Copy of The Shortlist Episode 18: Interview Prep Checklist

Your team has been shortlisted! Now what? Who should attend? What topics should you cover? How do you deal with team PTO? And what about prep for the all-important Q&A?? It's a lot to wrap your head around and your project team benefits when Marketing takes the reigns and drafts a plan of action. In this episode, Principal Pursuit Strategist Melissa English joins Wendy to dive into the details of the Interview Prep Checklist.

CPSM CEU Credits: 0.5 | Domain: 4

Podcast Transcript

Welcome to The Shortlist.

We're exploring all things AEC marketing to help your firm win The Shortlist.

I'm your host, Wendy Simmons, and each episode, I'll be joined by one of my team members from Middle of Six to answer your questions.

Today, we're chatting with Melissa English.

Hey, Melissa.

Hi, Wendy.

So, Melissa, you suggested we talk about the Interview Prep Checklist and everything that entails.

We recently were able to present at a conference on this topic, and we felt like it was really well received.

And we wanted to share some of the tidbits that we presented, and also kind of dig even a little bit deeper here on the podcast.

Well, yeah, I feel like it really made sense since The Shortlist is the namesake of our podcast.

So, as it was about time, we talked about shortlist interviews.

Yeah, that's right.

So when you get a call or the email that you've been shortlisted, besides cheering, running around your desk, high-fiving your coworkers, what's next?

Well, yeah, that initial adrenaline rush is always nice.

But one thing I like to do is be prepared for that in advance.

So one of my recommendations is that you have a shortlist checklist that you provide to the project manager or the person who's probably gonna get that notice from the client.

And that will have a list of things you might ask, such as what's the format?

Are we gonna be in-person or virtual?

If we're doing a virtual interview, which platform?

Are we doing Teams, Zoom, some other option?

The typical date, time, duration of the presentation, if they have an agenda of what we should cover, if there's a certain amount of time that should be reserved for question and answer period?

Are we going to get those questions and answers in advance?

So those are just kind of the main particulars to know what's the structure and format.

And then my shortlist checklist has a running list of other things you might ask that I often use, just kind of my best judgment with the person who made the notice, whether it's the actual client's project manager, or if it's an admin assistant, but some of the other things you want to find out are who is the competition?

Sometimes you can find that information out sometimes the client keeps it secret, but there's definitely benefits to knowing who you're up against, finding out who's going to be on the interview panel, finding out whether they're going to provide the ranking or the score sheets for the proposal going into the interview.

So you have that information to help you prepare.

And then with that information in hand, that gives you a good basis for the next steps, which include getting your kickoff meeting scheduled.

Is there anything else you like to find out in that initial moment, Wendy?

Well, you know, as you were running through that, I was immediately thinking, how do we remember to even ask these questions?

Or I think I've been through the experience where I don't not personally get the notification.

I hear from the project executive or principal, someone who received that information.

Have they already responded and said, yeah, great, thanks, we're so excited.

We'll see you on Tuesday without asking those questions.

I mean, how do we get in there and get our list and confirm that, well, these aren't things that we already know or should know from the RFP, that kind of thing.

I mean, I just feel like there's a lot of stuff you ran through and do you have any best practices for making sure you get to ask those questions?

What I like to do is when I send the final copy of the proposal around, I send along the shortlist checklist with that email and say, well, when they call for the shortlist to let us know we're going to an interview, make sure you ask these things.

And sure, sometimes people forget.

And if we've forgotten, then I like to kind of get a little quick huddle with that person and say, these are the things we should find out.

Do you want me to call back?

Do you want to call back?

Just so we're on the same page.

And if they already asked and feel like, you know, I found out the date and time and I just don't feel comfortable calling them back.

We can kind of have a discussion around that, whether that makes sense.

So my best tip is to send out that shortlist checklist with the proposal so they have it handy.

And yeah, yeah, they don't they don't forget.

