Tell me about a time you analyzed your way to a recommendation someone else had to act on. How did you get from the information to the call?

Problem solving

Why this works

A recommendation forces a stance where a summary can hide. The question shows whether the candidate can compress evidence into a position someone else could act on — and whether they know where the data stopped and their inference began.

Follow-up probes

What did the evidence not settle, and how did you handle that gap?
What would have changed your recommendation?
How did you present the option you didn't recommend?

What good looks like

A clear chain from evidence to stance, uncertainty flagged rather than smoothed over, the rejected alternative given its honest due, and a recommendation firm enough to act on.

Red flags

The analysis is a list of tools rather than reasoning, the recommendation matches whatever the requester already wanted, or every caveat is hedged until no actual call remains.

Related across competencies

Tell me about a time a document had to make your case for you — a proposal or memo read when you weren't in the room. What did you write differently because of that?
Communication

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