Strategic Thinking Interview Questions
Whether you are preparing to interview a candidate or applying for a job, review our list of top Strategic Thinking interview questions and answers.
- How do you define strategic thinking? Why is it important for an organization’s future? See answer
- Can you tell me about a time when you were able to anticipate and prepare for risks during a project? See answer
- How do you research and analyze information when creating a strategy? See answer
- How do you respond to decision making while under pressure? See answer
- What factors are key in creating a strategic plan? What makes a strategic plan most effective? See answer
- What key performance indicators and other factors do you use to determine the success of a strategy? See answer
- What kind of project would you want to work on in the future, and what strategies or resources would you utilize for it? See answer
- How do you demonstrate leadership for your team and during a project? See answer
- How do you communicate important information to your team members?
- What’s an example of a project where you, as a leader, implemented an organizational strategy?
- Identify a time that you’ve made a strategic mistake. How could it have been avoided?
- Talk about a time that you’ve learned from a mistake.
- How do you plan your strategies? What methods do you find most effective?
- Provide an example of a time that a project faced an obstacle. What was the solution?
- How do you align your strategic planning with the organization’s missions and goals?
- How have you developed your strategic thinking skills during your career? What do you struggle with or focus on more?
- What are the most important components or traits of strategic thinking?
- What kind of analysis can you provide for this organization’s current multiyear strategy?
- How do you analyze and respond to competitor strategies?
- How do you respond when you don’t have all the information or resources to make a decision or complete a project?
10 Strategic Thinking Interview Questions and Answers
Q:
How do you define strategic thinking? Why is it important for an organization’s future?
A:
A leader with good strategic-thinking skills will likely have acquired them deliberately and has a well-defined concept of them. Asking your candidate to define strategic planning and thinking can help you understand how well they conceptualize and comprehend these skills. Whether they can explain why strategic thinking is important to an organization’s future will likewise indicate how well they understand how to implement strategies effectively. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Well-defined concept of strategic thinking
- Understanding of the benefits of strategic thinking
- Strategic thinking that aligns with your organization
“Strategic thinking refers to analyzing an organization’s or project’s performance goals and crafting a strategy that optimizes measurable outcomes. Researching and implementing strategies based on data and analytics helps leadership teams make well-informed decisions, anticipate risks, and create solutions. This, in turn, helps an organization create successful long-term strategies.”
Q:
Can you tell me about a time when you were able to anticipate and prepare for risks during a project?
A:
An important part of strategic planning is being able to anticipate, mitigate, and prepare for risks. Include strategic-thinking interview questions that ask candidates to identify at least one risk in a strategy example and explain how they were able to mitigate the risk or the solution that they prepared in response to it. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Proactive approach to risks
- Effective problem solving to create risk-mitigating solutions
- Understanding that even the best strategies may fail or face problems
“One of my previous projects risked going over budget. I analyzed which aspects of the project the team could best control costs to reduce the risk of exceeding the set budget. I also found more cost-effective marketing resources that helped keep the project under budget.”
Q:
How do you communicate important information to your team members?
A:
The right strategic-thinking candidate should value communication as part of their process. They should ensure that the necessary information is communicated, so others can understand why certain decisions were made. Consider how they approach communication strategies for different scenarios, such as communication during meetings, one-on-one conversations, or how they deliver bad news. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Demonstration of timely communication
- Examples of communication in different scenarios
- Desire to communicate effectively
“It’s important to me that all members of my team are well informed in regards to a project’s strategy. For all relevant decisions, I ensure that everybody receives written communication or that we discuss it in a meeting. I also make sure to individually follow up with team members, so I know everyone is on the same page.”
Q:
What kind of project would you want to work on in the future, and what strategies or resources would you utilize for it?
A:
These kinds of strategic-thinking interview questions can help you gauge whether a candidate’s interests, processes, and goals are well aligned with your organization. Having a candidate discuss their ideal project can also help determine whether they're goal oriented and forward thinking, and learning about their process can demonstrate if they’d adapt well to your organization’s current processes. A detailed answer shows that they're also analytical and thoughtful. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Specific and detailed long-term plans
- Goal oriented and analytical
- Alignment with organization’s mission and processes
“I would love the opportunity to create an innovative strategy for an organization’s business plan in an oversaturated market. I'd consider the strengths and weaknesses of the businesses to identify opportunities and risks. Over the long term, I'd work with a team to implement, measure, and re-strategize the plan until it succeeded.”