I mean, we all get excited when we hear that great news, right?

And so and you want to be really positive and have a good interaction with your client.

But there are some other things we want to figure out.

And, you know, when we're doing the proposal process, we talk about how we want to be thinking about preparing for the interview at that stage, you know, not waiting for the shortlist to actually get organized.

So it's probably been some of these things in your conversation in the planning process or just having it on the radar of everyone on the team.

Maybe we're filling in some of those bullet points that, you know, we were able to confirm who that competition is or whatever those those details are, so that we don't have to ask a question that we are, we already have the answer to.

But then those remaining pieces can be highlighted.

Really easy to catch your eye when it's time to ask the question.

Well, yeah, I think especially with the competition, sometimes you hear through the grapevine or through your network who submitted and who didn't submit.

And I've certainly had times where I was surprised that we were for sure this firm was going to submit.

And they didn't, and for various reasons why that might happen.

But yeah, I definitely agree with not asking information you already know, but also good to verify what you think you know.

Right, definitely.

The more information your team has going into the interview, the more comfortable and confident they will be speaking about the project.

You know, they'll just be well armed for those conversations and having them guess on the really basic stuff is just unnecessary.

You mentioned that during the proposal process, you should be preparing for the interview and that can be a great time to schedule that kickoff meeting.

Checking the RFP, seeing when they're going to shortlist and just getting the date on the calendar the day after that announcement.

Sure, that might slide, but people's calendars are so packed.

Making that time earlier is better than waiting for the official notice.

So you can always cancel meetings.

Sometimes it's harder to find time on people's calendars as it gets compressed with the interview looming.

That's such a simple and effective tip, scheduling those in advance.

I think it puts the, you're like in a winning mindset in that way too.

You're blocking the time and you're anticipating and you're right, everyone's schedules are so busy.

So simply getting on the calendars in advance is a great way to be more prepared.

Yeah, and another advantage of that is if you're at the proposal stage and you start looking at when the interviews are and the project manager or the principal in charge and like half the team are all on vacation, then maybe you need to rethink whether we're still going to go after this.

Maybe we need to rethink whether we talk to the client, whether there's any flexibility on when the interviews are held.

So being out in front of it has a few different benefits for the team.

Right.

I've done an interview, it was an in-person interview, but someone, a really important player, probably the project manager was going to be in China during the interview.

So we did a whole video and we had him out on the job site.

He did a tour of his current project.

He talked about the certain aspects of this project that were really important.

And it took time to prepare for that.

Obviously, we had to be ahead of the game because we had to be before he was out of the country.

But it was worth it.

It was really well received.

And you can only implement those big ideas when you're thinking fully through the whole selection process.

Yeah, that reminds me.

I have an experience where we did a video at the site, and it was kind of dual benefit in that the entire team all went up before this person went on vacation.

So then they got to walk the site together and did this video recording of the main person who was going to be out.

But it also built some team camaraderie and team unity around seeing the project together and starting to gather ideas.

So there's lots of good things that can come out of unexpected things like someone's going to be on vacation.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome because not just the person sitting and talking, like a talking head in the room presenting their information, but they're actually interacting with their team, visiting with the other people that they'll demonstrate in what they'll be like to work with.

That is really the main point of an interview anyway.

So that's awesome.

If you need a low tech solution, I have definitely seen on multiple occasions, people bring in like a paper cutout of the person.

I mean, I'm not joking, like four times in my whatever, 15 years.

So it happens and it sounds a little silly, but it's actually been very positive.

So think outside the box or outside the video and find a way to have everyone present at the interview can be pretty important.

But Melissa, that kind of makes me think, how do you decide who even needs to go to the interview?

An interview is a presentation of your team, a way to connect with the client.

And anytime you're getting ready to give a presentation, you need to consider your audience.

So that's the reason you want to know who is on that interview panel.

You can decide who should attend the interview from your side based on who's coming from the client side.

