How to hire data talent with business skills

Let’s say you need to hire for your data team

You need a new data analyst, BI analyst, or data engineer.

The default pattern is for the candidate to interview with the data team members and technical leadership.

That’s great at landing skilled technical data people on your team.

But how do you assess if the candidate can talk with business users and understand their goals?

Try this. Replace one of the technical interviews with someone from the business teams.

Maybe a marketing manager. Or supply chain team lead.

No technical questions allowed. Just a 30 or 60-minute conversation about the business.

What could you learn from that?

Can the candidate understand the core function of the business? Are they curious enough to ask probing questions? Are they capable of taking apart business problems? Can they carry on a conversation about a non-technical area of the company?

Overall, you will learn if they can communicate and connect with the business leader.

Find data people who understand business problems. It removes another layer of friction in their data experience.

I’m here,

Sawyer