In this instructional design interview, I used the STAR method to respond to the interview questions. Alyssa commented on my answers and shared with us the rationale for each question. Devlin organized this event and facilitated the interview and the chat. I am very grateful for Devlin's endeavors in the instructional design community, Alyssa's generosity and guidance for this interview, and people who showed up in this event.
You can learn more about the interview in the following video.
Answer (230 words, 2 minutes)
Thank you so much for this opportunity. I am very excited to be here. I have been a curriculum developer for the past ten years in corporate Learning and Development and education. I am driven by creating data-driven, aesthetically appealing learning solutions in different formats, such as instructor-led, eLearning, and blended learning. My experiences in different fields allow me to quickly dive into a complex problem and create compelling, innovative solutions to meet business needs.
I watched a news report on cnbc.com about how your CEO Bill McDermott is making hybrid work possible via the indoor-mapping tool SerivceNow provided and how ServiceNow is helping employees stay productive working from anywhere.
I apply for this role for the following reasons.
First, your company has always been known to put a strong focus on innovation. I would love to be part of an organization continuously striving to maintain its position as a leader in the market.
Second, this position would be a great fit for me, and a collaborative team environment is an excellent place for me to apply my skills and develop myself professionally.
Third, the position matches my experience, and it would also allow me to take on greater responsibilities.
Furthermore, based on the stories shared by your employees on the Life at Now blog and ServiceNow YouTube Channel, I believe that working at ServiceNow would be a happy, impactful, and purposeful experience.
Comments from Alyssa: There is so much depth (in your answer). I feel like we could have separate coffee chats on so many points you just brought up. I am going to focus on one point, in particular you mentioned, which is on innovation. Particularly, in this role, what I am looking for in my team right now is someone who connects to and really is committed to innovation. That's not just a buzzword or tagline.
Answer (220 words, 2 minutes)
Situation: As a person coming from academia, we failed many times. We come back up. That's the norm and that's our lives. 10 years ago, I worked with a project manager who was very knowledgeable. They always delivered high-quality projects ahead of time and had the reputation of being a tough cookie. I was very nervous but wanted to try my best.
Task: My task was to make a deliverable by a certain date and time. I planned to make a prototype first and then asked my project manager for some input, but I underestimated the time needed for the prototype. I was also afraid that my project manager would be disappointed due to the knowledge gap that I had, so I did not communicate with them about my struggles and difficulties.
Consequences: I did not complete the deliverable before the due time. My project manager was very disappointed.
Lessons: What I learned were two things: First, done is better than perfect. From then on, no matter what projects I did, small or big, I always reminded myself of turning in the first draft--of which purpose is to exist. It does not have to be perfect and it won’t be. Second, build a buffer for unexpected events. Give myself some wiggle room when those events come up, as they inevitably do.
Comments from Alyssa: That's so much. Really wonderful effort in your responses. There are couple of things that I really want to point out from my perspective. That would make Min really memorable to me. One is her recitation of who she is from an identity perspective. Owning that you are an academic is such an important concept because to me, academics, I am in that field. It is hard and it is greedy. Everyone who works in that space knows the politics management and the grind. For me, you identified as that and that's part of your tenant of who you are. For me, that person has tenacity and curiosity. For me, I really love that. I want to invite more academics to own that part of ourselves. Second to that, having a home in tech specifically, I love how Min made the relation between being an academic, having curiosity, experiencing failure, and comfortability with failure in the tech space. From the attitude perspective, that's what I am looking for when I ask that question. Someone is humble enough to say, yes, I failed, probably more than what I am going to tell you in this answer. Not only am I comfortable with that, I am human. I would rather fail and get progress than focus on perfection, which is what I love the chat. Min also took that answer second. There is so much design that I coached about stopping focusing on perfection and focusing on good. Take care of the learner. Don't take care of your ego or your perfectionism. Those are some of my takeaways from the first two questions. I would remember that about Min.
Comments from Devlin: Great perspectives. It seems such a good response about a time you failed. There's a very specific time. We don't just say: here is the failure and the lessons learned. You tie that together really nicely. What even stood out in the first question is that clearly Min has done her research on the company, the role, citing specific articles, and company's values. That's common interview advice, but it was just seeing how Min applied that here. That's very cool. Loving the chat: #minforthewin. Min should already be hired. Just comments like this. Very supportive, thank you chat.
Answer (239 words, 2 minutes)
The best learning experience I've encountered is the xAPI Challenges App by Devlin Peck. Devlin didn't pay me to talk about his app. Just want to flag that out first. I really like that app sincerely, because it provides practice opportunities for people learning how to collect specific user data from their Articulate Storyline eLearning offerings.
More specifically, I love this learning experience for three reasons. I would be happy to elaborate on each reason if you are interested in more details.
First, this learning experience combines different technologies and techniques, such as automated emails, a web-based app, and leaderboard functionality, which is really cool.
Second, it uses the xAPI data generated by the App participants to improve the xAPI tutorials that Devlin created previously. That's very clever!