So say they have someone from the maintenance department, then that probably means long-term maintenance of whatever you're designing or building is important.

So you should have someone on your team that can speak to that, can even help you decide what topics you want to cover at the interview.

Say this is a project that has a lot of community involvement, and they're going to have an actual community member, or it's a school, and they're going to have teachers on the panel.

They might not have any experience with architecture and engineering and construction, so then you maybe need to use less jargon and explain things in a little bit different way than if you had a very technical audience.

So it really can color what you put into your presentation based on who's going to be at the interview.

Have you ever had the experience where the shortlist comes out, they provide some instruction, and they say, bring your project manager and your superintendent.

Sorry, I'm just going to lean on the construction side of things, but they only name two people, and they might even say, we do not want to hear from any executives or something really bold like that.

You feel like they're being very limited in the team.

How have you dealt with that before and how do you feel like you bring the right people when they've provided some instruction?

I guess you have to look at that as the client is telling you what they want to see.

So, lean into that and give them what they want.

I mean, the project manager, I feel like the industry has really come to understand that you absolutely have to have the project manager at an interview.

So, that's been something I've seen a lot more.

I've certainly seen less project executive.

Sometimes the project executive or the principal in charge is the stronger speaker.

So, that person may be more forceful in wanting to attend.

So, I think sometimes it's a blessing for the client to tell us that we don't want to see that person.

Sorry, principals and project execs who might be listening.

But yeah, I see it as an advantage.

And then if you feel like there's somebody that's super key to your team, like a specialist of some sort for a key issue on the project, maybe it's sustainability, maybe it's diversity, equity, inclusion, or public involvement.

If it's somebody that's really key to your team, that is the real differentiator, talking to the client and saying, we'd really like you to meet this person for this reason, would that be okay if they came to the interview?

I'm one that I'd rather ask and just kind of get it out on the table.

What do you think about that?

Yeah, I think that's a great approach.

You want to be thoughtful, like how you put that out.

You want to do what the client has asked for.

Like that's our first priority.

But we want to also think through, you know, what would they be missing if we didn't bring this person or this expertise?

And so you're going to balance that and, you know, use it as a way to reach out to them and communicate in a way that's obviously really professional and has courtesy to it.

You want to respect the decisions they've already made, not put more on their plate, but it could be a way to present your team and differentiate your group.

So I think that's very acceptable.

And having that open line of communication, leading up to the interview can actually help your team be, you know, more prepared.

And you're going to bring the right folks in much better than just guessing and then wishing you would have dug a little deeper.

You never want to lose the project, go to the debrief and hear some key thing.

You're like, dang it, we should have asked to bring the sustainable stormwater expert on a team, even though they said not to bring subconsultants.

So another layer of detail when you're choosing your team, especially when you have a really large group, like for a progressive design build pursuit.

We've had some feedback, and I think it's really good, from the owner side that people can wear multiple hats.

And as long as you're clear in communicating that through graphics or the org chart or how they introduce themselves, you do not necessarily have to bring 20 people because the progressive design build framework needs these 20 roles to be filled.

So just keep that in mind, too, that people can wear multiple hats, they probably will, and it needs to be just scaled appropriately to the size of the project.

Yeah, I definitely agree with that one, and that sometimes it's almost easier to talk up the people on your team as, say, the project manager or some senior leader on the team.

You can just talk about how awesome this person is, and they've done X, Y, and Z, and that's why you put them on the team, and it can just be quick.

Especially if you're short on time, you get too many people at the interview and no one has enough time to really make key points.

So yeah, I think that's an important point, and essentially that anyone who's going to an interview should have something meaningful to say and add to the conversation.

Hopefully the days are gone of, you know, let's just bring all the subconsultants just in case there's a question in Q&A.

Right, right.

Only if you're in a proprietary meeting or something where you need to have those experts kind of sitting back and taking note to prepare for the next stage of the proposal.

