Part 2(a): What Skillsets Do They Look for in StratOps?

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This is part of a ten-part series. Access the full series here.

What Skillsets Do They Look for in Strategy & Operations?

Strategists tend to be generalists. The good ones at Google move teams every few years, and yet still find ways to ramp up quickly and become great at what they do.

Having worked with quite a few of these people, I made it my mission to learn from them and enrich my own toolkit.

Meanwhile, as I became more senior over time, I also started interviewing prospective candidates for strategy roles.

This was another inflection point for me, as it forced me to think intentionally about what enabled someone to be successful in these roles, as well as how I would tease out those traits in less than an hour.

Over time, I found myself looking for about half a dozen or so very specific things, across the spectrum of soft skills and analytical prowess.

These were also characteristics that I saw again and again in my colleagues who were thriving at Google.

So without further ado, let's dive in. We'll talk through each of these things one by one using specific examples.

Note also that we'll split this section into two halves. Start with Part 2(a) below (or jump to Part 2(b)).