How we shortlist(ed): Part 2
Last week, I posted about hiring 3 Associate Managers for Meesho's Growth team.
We wanted to test whether proof-of-work is a more effective filter than profile. So, we asked candidates to submit their thoughts on Meesho's homepage vs one global e-commerce app. Evaluation criteria was clarity on objective, structured evaluation, logical prioritization, and relevance to our users.
Here's how it panned out.
TL; DR We introduced friction to receive fewer, high-intent applications; incredible quality of applications; folks who picked a unique company and explained their approach before sharing solutions had the best chance.
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On adding an assignment pre-interview:
-- Hypothesis was fewer, high-intent applications >> many applications, if quality of shortlists is the same.
-- The math suggests adding the assignment led to a 50-70% drop in applications [based on CTRs and funnel drops vs other AM roles at Meesho]. But, final numbers were still 4x more than we anticipated.
-- No drop in quality. Genuinely blown away by the thoughtfulness and effort applicants put in. Some shot their own video responses, 1 even evaluated PinDuoDuo [which is not available on the Play Store] and used Google Lens to translate to English.
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On evaluating assignments:
-- ~95% of applications had an assignment. Thank you for respecting the process.
-- ~20% picked interesting global apps - Shopee, Temu, Lazada, Noon. This choice made it easier for their assignment to stand out.
-- ~12% submitted a ChatGPT / Gemini response verbatim. We chose to reject all of these applications to respect the work put in by the other candidates.
-- <10% answered all 4 questions - most jumped straight to solution. I took this as feedback that the video needed to be clearer re: our expectations.
-- The best assignments picked one objective they were optimizing for [narrowed scope], evaluated the two apps against this framework, took user feedback (e.g. Play Store reviews) to prioritize, and suggested 3 solutions that could be relevant.
-- Shout-out to GrowthX®. Some of the assignments we loved came from this community.
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If you applied, we'll share status this week (shortlist / waitlist / reject) on email and give you the option to request feedback [also on email before the end of the month].
P.S: We’re not sharing shortlisted assignments because it's the candidates' IP and their call on whether they want to share publicly.
Last week, I posted about hiring 3 Associate Managers for Meesho's Growth team.
We wanted to test whether proof-of-work is a more effective filter than profile. So, we asked candidates to submit their thoughts on Meesho's homepage vs one global e-commerce app. Evaluation criteria was clarity on objective, structured evaluation, logical prioritization, and relevance to our users.
Here's how it panned out.
TL; DR We introduced friction to receive fewer, high-intent applications; incredible quality of applications; folks who picked a unique company and explained their approach before sharing solutions had the best chance.
-----------
On adding an assignment pre-interview:
-- Hypothesis was fewer, high-intent applications >> many applications, if quality of shortlists is the same.
-- The math suggests adding the assignment led to a 50-70% drop in applications [based on CTRs and funnel drops vs other AM roles at Meesho]. But, final numbers were still 4x more than we anticipated.
-- No drop in quality. Genuinely blown away by the thoughtfulness and effort applicants put in. Some shot their own video responses, 1 even evaluated PinDuoDuo [which is not available on the Play Store] and used Google Lens to translate to English.
-----------
On evaluating assignments:
-- ~95% of applications had an assignment. Thank you for respecting the process.
-- ~20% picked interesting global apps - Shopee, Temu, Lazada, Noon. This choice made it easier for their assignment to stand out.
-- ~12% submitted a ChatGPT / Gemini response verbatim. We chose to reject all of these applications to respect the work put in by the other candidates.
-- <10% answered all 4 questions - most jumped straight to solution. I took this as feedback that the video needed to be clearer re: our expectations.
-- The best assignments picked one objective they were optimizing for [narrowed scope], evaluated the two apps against this framework, took user feedback (e.g. Play Store reviews) to prioritize, and suggested 3 solutions that could be relevant.
-- Shout-out to GrowthX®. Some of the assignments we loved came from this community.
---------
If you applied, we'll share status this week (shortlist / waitlist / reject) on email and give you the option to request feedback [also on email before the end of the month].
P.S: We’re not sharing shortlisted assignments because it's the candidates' IP and their call on whether they want to share publicly.
