to go above and beyond. But here are some examples:

  • Interning as customer support at an ISP in New Jersey a colleague mentioned he had a friend at the local newspaper. That weekend I taught myself HTML (it was the early 90s) and wangled a meeting. A month later the ISP was putting the paper online with a 7-figure contract.

 

  • As Production Manager at a global ad agency’s first studio we would represent brands like Braun, General Motors and Diageo, subbing-out various parts of projects to many other studios, generally dotted around London. What I didn’t realise is the nature of the advertising industry for suppliers to be loose with deadlines. With a combination of faux naivety mixed with passive aggression (“That’s ok, I’ll get a cab round to yours and wait”) and wangling a discretionary budget from my boss (“I’ll bring pizza” and “Thanks for that, I’m sending the team that cake you like”). Soon we were at the front of the queue even for unscheduled work.

 

  • Following the acquisition of AT&T-Uniscource by AUCS in Amsterdam I created the brand guidelines for the online look and feel of the two latter brands in consultation with the global offices, ultimately leading workshops at their HQ in El Segundo, CA. Nobody had originally asked me to initiate the project. I was just annoyed by the inconsistent look and feel of dozens of websites dotted around the world.

 

  • When the organisation I worked for became a major donor to Nelson Mandela’s Peace Parks Foundation, I developed on my own initiative a concept for elephant adoption website which incorporated data from a location tracking project from a South African university. Instead of getting a quarterly report with a photo, users could log in for daily updates.

 

  • Researching the pivot from a stealth 30-person, single-project specialist software team to becoming a venture builder. I immersed myself in the local startup scene and worked out how we could deliver what it needed before pitching the idea to my CEO. Overnight I went from GM to business development, investment screener, startup advisor and angel.

 

  • When a global brand didn’t really have the kind of budget necessary to launch a campaign through an online platform, I negotiated with the platform’s ad network not for the expensive keywords and targetting that the client (and everyone else) wanted but for saturation among what other media might call ‘distressed inventory’. The millions of ad positions which weren’t sold. By giving the ad sales team high quality artwork in a range of sizes and formats which fit even the most obscure ad position, they got a prestige brand as an advertiser and got money for space which would otherwise be wasted. On launch day we saturated the network and drove enormous traffic to the project as well as driving brand awareness through the roof. Yahoo’s ad network went on to offer this ‘unsold inventory’ as a specific package.

 

  • As Research Ops Director for a local biotech I engaged third party security personnel for it’s 24/7 research facilities. Rather than just leave them to it, the patrols had tailored training materials from day one and my personal number if they ever had any queries or issues to report. Whether it was advice on figuring out the procedures for an official visit from the Deputy Prime Minister or a 3am emergency.

 

Tell me about a time when you worked through a challenging situation

As the Product Owner for a new online gaming product, the volume of traffic soon after launch far exceeded expectations -and our already considerable resources. I took the lead in coordinating the external software developer and our inhouse marketing, infrastructure, and customer support teams.

With cover from my direct superior who handled communication with senior stakeholders, I was able to work with this ad hoc team to expand our load capacity, upgrade the software and direct marketing and communication messaging to handle what could easily have become an embarassing system and reputational failure.

This episode taught me the importance of quick decision-making, collaboration, and effective communication under pressure. And the importance of having colleagues and superiors who trust you enough to get on with it.

 

How do you prioritise work?

Depends on the work. If it’s a task or feature within an agile project then I’ll work on the most dangerous assumptions first. Tackling the unknowns which can kill the project or business before drilling down into specifics. This might be in early market testing, or prototyping with new technologies to develop proof of concepts. Later in the project, prioritisation is based on whatever brings the most value to the project. That might be financial, or in terms of other metrics like customer satisfaction or technical debt.

For day-to-day tasks, I mentioned in a previous answer that I generally prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance using the Urgent/Important Matrix (either in my head or as a living document) which helps me focus on what needs immediate attention and what can be scheduled for later.

Also known as an Eisenhower Matrix, here’s a summary I’ve lifted straight from ChatGPT with a quick diagram I put together:

“The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a time management tool that helps prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance. It consists of four quadrants:

Urgent and Important (Quadrant I): Tasks that require immediate attention and have significant consequences. These tasks should be completed as soon as possible. Examples include critical project deadlines, urgent client issues, and emergency situations.

Not Urgent but Important (Quadrant II): Tasks that are important for long-term success but do not require immediate action. These tasks often involve planning, prevention, and personal development. Examples include strategic planning, skill development, and building relationships. Prioritizing these tasks helps in reducing future urgent tasks and promotes overall growth.

Urgent but Not Important (Quadrant III): Tasks that need immediate attention but are not crucial to achieving long-term goals. These tasks are often interruptions or distractions. Examples include attending unnecessary meetings, responding to non-critical emails, and handling minor issues. These tasks should be delegated if possible.

Not Urgent and Not Important (Quadrant IV): Tasks that are neither urgent nor important and do not contribute significantly to long-term goals. These tasks are often time-wasters. Examples include excessive social media browsing, watching TV shows, and other leisure activities. These tasks should be minimized or eliminated.

By categorizing tasks into these quadrants, I can focus on what truly matters and manage my time more effectively. This approach helps me ensure that I am working on tasks that contribute to my long-term goals while also addressing urgent needs as they arise.”

