What is your favorite revenue operations interview question and the best answer you've heard?

I always ask questions related to a business problem that I am trying to solve, in order to assess hypothesis-driven, structured problem solving and quantitative reasoning / analysis. An example would be "How would you determine the cause for increased churn in the business?". I want to see how candidates think through the various drivers and how they would test their hypotheses to come up with an answer. Bonus points if it's an actionable driver that can actually reduce churn (as an example). 

I love questions that demonstrate curiosity, scrappiness, operational excellence and enthusiasm for the business. One of my favorite Q/As below

Q: Walk me through an example of how you impacted the business? how did you discover the opportunity, execute on it, and ultimately how did it impact the business?

A: I want to hear several things in this answer

1. Curiosity for the business and how to make it better--digging into data, talking to stakeholders, etc.

2. Scrappiness on execution--you didn't have all the resources you wanted, but you found a scrappy workaround to test your hypothesis or get something done. 

3. Strong operating process--you were able to get buy in from a cross functional team, align them to this initiative and you grounded your results in data.

4. You were proud of the outcome and inspired to execute more.

First off, I love this question!

Here are a few of my go-to revenue operations questions:

1. I always ask candidates how they prepared for the interview. I am looking for beyond just the "I visited your website" and looking for more research and looking to understand their insights as to why we might be hiring for the role, questions on the organizational structure, etc. I want to see if they have done research and want to ask questions about the current state of the team/organization.

2. Revenue Operations is noisy - even if you have a great center of excellence, intake process, and methodology for project management. The day-to-day is always changing and prioritization is always a critical aspect of the function. I tend to ask several questions on collaboration, communication, organization, and prioritization.

3. The last question favorite question is about the best criticism the candidate has ever received and from whom and how they apply it to their professional or personal life. This looks for the humbleness and ability to take feedback and learn from it - and being vulnerable enough to share and grow.

Regarding the best answer I have ever heard...this is tough but I think the best general interviews I have had were when the candidate did not try to answer questions on how they would do things for the current company, but instead spoke through experience and how they made the decisions they needed to best support the business and did not try to assume a one-size-fits-all for the current company and instead addressed the decision points they would need answers to before being able to determine the right solution. This shows their ability to build proper requirements based on the needs of the business.

What helps the wider Revenue team is being proactive, not just an admin following instructions.

“Walk me through an example where you recognized a business problem (not technical) that no one else realized. How did you research it, validate it, present it, and what was the outcome?”

It could be reporting/analytics, a needlessly slow business workflow that is losing deals, or even customer communication themes that need to get to the product team.