We encourage innovation at Google. What would innovation mean to you in this role here?
As you research Google prior to applying and interviewing with them, you'll find that they have eight principles of innovation that they use to create a culture of innovation at their company. These principles include:
1. Think 10x
2. Launch, then keep listening
3. Share everything you can
4. Hire the right people
5. Use the 70/20/10 model
6. Look for ideas everywhere
7. Use data, not opinions
8. Focus on users, not the competition
In proposing a question on innovation during your time with them, your interviewer will be looking to hear you talk about how you feel you can live any of these principles in the role that you are interviewing for with Google. As you answer, don't hesitate to give an example of a time that you utilized one or two of their principles to be innovative in your past.
"Throughout my career, I've always tried to think about the bigger picture and how new innovations can best impact the end user. I think that it's easy to get caught up in what the competition is doing and only focus on small-scale changes. When I was researching my next, and hopefully last, career move, I can't tell you how excited I was to read Google's principles of innovation. The 'Think 10x' and 'Focus on users, not the competition' principles really resonated with me and I think they are so important for your department to focus on. If I were fortunate enough to be hired for this role, those would be front of mind in all that I do here."
"Innovation isn't something that comes from one place or one frame of mind and I know that Google has that same frame of thought after reading your principles of innovation. In this role, I see innovation coming from data and new ideas. I am a firm believer that data can be so useful in coming out with new products for consumers. Can you explain to me how you are currently using data to better the work of your department?"
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
"Innovation means having the freedom to try and fail, repeatedly. I have worked in firms that were so financially and competition-based. Unfortunately, under those circumstances, failing was frowned upon, so most failures were hidden. I held innovation days in those firms where my team was locked away in a large conference room with breakfast and lunch and given free rein to use any technology they wished to try to solve a problem. This led to many innovations that were carried out of those conference rooms and into our products."
Rachelle's Feedback
Innovation days - that's such a cool idea! What kind of innovations stood out the most to you? To wrap up your answer, be sure to give the nod to the way that Google approaches innovation.
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