Written by Brendan Langen, Director of Product Design & Development at Capsim
The CapsimInbox Authoring Platform helps employers hire the right candidate for the role. You can put a job candidate through a moment in your job and see how they handle it, before you hire anyone. Use the Authoring Platform to create an experiential situational judgment test (SJT) that will help you decide if your candidate is right for the job. What could be a better way to find out than by actually seeing how they perform?
Let’s take a personal case as an example.
At Capsim, I lead the Product Design & Development team. My team is made up of Designers and Product Managers, the people who work tirelessly and creatively to create the experiences you go through as instructors, students, and participants.
As a Product Manager, few things are more important than prioritizing what to work on next, because there is a cost tied to each project. Choose to work on a brand-new feature, and we may encounter new risks and spend more time than we planned for. Opt to make few changes, and your customers may clamor for more or choose another product, altogether. It’s a fine line.
We are fortunate to have a wealth of engaged users, always happy to provide us with feedback and ideas on what they hope for. This makes us happy; we have a direct line to learn from the people we care most about. Yet, this also brings new challenges. Last year, we had hundreds of new feature requests, so choosing what to work on is critical. We can’t get to everything, and there is plenty we want to do!
Last fall, I had to hire a new Product Manager. With everything a Product Manager is responsible for, I wanted to make sure we brought the right person aboard – someone who knew how to ask questions, think deeply, analyze the situation, and lead the team around them.
So I built an inbox simulation.
The first edition of CapsimInbox: Product Management was a simple, 15-minute SJT that took me a half-day to design and two hours to build in the Authoring Platform. By putting candidates into a potential day-in-the-life, I got to see them in action. How would they prioritize a key customer request vs. a critical bug? Was there a framework to their thinking, or were they winging it?
The results of the microsimulation itself were helpful but hearing the candidates’ rationale made this so effective. By asking, ‘Why did you choose that?’, we were given a peek into the heads of a potential future coworker. Was this someone who we wanted making key decisions? In a way, this allowed me to ‘try before I buy.’ I got to see how someone would respond to a real situation in our workplace, then hear them talk through it.
In the past, I have used different exercises to assess someone’s judgment – a card sorting exercise to design a new feature for a networking app, a whiteboard exercise to map out components of their favorite product, and other less effective exercises. Nothing has compared to using an inbox simulation.
Using CapsimInbox as a hiring tool changed my thinking. It shifted the focus from assessing someone’s resume and interview responses to seeing how they handled a simulated work experience and hearing their thought process. After the candidate had chosen the project to work on next, the Inbox asked them to type their rationale and then explain it to me. In an instant, I got a clearer look at the burning question I needed to answer – do I want to work with this person?
In less than a day, we had built a new tool to change the way we hire people, all with CapsimInbox.
Our first hire using CapsimInbox was a roaring success. Since then, we have created more inbox simulations to hire new Capsimians. Each candidate goes through our internal Culture Fit microsimulation so we can identify if they are a good fit, and they can understand if they want to work with us.
The best relationships are created with both sides in mind. Turnover is always a problem when two sides know vastly different things about each other. With the CapsimInbox Authoring Platform, you can give candidates a look into the work they will do, while assessing how they think through the problem. Both sides have a better understanding of what’s to come. Win-win.
And today, we’d love to share an authentic inside look for both potential candidates and our team.
If you want to see CapsimInbox: Product Management or have a role to fill, reach out to me – authoring@capsim.com. We would love to show you how Inbox can help.
Unveil if your next hire is right for your company. You can get started and create your own experience using our authoring platform.