But otherwise, everyone has a speaking role and should be able to contribute to the conversation.

And honestly, if you only have 30 to 40 minutes to present, you're probably limited to maybe five or six people max that could do that.

Thinking through how can someone play more than one role on the team in terms of what you need to accomplish and key points and Q&A.

Okay, so we started this conversation with that scenario.

You get the email, you get the call, you've been shortlisted, you've now put out those questions, or someone on your team has put out the questions, so you have all of the information in front of you.

Now, what's next?

Now you get to work on that kickoff meeting agenda.

We here at Middle of Six have a draft agenda outline that we start with, and it's gonna have things like assigning the roles on the team, discussing what's your win theme or your value proposition, essentially why you're different from the competition and why you should win.

Identify any additional research needed, be that on the panelists, say you found out the list of the interview panel and through your LinkedIn searches and your Googling, you're just not finding any information.

So kind of having that list of the panel and as much as you can find, maybe you need to do a little more research on competitors, or maybe there's even some more project research that you didn't get done during the preposition or proposal stage and now that you know you're moving to the interview, there might be some things that need to be researched further on the project.

So kind of getting an outline of all those types of topics.

And then taking your first pass at an outline to the presentation.

If you've been given, or 20 minutes, we want you to talk about your project approach, your schedule and your budget, start outlining what that looks like, kind of drafting who you think would speak to those different topics and putting some times to it.

You also start thinking about what your visuals might look like.

Are you going to give a slide deck?

Do you need someone on the team to be doing a conceptual rendering or a site logistics plan or a concept site plan that you're going to want to get them moving on because the clock is ticking?

And also thinking about whether you might do some sort of collaborative session.

If it's an in-person, is there a whiteboard session you might want to do?

If you're handling this interview more like a kickoff meeting for the project, or if it's a virtual interview, you can use tools like Mural or Miro to do collaborative sessions.

And then the part that sometimes I've seen be forgotten at kickoff meetings is Q&A.

So much can ride on being selected and how you perform in the question and answer period of the interview that that's something you want to address at the kickoff meeting.

Do you have anything to add to that?

That was all excellent and definitely kind of follows what we wanted to address at the kickoff meeting.

When you're thinking about the agenda piece of it, I guess I just would share with other marketers how valuable it is.

Is to come with some content already outlined.

I think of team's responsibility is to sort of bring the project to life, how they're going to build it and digging into what the challenges are and solving some of those problems early so they can communicate it and having that team chemistry.

And something that we can help them with is worrying about all the little details, the technical components and where to show up and is it on Zoom or Teams, you know, anything like that, including the agenda.

Like you said, starting to draft either, maybe there's been some hints in the RFP or through The Shortlist that we know this is generally what they want us to talk about or very, very specifically, exactly what we have to talk about and how much time, or maybe there's nothing provided and they said, we, you know, the client says, we'd like you to come prepared to talk through your proposal and, you know, maybe 30 minutes of Q&A or whatever.

And so it's very open.

But I think marketing has enough experience.

You have a historical database of many interviews, hopefully, and you can kind of look back.

What was it like when you interviewed with this client in the past?

Anything that you can do to kind of map out what that agenda would be.

And why I recommend marketing do that is because your team is kind of, you got a lot of pressure, right?

There's maybe freaking out, maybe not freaking out.

I don't know.

But they're, you know, they're coming in and thinking, oh my goodness, how am I going to prepare for this interview when I've got all of this other stuff to do and I've got my project and it just feels very stressful.

But if you come in with the general outline, these proven best practices of how you should go through the content, you can kind of reduce some stress and take that off their plate.

You know, they don't have to struggle with that piece of it so much.

They could just provide some input.

Yeah.

And I think it also, it's easier for people to kind of poke holes at something if they have a template or an outline of something to look at.

For example, the state of Washington has a very formulaic score sheet that they use for shortlist interviews.

