Andrew King of Ocado Technology on Great Hiring Practices and Designing Culture

Key Takeaways

Context effect says that anything that happens in decision making that is altered by the context in which the decision is made
The compromise effect – when faced with a choice of options we try to avoid the extremes
These types of effects impact hiring processes and culture design and have to be actively mitigated against
Design your interviewing questions very carefully to explore the things that will actually help in the decision-making process
The content of an interview is the candidate’s responses, not the questions that are asked
To implement effective change, follow the principles rather than blindly following a process

Show Notes

00:22 Introductions
00:42 The goal of building the best tech in the best possible way
01:12 People are irrationally fallible, in predictable ways
01:47 Describing context effects – anything that happens in decision making that is altered by the context in which the decision is made
02:28 Examples of how context effect plays out
02:50 The compromise effect – when faced with a choice of options we try to avoid the extremes
03:30 Ways that Ocado is using these ideas to improve their hiring process
05:20 Distinguishing criteria for interviewing questions to help avoid the context effect
05:45 Design your interviewing questions very carefully to explore the things that will actually help in the decision-making process
07:06 The Ocado culture of building exactly what is needed rather than using off the shelf products
07:48 The content of an interview is the candidate’s responses, not the questions that are asked
08:20 Identify what someone in the role needs to know and craft the questions to expose that knowledge
08:56 The value of behavioral interviews to explore a values match
09:18 If someone doesn’t pass the behavioral interview they are not even considered for a role, irrespective of their technical competency
10:07 Designing a culture and ways to help imbed cultural values in a group
10:38 There is no single approach – different techniques and tools will be applicable in different areas of the organisation
11:09 There is no easy way to imbed a culture – you have to work out the nuances in the different areas
11:32 Follow the principles rather than blindly following a process
11:42 Changing the culture of an organisation takes up to seven years
12:03 The importance of the onboarding process to the culture of an organisation
13:05 The way the couching group support the various areas of the organisation to support the culture
13:57 In order to be effective the coaches need high empathy and facilitation skills – they are part of the organisation
14:49 To adopt some of these ideas, use a Kanban approach – start where you are now, identify what needs fixing and work on one thing at a time
15:32 Identify where the biggest problem is and address that first
15:58 Use small steps and nudges an environment that brings out the best in people
16:13 Complex effects will be rife – it is inevitable
16:32 Use the sprint backlog idea from Scrum or WIP Limits in Kanban to help the people leading the change not become overwhelmed – focus on the next small step rather than the entire problem space

Mentioned:

QCon Plus is an online international software development conference spaced over 2 weeks for senior software engineers, software architects, and team leaders. Focus on the topics that matter in software development right now. Deep-dive with 64+ world-class software leaders. Stay ahead of the adoption curve and shape your roadmap with QCon Plus.