Are you experienced with process development?
Most project teams have the need for new structures and processes from time to time. Additionally, some companies are lacking formal processes for various business functions and they call upon their project managers to assist in this area. Your interviewer wants to know if you have experience in this area and which business functions you helped to define and implement.
"During my career, I've had the privilege of working for several startups. As a result, I'm well-versed in creating new processes, as well as modifying existing ones. In my last role, I oversaw a project that involved implementing a new sales process for the company. Until that point, the company had allowed its sales employees to decide individually how they wanted to sell various products and services, but the time had come to standardize this to ensure consistency. At the end of the project, there were clear processes in place around cold calling and emailing prospects, when and how to follow-up, how to schedule demos and on-sites, and more, which resulted in higher sales across the entire team. I am very process-driven and always thinking about how to put more structure in place around sales, marketing, customer service, and HR tasks to increase productivity and effectiveness."
Let the interviewer know if you have experience in this area or not. If you do, provide an example or two and discuss any cost or time savings that resulted from what you created. Remember to consider processes you developed on behalf of your team, your customer, your partners, your stakeholders, or your company.
If your experience in this area is limited, talk about how excited you are to have the opportunity to put new processes in place. Alternatively, consider discussing an improvement you made to an existing process.