And so I was working with a client, we kind of went through, I had come with the outline, and the order of things on this state score sheet is a little strange and not the most logical flow for a presentation.

But usually you follow that order to make it easy for the client to fill out the score sheet.

So I had a kickoff meeting with a client where we had the outline and the durations based on that standard score sheet.

And one of the subconsultants was like, this is really strange.

Why are they asking about this?

This seems disjointed.

And so we had a whole conversation about switching it all up.

And I just, this client had done a lot of work for the state of Washington.

So I just flat out asked them, have you ever not followed the order of the score sheet?

No.

I was like, is this the project you want to do that on?

They're like, you know what?

No, we're going to follow the order, even though it's strange.

So we made it work, but at least gave a framework to talk about, explain why we do it this way.

And, you know, I'm all for trying something different.

I'm not I wasn't going to outright say, I don't think you should do that.

But let's have the conversation.

And the conclusion was, we're not going to risk it.

This project is too important to us.

Yeah, right.

I like it.

It's a thoughtful decision, and then you can all move forward together, feeling like you understand the best way forward.

And then because everyone is so busy, you know, I think they're going to be really thankful that you've at least given them that starting point.

You know, they don't have to, I don't know, invent it or look through the RFP and find it themselves.

I mean, these are just really great, helpful things that marketing can do to just respect everyone's time and get them to the real heart of what they need to focus on.

Right.

Oh, now I realize I only have a five-minute speaking part, not a 30-minute speaking part for this presentation.

That can do a lot to put someone's nerves at ease in what can be a stressful situation.

So you mentioned spending some time researching the interview panel as part of the kickoff.

That's something that you might do in advance or do as much as you can and then fill in the gaps with the knowledge of the team.

You want to dig into that a little bit more?

Yeah, I've found, especially if you're working with the same clients, keeping a running list.

So I would have a list of all the people, all the project managers at the state of Washington and like whatever intel, whether that was me calling someone in my network because I could not figure out anything about them online other than their name and their title and asking, what's this person's hot buttons?

What's this person's personality like?

Have you interviewed with them?

And keeping a running list by person, by client on what makes these people tick.

So over time, then you'll have this great repository of all this information.

And then sometimes it's information from the business development team of who's been meeting with these clients in preparation for this project.

But really leaning on your team and your network outside of your firm to get information about what's important to these people on the panel.

Right.

All the content that we're presenting in the interview is hopefully targeted right to what they care most about.

And sometimes it comes to personal preferences too.

So starting that database and not having to recreate it every time is a fantastic idea.

And it's a way to make real progress as you're going through the pursuits, to eventually get the win at the end of this effort.

What about Q&A?

How do you see that fitting in?

Well, I like to see Q&A addressed at the kickoff meeting.

I think we're not servicing our clients well when we wait until the moment they're walking out the door to be like, Oh yeah, don't forget to practice the Q&A in the car before you sign on to the meeting.

So putting that in people's head at the start of the process, at that kickoff meeting is really good form.

And also those things are going to start percolating and people are going to think about it as they're thinking about their speaking parts and thinking about what's important to the client.

They're going to start kind of uncovering what types of questions might be asked.

I also see a theme here.

I like to create lists and keep track of things, but I also like to keep a running list of Q&A and also categorize that by the client because some clients tend to ask the same questions over and over.

Some project managers have hot buttons that they're always going to ask you about.

So I found that's a great way to reference back, oh, we're interviewing with the same city again.

What did they ask us last time?

Or what did we get tripped up on that we need to do a better job of weaving our key message into this answer?

I think a wonderful role for the principal or project executive in the interview is to try to memorize the Q&A that actually comes up so that they can report it back and we can add it to your running list of questions because there's nothing like having the real questions to understand and then you can keep practicing them and sometimes they're softballs and sometimes they're really challenging.

So we want to have that on the list.

I would also say that I've heard this so many times from our clients that practicing Q&A is the thing that always falls off the list.