 

Give an example of how you improved a process

I’m a strong believer in kaizen and I think it’s everyone’s job to continuously look at ways of improving processes. In fact I think it’s a sign of atrophy in the organisation as well as the individual if an employee ever stops.

So again, this is a point in an interview where I try and draw, from a career full of examples, instances which are relevant to the person sitting in front of me. So as I don’t know you, please choose one that suits or by all means get in touch and ask for more:

  • When I was 15 I rearranged the ordering (procurement is a too grand a word) process for suppliers at the cafe where I was working for the Summer. Renegotiating payment terms, consolidating suppliers and standardising delivery times. Saved the owners’ money and reduced admin.

 

  • I introduced a rotation where each product manager in a gaming company worked from a desk in the customer service department. Surrounded by colleagues dealing with incoming phonecalls, emails put them closer to the coal face, closer to human feedback on the latest marketing campaign or feature release.

 

  • I carried out in-country research and interviews with our venture builder’s local partners in Myanmar on a two week roadtrip which defined the requirements and goals for a new fintech platform. ConnectNPay was an umbrella for IP covering multiple public and private sector Fintech projects in Myanmar. A long term multi-million dollar investment, technology which now connects consumers to multiple banks, utilities companies, vendors and payment networks. I did its branding too.

 

  • Without the vocabulary to call it such I figured out a sales funnel which handled prospecting for customers who wanted a website and how my organisation engaged with them through the process. When do we switch from automated email response and generic brochure material to phonecalls and in-person meetings? Which criteria mean we bring in senior developers to assess the project? How do we quickly evaluate whether a project is or isn’t suitable for us to undertake? This helped us deploy our resources best in order to maximise ROI.

 

  • I worked with lab technicians, the scientists who used the labs to work out tailored schedules to streamline the handling and disposal of biohazardous waste. The aim was to balance between the workload of the technicians and the unique requirements of each lab (the nature and volume of its waste) with each site’s storage capacity and the pickup schedule of external disposal contractors. This to replace the one-size-fits-all approach which had worked fine when the organisation was working from a single, smaller premises.

 

  • Transitioned away from having technicians coming in on weekends and public holidays to check on gas supply to various incubators to one which used automatic failover (tank of CO2 runs out, another is switched into place) and remote monitoring. This involved working with contractors and internal stakeholders to gather requirements and justify the budget to develop a revised set of processes which removed out-of-hours responsibilities and overtime.

 

Describe a time when you made a mistake and how you handled it

In every case you have to find some kind of takeaway to learn from. When I’m directing any kind of team, particularly when I’m brought in as an external consultant, I often find myself reassuring the group that my decisions are driven less by my ‘knowing everything’ and more by my having made, or seen, all kinds of mistakes being made. Perhaps this is where I wrily talk about ‘continuous learning’…

Early in my career I was responsible for the production of a Valentine’s Day microsite for a global drinks brand. The branding was clever, the features worked smoothly and the UI was beautiful. The different components and teams had come together wonderfully and I had only overlooked one thing. The domain name for the website had been purchased a while back, but wasn’t yet pointing at the server hosting this new site. Nobody had been responsible for that, but that in itself was my fault.

For the non-technical, the process of matching a domain name that a person can remember to an internet address a computer can use is handled by a global network of domain name servers (DNS). Think of them like a phonebook which tells you that Interflora can be reached at 0800-1234-5678 or AndresVarela.com can be found at 58.49.121.20. The process of updating all the DNS servers on the network could take up to 24 hours and the website had to go live on Valentine’s Day.

Realising my mistake I informed the team, which included my boss and the client and we figured out a mitigation plan. We informed the ad networks that the banner ads which were going to direct traffic to the website should point at the numeric address so that people would still reach the website. Marketing materials featuring screenshots of the site would be checked, and photoshopped if needed, to show the domain name before release to the press. All while I monitored progress on the DNS network so that I could inform stakeholders the moment we could confidently use the domain name. As it turned out, about 5am on Valentine’s Day.

Needless to say, I learnt never to make that specific mistake again. But the main takeaway was that I learned to check and re-check lead-times, roles and responsibilities -and to always watch out for assumptions.

 

Tell me about a time you had to adapt to a significant change at work

When my organisation transitioned from being a small team, with a single client, working on a single program of products into a much larger one servicing multiple clients and projects. I went from being GM handling the details of what had been decided by the CEO to a more Operations role looking at developing processes and communicating with a much wider range of stakeholders.

That was a learning curve. Moving from working with a tight circle of friends in a startup to the demands of scaling up to direct and support a larger group of individuals on a wider range of projects. I still have to fight the ‘startup’ urge to roll my sleeves up and get on with something because there’s nobody else to do it when there’s actually a whole department that specialises in it. And although they might not always be as fast, or approach the task in the way I would, are probably better at it than me.

And even if my ego feels that sometimes the output isn’t better than mine, my employer and colleagues actually expect me to spend my time on other things. The stuff I was hired for. Yes, I can go to the warehouse, get a ladder and fix the light in the corridor -or I could message maintenance and they’ll get to it later. Meanwhile I can work out the budget for their team and figure out next month’s training schedule for another.

Adaptation can be hard -personally, professionally and as an organisation -but if you do it right, it’s actually growth.