In the Scarlett Letter #43, I shared the merits of behavioral interviewing, along with the STAR technique for responding.
To refresh your memory, ‘behavioral interviewing’ techniques follow the notion that ‘past behaviors will predict future behaviors’. Therefore, depending upon how you have responded (or learned from) a situation in the past, it will most certainly paint a good picture of how you’ll behave within similar situations in the future.
The beauty of behavioral interviewing is that responses within the STAR format (situation/task; action; result) are highly applicable to many scenarios beyond interviewing for a new professional position.
My clients prepare anecdotes in the STAR format that they can use during team interviews for actual projects. Think about it; when delivering a presentation, what most ‘sticks’ in the minds of the audience are the stories told. Ideally, your stories will be on-topic and in support of your important messages.
Think about how these claims work as stand-alones: “Our firm considers your project to be the most important one in our office.” Or, “We assure you that the team you see here will be the team that you will work with throughout the course of the project.” Or, “Our quality control process and checks and balances in house are second-to-none.” Or, “Our relationships with local government entities are solid and will make a positive impact on how this project fares from a schedule standpoint.”
Now, think about those same exact claims—which sound (in my opinion) empty and potentially careless—with an accompanying anecdote/story. Something concise, something where, hmm, perhaps you learn the situation, the task you were charged with, how you and your firm handled it , and the final result. Even if, mind you, the result was a learning experience as to what NOT to do next time!
Yet, when on the spot in a project interview, team members tend to let nerves take over, and even during the questions/answers section, they are not always able to recollect stories that would most support their claims.
See where I’m going with this? My suggestion (further elaborated in my article Nailing the Q&A Portion of the Interview, published in ZweigWhite’s AE Marketing Letter) is to prepare a some STARS far in advance of a formal project interview. Develop them as a firm, as a discipline, as a department, as a studio….and even advise individuals prepare a handful for themselves to help validate and describe their role on the project with solid ‘proof/support’. This goes for the mid-level designer that may be partaking in the interview, to the project manager, and even up to the principal-in-charge. Your concise anecdotes, told in the STAR format, will stick, and will be far more credible and convincing for your prospect to select your firm for the next project!
In addition to using these to inspire succinct anecdotes during Q&A, you can also weave the stories into your formally prepared presentation as illustrations. Take a look at those behavioral interview questions again. Which of them might be concerns in your own clients’ minds? Which ones could actually be re-framed to apply to a firm/team rather than an individual interviewing for a job? Use those questions as inspiration when preparing your arsenal of STARS.
Finally, keep in mind that once your firm’s STARS are documented, they may also serve as ideal stories to include within your written marketing literature. One thing is certain, that format will keep your writing style tight, and might be a nice juxtaposition between the bulleted data and say, a project description.