Most candidates can talk their way through hypothetical questions, so I tend to focus on what they have done in the past or what they would do differently if they could do it over (to see if they learn from mistakes or even recognize that they made a mistake). I have also asked candidates about how they might manage other products (I have picked the product and let them pick the product).

I like the idea of giving a product demo and then having the candidate write up a requirement for a specific feature. I might try that the next time I interview a candidate.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like you get a lot of insight into the person’s abilities with that test. How long have you been using that kind of test?

Have you ever encountered any problems in the tests or the test takers? e.g. refusing to take the test.

Saeed

Information I was able to pick up from this exercise were
a) did they follow my instructions and get the feature fully documented in light detail or get bogged down in describing where to position the edit button and not get onto the rest
b) The types of things they chose to focus on really illustrated their strengths and thinking. For example, were they more focused on presentation and user experience type features or on technical type features.
c) Overall writing skills
d) You could clearly see who had experience with detailed requirements writing & who did not

I had a discussion with the candidate after about the document, and questioned them on why they covered certain items, and why they left out certain things. That part of the discussion was very helpful as well. I found the testing very useful, but obviously time consuming to set up and execute !

In this particular case requirements writing was a particularly important part of the job I was hiring for and so was my area of focus but I could envision doing other kinds of tests to suit the specific needs of the role. For example under the right kind of circumstances I think a requirements prioritization type test could be effective.