So marketers, please do yourself a favor and just have it on the agenda for every single interview prep.

It needs to be visually there as a reminder of how important it is.

And even if you only spend five or ten minutes each time, by the time you're going to the interview, you've spent 30 minutes to an hour practicing it.

And that's totally sufficient, but don't leave it to the last minute like Melissa said.

Additional research might come out of being stumped on a question.

Like if you had to back up some piece of the schedule that had some material shortage, long lead item and you don't really have all the particulars, then you've identified another item that needs to be researched that you're not scrambling at the last moment going, oh, we didn't dig into that, now we don't have time.

So I think that's another reason to think about that Q&A early.

Yeah, and the team may have different answers to a question, so it's really great to figure that out and get some alignment before you have to have that arm wrestling match in front of your client.

It's not super comfortable.

Yeah, definitely want to avoid that.

So Wendy, have you had the experience where the client says, just come in, we want to ask you some questions?

And if so, how do you prepare for that?

Well, I mean, yes, it usually comes in the form of, we want to talk about the project, just want to talk about the project.

And I would say most teams welcome that because that's what they want to do.

They want to, we just want to go in and roll up our sleeves and talk about the project.

So that's pretty common.

That's good that maybe both sides are interested in that.

And regardless, if you have a super solid interview agenda that feels like you can't budge the order of anything, or if you have something that's totally free form and you get to do whatever you want, the important thing that is on your task list is to dig into the project, understand as much as you can any of the potential challenges, anything that is a hot button or on the wish list for the client and the owner.

I mean, the more you know about the project, the easier it is to go into that interview or meeting setting and just talk about it and help them.

And I think that's actually really positive.

As a marketing person, it's more challenging to prepare in that way because you have to prepare 360 degrees.

360 degrees, right?

That's a full circle.

That's a full circle.

Yeah.

But you know what I'm saying?

It's like that's, I think it's a pretty positive experience when you get to talk about the project.

You're more likely to be able to hit on the things that matter to the owner's team.

So that's great and welcome that, but it's going to take some research and embrace that.

Yeah.

And knowing more about the project allows you to find those stories in your experience that show how you've solved a similar project challenge before, as opposed to just speaking about your experience generally.

Oh, you know, one thing to look out for, though, I guess, is to go too deep into one area because you're really interested in it or you know a lot about it or someone in your team just happens to be of that mindset or style where they just want to get into the weeds.

You can't spend all of your interview time talking about one element of the project.

You need to be able to come back up to 30,000 feet, look at what's the next important thing to talk about and pivot a little bit.

So you just present the full picture of your team's expertise.

Yeah, I think that's a good point.

If you, as the marketing team, know that there's someone who tends to go off in the weeds or get distracted or has a hard time staying within time constraints, identifying another person on the interview to be the one that kind of pulls them back into the time schedule and the time constraints or, you know, like, great, Bob, let's get back into that Q&A, I think we need to move on to this.

So kind of preparing for that, you know, you get to know the personalities of the folks you're working with and having strategies to combat their weaknesses.

All right, that was about our Interview Prep Checklist and a little bit onto the first kickoff meeting for interviews.

Obviously, there's way more in the subject, so we'll keep talking about it at another episode.

But for today, Melissa, thanks so much.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Wendy.

It was great.

It's my favorite topic.

We could talk forever.

I know, and we will.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

The Shortlist is presented by Middle of Six and hosted by me, Wendy Simmons, the principal marketing strategist.

Kyle Davis is our producer with Graphic Design and Digital Marketing by Alison Rose.

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Until next time, keep on hustling.

The Shortlist is a podcast that explores all things AEC marketing. Hosted by Middle of Six Principal, Wendy Simmons, each episode features members of the MOS team, where we take a deep dive on a wide range of topics related to AEC marketing including: proposal development, strategy, team building, business development, branding, digital marketing, and more. You can listen to our full archive of episodes here.