Heuristic Interviewing vs Logical Interviewing

“To be useful, your beliefs should be constrained by the logic of probability.” – Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)

Have you ever interviewed someone and had a gut instinct that they’ll be the perfect fit for your team? Maybe they’re no more skilled than the other candidates, but something just feels right? – That’s your heuristic brain speaking to you.

As Daniel Kahneman explains in his 2011 book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, there are two ways humans approach any situation: logically and heuristically.

A logical approach entails reviewing data, analysing facts, and using evidence to reach a conclusion or decision. While a heuristic approach relies on something a lot more primal… gut instinct.

This school of thought got us thinking. The same thing happens in interviews: The logical thinker will approach the interview with some technical tests they need the candidate to pass and a scoring system for their answers. While the heuristic thinker will simply ask the questions, let the conversation flow, and make a decision based on how they feel it went.

Although neither approach is wrong, the best decisions are made when you use a combination of both, with “beliefs constrained by the logic of probability.”

So what does this look like in an interview?

Logical Interviewing

When you’re preparing your interview process for your next vacancy, stand back and make a note of the questions you’d like to ask. Think about what your desired candidate would be like from a logical perspective. What qualities will they have? What software will they have experience with?

Note: Questions determined at this phase shouldn’t be solely based on the candidate’s skillset. While their skills are important, whenever we’re speaking with clients throughout their recruitment journey, we encourage them to come up with a list of interview questions that’ll allow them to gauge the candidate on both skills and attitude. Or, in other words, find the right fit both technically and culturally. This can be dependent on a lot of factors including your leadership style & what you’re trying to achieve, but it’s a great way to ensure you’re finding the best fit for every role. We call it ‘Hiring Off the Line’ and you can find out more about it here.

So, when you’re preparing for an interview, draft a set of at least 3 skills-based questions and 3 attitude-based questions that you believe will help you get to know a candidate’s capabilities & personality type.

For example, if you’re speaking with a potential candidate for a Cloud Sales role, you may be interested in gauging their skills in communication, writing proposals, and their knowledge of the Cloud market. From the cultural perspective, you may want to assess their attitude to problem solving or working under pressure. So, devise questions around these criteria to help you determine their proficiency in each key area.

Heuristic Interviewing

Once you’ve determined this list of questions, create a scorecard for yourself (any anyone else conducting the interview) where you’ll each rank how you feel about the candidate’s answer to each question. For example, if you’re asking a Cloud Sales applicant: “Can you tell me about a time when you’ve written proposals and it worked in your favour?”

Candidate A may answer: “I work on proposals all the time. In fact, just this week I worked on 3 proposals and received X response” While Candidate B may answer: “Yeah, um, I often write proposals in my current role and they usually receive a good response from the client.”

Likely, even reading the examples above, you have a heuristic feeling that you’d be leaning towards Candidate A. Although they both gave the same answer logically (yes, I write proposals that receive a positive response), Candidate A gave their answer with confidence and evidence to back it up, while Candidate B stumbled slightly and their answer felt more uncertain. This would determine what heuristic score you give each candidate out of 10.

The same feeling will occur with each question you ask, whether it’s a cultural assessment like “Tell me about a time you went above and beyond and saw positive results” or a skill-based question like the example above. So, with each question you ask, jot down your heuristic score. By the end of each interview, you should have a total score that you can use to compare candidates, allowing you to rank them based on Skills, Attitude, and Heuristic Impression. This extra level of assessment will help give you that confidence you’re making the right decision, using a combination of both logical questions and gut instinct.

Review Your Interview Style

Interviewing candidates for your start-up can be tricky, especially in a struggling economy it can feel like the pressure is on to make the best decision as quickly as possible. Or, you may be tempted to hold onto the reigns and delay hiring for fear of the unknown.

Whatever stage you’re at, we’re here to help. As your growth partners we go above and beyond the responsibilities of an average recruiter. We’re here to help with everything from determining which hires to make & in which order, to fundraising & investment support so you can grow your team, to helping you prepare the best interview process that’ll have you feeling confident in your big decisions.

We even offer shared risk terms to lessen the upfront costs of recruitment and save you time, cost, and risk. Get in touch with a member of our team or find out more about how we help our clients here.