Field Guides / Interview Design
Questions that collect evidence. Not impressions.
Most interview questions measure how well a candidate prepares for interviews. The Evidence Prompt Library is designed to do something different: surface what the candidate has actually produced, under real conditions, against a real standard.
Each prompt is built on the four-move Results-Based Interviewing™ structure. No hypotheticals. No credit for team outcomes. Scored evidence only.
The four-move structure behind every prompt.
01
Anchor in the outcome
Every prompt is grounded in a specific result the role requires - not a competency or a trait. The candidate is asked to prove they have produced that outcome before, not that they are capable of producing it.
02
Require a specific example
No hypotheticals. No 'what would you do.' The candidate must name a real situation, a real decision, and a real result. Vague answers are not counted as evidence.
03
Separate what they did from what the team did
The follow-up to every example is a probe: what specifically did you do, versus what did the team do or the environment do? Credit for team outcomes is not evidence of individual capability.
04
Score the evidence, not the impression
Each prompt is scored on a written rubric before the interview. Strong, moderate, or insufficient - defined in advance so that two interviewers running the same conversation can compare evidence, not compare feelings.
Four dimensions. Eight sample prompts.
The full library covers all six diagnostic dimensions across twenty role archetypes. These eight are drawn from the four highest-drift dimensions in the Selection Drift Index data.
Winning - Outcome definition
Prompts that test whether the candidate understands and can define what a successful result looks like - not just what they did, but what it produced.
“Tell me about a result you produced in the last twelve months that you would point to as the clearest example of what you are capable of. What was the number before you touched it and after?”
“What does success look like in this role at ninety days? How would the person in this seat know they had produced it?”
Identity - Behavioral evidence
Prompts that require the candidate to demonstrate the specific behaviors the role requires - under real conditions, not hypothetical ones.
“Tell me about a time a standard you were holding got pushed back on by a peer or a leader. What was the standard? What was the pushback? What did you do?”
“Give me a specific example of a decision you made that was right by the standard but unpopular in the room. What was the decision? What happened after?”
Tolerance - Standard under pressure
Prompts that surface how the candidate behaves when the process is tested - when there is pressure to make an exception, cut a corner, or move faster than the standard allows.
“Describe a time when the timeline on a hire or a project forced a choice between moving fast and moving right. What did you choose? What was the outcome?”
“Tell me about the last time you were asked to lower the bar - explicitly or implicitly. What was the situation? What did you do?”
Performance - 30/60/90 evidence
Prompts that test whether the candidate can define, track, and take accountability for performance milestones - not just show up and work hard.
“What did you produce in the first ninety days of your current or most recent role? What was the measure you were held to? Did you hit it?”
“Tell me about a time you were behind on a milestone at thirty days. What did you do about it at sixty?”
Prompts require a standard to test against.
The Evidence Prompt Library works when you have already written the behavioral standard the prompts are testing for. Start with the Definition of Winning template if the intake has not been completed.
The prompt surfaces the evidence. The standard tells you what to do with it.
23 questions. About ten minutes. A scored read of where your hiring breaks.
