#215 - Asking questions

Asking good questions is key to learning. Some tips are to keep simple and follow-up when necessary.

Here are some examples of questions:

- What motivated you to get into xxx ?

Follow-up: What was your vision at the time ?

- What were the mistakes you learned from at the beginning ?

- Do you think that there are as many opportunities now as when you started ?

- Summarize your winning strategy ?

- What are the best things you done ?

- What is the most important project you worked on ?

- What is the most difficult problem you worked on ?

- Why xxx is so important to you ?

- If you were in charge of xxx today, what would you do ?

Follow-up: What else would you do ?

- How do you embrace xxx ?

- What have been the main challenges along the way ?

- Why do you think you have been so successful ?

- How do you stay at the top as a SME ?

- How do you think about team structure ?

- How do you look at mistakes ?

- When do you sack ?

- Why is xxx important ?

- What do you think xxx will look like in 5 years ?

- How do you hire the best engineers ?

- How do you see if someone is a good problem solver ?

- What's great leadership for you ?

- How do you balance analysis and gut feel in decision making ?

- What are you most curious about now ?

- What's your advice for young people ?

- What's the best book you have read ?

- How do you behave when stuff hits the fan ?

- When have you been in an overwhelming situation / project ?

Follow-up: How did you solve ?

- What's best: Generalist vs. Specialist ?

- How do you interview / interrogate ?

- Who's the smartest person you have worked with ?

Follow-up: What have you learned from him / her ?

- What's your view on xxx (trendy / hyped topic e.g. I4.0, AI, crypto) ?

- How do you structure / tackle a project ?

- How you define a great xxx (e.g. CEO, APC, etc) ?

- Have you ever been outside your comfort zone ?

Follow-up: How did you react ?

- How do you motivate your team when the moral is low ?

- How do you react when things don't go as planned ?

- What do you think most xxx get wrong ?

- What's the hardest project you have ever worked on ?

- What's the most important skill ?

- How do you deal with failures / mistakes / set-backs ?

- Is there anything else that you would like to tell ?