Q:
What key performance indicators and other factors do you use to determine the success of a strategy?
A:
A good strategic-thinking candidate will value the importance of key performance indicators in measuring the success of a strategy. As an employer, you need to be confident in the candidate’s ability to implement a strategy and monitor its success over time. Key performance indicators also help you and other members of the organization understand why certain strategies and decisions are being made. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Awareness of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
- Measures the success of strategic plans
- Ability to reassess strategy in response to key performance indicators
“Key performance indicators for an online retailer include click-conversion rates, average order values, and return on ad spending. I’d consider the quality of our conversion rates and ad spending to determine if the customer-facing end of the website is effectively directing customers to make purchases. If average order values are too low, I’d consider ways to influence customers to add more items to their carts.”
Q:
How do you research and analyze information when creating a strategy?
A:
This question helps you determine whether a candidate has a highly developed process for strategizing that is also aligned with your organization’s current process. Their research and analysis process should be both thorough and efficient. If they're able to provide a specific and concise answer, ideally with an example, then they might be a good fit for your strategy team. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Thorough research and analysis
- Detail oriented and efficient
- Well-established research process
“When I create a strategy, I consider the internal factors of the organization, as well as the external factors. Once I know the type of strategy I’m creating, such as corporate or marketing, I’ll perform an internal analysis of the relevant data. Then, I’ll set that within the context of an external analysis.”
Q:
How do you respond to decision making while under pressure?
A:
Since strategies and plans can go awry, a strategic thinker needs to be able to respond quickly when under pressure and create long-term plans. A strategic thinker should demonstrate confidence and improvisation skills when plans need to be adjusted. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Decision-making skills
- Critical-thinking skills
- Ability to reassess and improvise strategies
“I try to anticipate potential problems in projects and their solutions. That way, I can have a backup plan if a strategy needs to be reassessed. I’ve often considered many aspects and directions that the project can go in during the planning stage, which means I can respond quickly when something changes.”
Q:
How do you align your strategic planning with an organization’s missions and goals?
A:
Employers need to know that their strategic thinkers are considering the unique needs of the organization and not using a generic, cookie-cutter approach to strategy. While it’s valuable for a strategic thinker to have a strategy process, it should be adaptable to each organization, project, or context they work in. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Adaptable strategy to the unique needs of an organization or project
- Understanding of organization’s mission statements
- Recognizes the importance of strategic-planning alignment
“I consider the organization’s mission, goals, and core values when crafting a strategy. Opportunities to improve strategies often come from an organization’s unique qualities, such as certain products, company cultures, or values. These qualities can set an organization apart from competitors.”
Q:
What factors are key in creating a strategic plan? What makes a strategic plan most effective?
A:
It’s important to understand how your organization’s strategic thinkers create plans. They should be able to identify the key factors in their strategy-making process, such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Ideally, they’ll describe these factors in an example of when they created a strategic plan. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Understanding the difference between internal and external factors
- Demonstration of key-factor analysis (SWOT analysis)
- Application of analysis in example
“For the most effective strategic plan, it’s necessary to investigate key factors, such as internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities. In a previous project, we found that our social media presence was underperforming. We recruited a social media expert to help revamp our online presence, improving our traffic by 150%.”
Q:
How do you demonstrate leadership for your team and during a project?
A:
To implement strategic plans, the candidate needs to demonstrate good leadership qualities. They need to be able to execute a strategy with a team in mind, which means they understand organizational structures and how their teams are affected by strategic decisions. Here's what to look for in an answer:
- Anticipates how decisions affect teams
- Encourages teams to also think strategically
- Considers the overall organizational structure
“In a team of five people, we were tasked with strategizing the launch of a new product. This project required some team members to adapt to new job roles within the project. With encouraged input from the team, we successfully created and executed a product launch strategy.”
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