Third, it promotes the need for JavaScript, xAPI, and data-driven learning solutions. I am a firm believer that data-driven learning solution is the now and the future. The xAPI Challenge App inspires me to design innovative learning solutions and apply xAPI in authoring tools.
On a very broad level, this learning experience encourages eLearning developers to incorporate new technologies into their products. I hope that we'll be able to apply other new technologies, such as machine learning, to improve our learning solutions. I know that ServiceNow has many innovations, including intelligent chatbots and machine learning. I am really curious about how ServiceNow is applying these new technologies in L&D products.
Comments from Devlin: What a question. Would you like to tell us about the question? You are not telling us to walk through a specific project you created, but you are asking about our favorite learning experience we encountered.
Comments from Alyssa: This question for me is about a point of view. I am really thinking about the current existing thought on my team and the creativity landscape. What's my current team members' point of view? I really look for someone who is diverse in thoughts and adds to that existing team and has a dynamic personality. I am really trying to understand what is your favorite rite in Disney Land. Really understanding what sticks out to you specifically. Helping me shed light on adult learning theories you are attuned to. Show me what your inspiration is from the design perspective. What kind of technology you are comfortable with and you would use and execute in a more organic way rather than drilling on overly technical tools, questions, or JavaScript. For me, does she think about how the learner feels, where the learner is, and how yummy and crave-able the experience is? All of those things are what I am looking for in terms of how she answers that question, but I also want to be real and show that she's attuned to the space and how modern and contemporary she is with what she's referencing.
Comments from Devlin: That's quite an insightful question. You can get a lot of that out of the single response. All the things you are looking for, I can see Min's answer revealing what she's passionate about and what technologies she is interested in.
Comments from Alyssa: Something I really appreciate is being both academics. I think we both could go into a lot of depth about these different topics. For those of you who interviewed before, especially you are passionate about something, brevity is not our friend. We can tend to be very long windy because we are excited about what we are talking about. I struggle with that as a human myself in being in Min's seat. I really appreciate Min's answer. She gave me her thesis statement and she gave me the opportunity to double click into more detail if I want to say, oh the point you mentioned, you can go deeper. Let's go deeper on that. As we know in a 30-minutes interview, when you try to make a good first impression, that thesis statement is so critical and leaves space for that double click. I would love to tell you more about that in an email or invite a follow-up coffee chat after to keep nerdy out together, as being academics. I really appreciate the framing that Min is having in answering my question succinctly and then giving me space to double click to show her expertise if I am interested or time permits. I think that really boohoo the 30-minutes conversation.
Comments from Devlin: I can see that too. People in the chat picked that up too. Min's answer are so natural but also very structured.
Answer (219 words, 2 minutes)
Situation: My greatest accomplishment happened in my previous role as a curriculum developer lead for a project that became one of the most successful projects in our organization.
Task: I saw that the enrollment rate for one of our oldest curricula was dropping quickly in the past year. I also heard that learners complained about the content and the design of the curriculum. I made a proposal and discussed with my directors about redesigning the curriculum.
Action: After getting their full support, I took the initiative to conduct a thorough curriculum analysis and collaborated with 2 SMEs and a cross-functional team. To redesign the curriculum, I did four things.
First, I replaced the information-dumping content with interactive, case-based activities,
Second, I used multimedia aids to explain complex content,
Third, I offered learners opportunities to create project-based content and form peer support groups,
Fourth, I conducted learning experience surveys regularly to gather feedback and improve the curriculum.
Result: We reviewed the enrollment rate and the curriculum evaluations after launching the curriculum for the first quarter. The enrollment rate was more than two times higher than other curricula and reached its highest rate. Learning experience evaluations also showed that learners were impressed by the innovative design and content of the curriculum. The curriculum became one of the most projects in our organization and led to the innovation of other curricula.
Comments from Alyssa: Beautiful. Really demonstrates layers, your clear expertise in rigor around not only problem solving but also hoping to advocate for the learners. I really appreciate that. If I could push you a little bit, Min, you invite me to do that, I would love to know pride. That word.
That's a great question! Because it is such a teamwork, there are moments I feel like we are really getting this better and better. These moments come when I and other team members talked to our stakeholders. Actually, we had these meetings very regularly and bi-weekly reports. Our stakeholders want us to make these products very good and they want us to be proud of these products. Having the conversation with them on a weekly basis and really showing the difficulties and the good things we've done, I think those are the moments really shows me that this is the proudest accomplishment. It's a combination of team work and on-going conversation and building up that this is a very rich experience for me.
Comments from Devlin: You are really doing a good job in framing these responses. Bring us to the context and here is what is going on. Some people have asked about that. Definitely can't forget to hear about your approach to answering these questions. Alyssa, that's your favorite question. Tell us more about why and why you ask that follow up about the moments that you feel proud.
