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Helixo Answers - Swarup Hegde

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33 views3 pages

Helixo Answers - Swarup Hegde

Uploaded by

SwarupHegde
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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0. How proficient are you in English?

Beginner / Intermediate / Expert Level


I am an expert in English, and have a score of 115 in TOEFL to further corroborate it.

1. Our work environment is fast-paced and dynamic. Are you comfortable with flexible
hours beyond 9-5?
Yes, I have been working with start ups since graduation and more often than not, had to put in
extra hours to ensure timely delivery. I am comfortable with flexible hours beyond 9-5.

2. Could you let us know your availability? Are you an immediate joiner or serving a
notice period?
I will be available to join the team at Helixo after 30 days.

3. How many years of industry experience** do you have?


I have 4 years 7 months of industry experience.

4. Can you share your current CTC (as per last payslip*) and expected salary?
My current CTC is 20,00,000 and my expected CTC is 28,00,000. I am open to negotiations.

5. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated commitment to a project or role.


Every project is susceptible to scope changes, some of which are last-minute and extremely
time-sensitive. A recent instance was when we were developing an MVP for a Disease
Management Program (IBS). The client was Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and we were working in
close collaboration with BCG to deliver an Alpha version, followed by an MVP. There were
last-minute scope enhancements with unverified copy and designs. It was when my team and I
demonstrated commitment by:
1. Ruthlessly cutting down scope, sometimes in existing features and others in new
requirements. This was necessary to meet deadlines and push back purely hypothetical
assumptions from excited stakeholders.
2. Motivating the dev team and helping them out by keeping a constant and open
communication channel, working over the weekends, on holidays and late nights to
ensure that everyone is clear about the requirements and constant changes, on the
same page, are unblocked, and that the feature testing happens on time on the dev box
and by the PM before it goes to further scrutiny by the QA team.

6. We're building Helixo for the long-term, tell me what motivates you to stay committed
to Helixo for the next 5 years? Let's be open and genuine.
The following things motivate me and make me stay with any organization:
1. Not being the smartest person in the room - this ensures that I have lots of things to
learn from my peers, juniors and superiors
2. Constant and straightforward feedback - helps me understand my weak points and
makes me better, iteratively
3. A growth-focused culture and mindset
7. We value open communication. Can you share an instance of how you handled
feedback?
One of the very first and best feedback I received was during my interview with my current
organization. After the interview, the CEO of the organization had a feedback that although I
was intelligent, I did not pursue fundamentals/deeper understanding unless pushed for. He
attributed it to poor guidance since I had no “proper” mentor in product management before. I
took this feedback and since then, have ensured that before jotting down user flows/stories/any
requirement, I am 100% clear on the Whys, the expectations and have a holistic idea of how to
achieve it.

8. Speed and quality are pillars of our work culture. Can you provide an example of how
you've balanced these in the past?
There are processes we can keep in place to ensure both speed and quality. This does come
with a grain of salt since on paper it works, but there are a lot of unprecedented factors in real
life that often derail the ideal. However, the following processes/guard-rails have helped me
deliver superior quality features/products in quick time:
1. Estimation of stories - First things first, it is important to set clear expectations to
developers, testers and stakeholders on timelines. Estimation of stories is important
because:
a. Gives an expected delivery date to stakeholders
b. Helps us track the effort/team velocity which is useful for further planning
c. Clears any questions devs and testers have
d. Ensures that everyone is on the same page
2. Breaking down requirements into consumable chunks - Apart from breaking down a big,
complex requirement into easy to digest crumbs, this also helps in launching features in
parts - sometimes, if an entire feature or epic is taking longer than expected, it becomes
easier to prioritize and launch absolutely necessary parts of the feature so that we put
out something instead of not launching anything.
3. Breaking down test suites - Testing (both manual and automation) takes a lot of time,
especially as the product grows. Breaking down the test suite into Sanity, Regression
and “Rest” helps in speeding up the testing and fixing processes that reduce total
delivery time
4. Dev box/PM testing before QA testing - Although this seems a time-consuming process,
PM-testing before handing it over to the QA ensures:
a. PM has a surety of the happy path flow - easy trade-off decisions if edge cases
fail
b. Any issues can be identified early on and resolved before going to QA/UAT

9. How long have you been playing around with computers? What's the hardest task you
did in it?
I have been interested in computers since eighth grade. In college, I used to take part in
hackathons. In one of the hackathons, we had to build a product that required us a working and
practical knowledge of AI/ML which we had 0 expertise in. We had a total of 36 hours to build
the product. We learnt the basic implementation of pytesseract and NLTK overnight and
implemented the product and got third place in the hackathon. This was exciting as well as one
of the hardest tasks I have performed since this was where I really saw the “scrappy” and “it
works!” part of code.

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