Hiring: Anticipating communication abilities

In some companies, another step has been introduced to the hiring process: communication tests, not language tests, but an assessment of how well someone can write a document for different audiences. Again, something that, if it had been more popular earlier in my career, I would surely have failed.

For people managers, product managers, and product marketers, I believe this step should be an essential part of the hiring process. I have been very fortunate to work with excellent product managers, and one thing that sets them apart from others is their ability to communicate with multiple audiences.

Another area I feel should be essential in hiring is critical thinking and problem-solving. When I interviewed at Facebook, my most enjoyable round was focused on problem-solving. Starting with a broad question like "how would you tackle spam or impersonation," the interviews allowed candidates the freedom to talk through solutions. For me, being the interviewer in this scenario was also a favorite, as it provided insight into someone's logic. At the end of the interview, my question would always be: how would you communicate the need for this to product managers, and how would you communicate this solution to users?

What I discovered was that the vast majority of interviewees could provide a good solution, but when it came to planning and communicating it, they sometimes fell short. Now, this is very coachable through document feedback and some light guidance early on. However, what I found to be effective was providing individual contributors who struggled with this a skeleton structure or template that they could build on themselves.