Comments form Alyssa: I think this is a real opportunity for empathy for me. This is a real moment for me to really put myself in that seat if I had that experience I described before and connect back how I felt. Oh, I remember that. That felt good: When we were the superhero for the learner, when we were protecting that knowledge from that SME and in that curriculum piece that is close to your retirement. That reminded me of old video game in the arcade that we are not playing anymore. They are on the way to be decommissioned. We save something there. I think for me it is really thinking about what stands out for Min, how comfortable is she bragging herself, how comfortable is she talking about her wins and owning that, what is it that really motivates her, what in there really make her feel proud of herself. Is it that the people she helped? Is that the learners she saved? Is the curriculum and knowledge she preserved? What motivates Min? I am really looking for that and who is she as a person? Thinking about her personality and drivers and how could I learn to motivate her and coach her by aligning the right types of work with her drivers. For me, it is really thinking about my pipeline of work and the projects that I had from a tactical perspective, how can I leverage Min there, but also I want to know her. I want to know what makes her tick, I want to understand from a psychology perspective how I can lite the right fire and attach her value, how she gets value and meaning out of work, to some of the work maybe isn't inspiring sometimes, but how can I tweak it for her to where it will be something she asks for more of. That benefits the work for business but also takes care of Min what makes her feel good about herself and her work.
Answer (239 words, 2 minutes)
Situation: In my previous job as a curriculum developer, a senior curriculum developer, also a team lead, had a family emergency after signing a new client and working with them for a week. The project got off track immediately after the team lead left.
Task: I was already managing several projects at that point, but I was assigned this new client and became the new team lead. I knew the stakes were very high. If we lost this client, then we wouldn't meet our quarterly goal. Our stakeholders will lose trust in us too.
Action: What I ended up doing were four things.
First, I reached out to our project manager and gathered all the necessary resources relevant to the client and the project.
Second, I carefully evaluated and restructured my task list, ensuring that I prioritized my tasks in terms of their importance and urgency.
Third, I quickly learned the new skills required for the project and worked out a consistent plan to meet with the client.
Fourth, I optimized the workflow by breaking down the project into small parts, rearranging these parts, delegating these parts to my team members, reporting to our project manager regularly, and getting weekly feedback from our stakeholders.
Result: The end product was delivered ahead of time. The client was very impressed with the end product. They decided to work with us on another two big projects for the rest of the year.
Comments from Alyssa: Min answered that question in her response on when she failed with her project she had to misquote upfront and then got proper estimate and learn to overestimate at the end. The biggest thing is not suffering in silence and learning to ask for help. There is a huge stigma about coming into corporate learning. Our instinct (is that) as adults, we do not like to be judged by our peers, but that's something that happens. We don't like to ask for help. We don't like to seem we don't know. The reality is you could learn something from everybody you meet, in a team setting or with people who depend on you. Anyone who plays sport knows that there is so much worse to suffer in silence, not thinking about the collective. It is just raise your hand and ask for help early. Something on my team. This is more like a managerial report, behavior I look for and someone who knows when to escalate and to get the timing right. Early enough, it still can fix, but it's not too late where it's ego. For me, I try relentlessly to be someone who is authentic, not driven by ego. I want folks to feel that for me, hold me accountable to that, and also allow me accountable to that. Asking for help is a huge skill and behavior that demonstrates humility and also that team spirit.
Answer (72 words, 0.5 minute)
I love doing things with people, spending time with my family in nature, teaching kids languages and mathematics. I love learning how machine translation works because of my background and interests in language. I love creating plant-based recipes. I am still thinking about whether I should share with people my passion for that since I got some attention on that on other social media platform. Stand up comedy (as an audience).
Comments from Alyssa: I love that. I am a huge foodie. Plant-based is definitely an undeveloped part of my repertoire, so I would love to learn more about that. If you are willing to share anything, that would be awesome. We actually have another person on my team who is a vegan and she's a new vegan due to health reason. Maybe you two can become friends and share some of your common interests.
Comments from Devlin: We got some vegan in the chat. Vegan here too! Min, I didn't here you talk about photography. We were looking at your site yesterday. You have some really impressive photographs. That's really cool.
Answer (188 words, 1.5 minute):
First of all, read the job description. Really read it and most importantly know the company, the products, the solutions, the values. These are very important. How much you know and how much you care about the position you are applying for really reflects in a 30-minutes interview. Those are necessary preparation for writing out the answers to the questions. Keeping those big pictures in mind will help us form the answers. One of the method that I use is the STAR method, situation, task, action, and result. Use concise sentences (1-2 sentences) in each component. The third thing I would like to do is time myself. I tend to talk a lot because I come from academia. Being a professor, I talk a lot in class, so I purposefully time myself in this case. How much do I need to answer that question? How many words can I say in 1 minute? I did that all the time: 130 words in 1 minute. This quality control seems to be a bit excessive, but it is really helping me have wriggle room to adjust. That is my approach.
Comments from Devlin: The STAR method is a popular and good way to respond to interview questions. It really paints the full picture and ties everything together. Nice work executing that.
Comments from Alyssa: I will also add that start with sparkle. That's how I would describe it. Still have sparkle. Whether that is your nerdiness or your language so something, still have something that is you. That's what will make me remember you, not something that is so sanitized and such a great answer, but I don't remember you. Start with sparkle.
