Interview scorecardReviewed by Adroit Staffing editorial reviewPractice guidance, no data claims6 min read
The short answer
Assess discovery with a live 15-minute call against a briefed internal buyer, and score four things: whether the questions open the problem, whether they follow partial answers, whether the closing summary matches what was actually said, and whether the next step was genuinely agreed. Asking a candidate to describe their discovery approach tests vocabulary, not skill.
Key facts
- Exercise
- 15-minute live call with a briefed internal buyer
- Score
- Question quality, thread-following, summary accuracy, next step
- Preparation
- Brief the buyer with one hidden problem and one distraction
- Fairness
- Tell candidates the format in advance
Discovery skills scorecard
Score these four dimensions during the live call, not afterwards. One scorer runs the call, a second scores silently - swap roles between candidates only if both scorers stay consistent.
Scores and notes stay in this tab. Copy, print or download the sheet — nothing is uploaded.
Discovery skills — interview scorecard
Adroit Staffing — adroitstaffing.co.uk
Dimension 1
Question quality
Tests: Whether questions open the problem or confirm a pitch.
“Run a 15-minute first discovery call with our briefed buyer.”
Strong answers show
- Starts wide, then narrows once a real problem appears
- Asks about consequence and cost, not only process
- Questions are short and the buyer talks more than they do
Weak answers sound like
- Runs a fixed qualification checklist
- Leading questions that presume the product
- Talks for more than half the call
Follow-up prompts
- “Which question told you the most, and why?”
- “What did you deliberately not ask about?”
Dimension 2
Following the thread
Tests: Whether they notice and pursue a partial or evasive answer.
“Watch what they do when the buyer gives a vague answer about the current process.”
Strong answers show
- Returns to an unanswered point later in the call
- Asks for a specific example rather than accepting a generality
- Names the inconsistency politely
Weak answers sound like
- Accepts the first answer and moves to the next topic
- Fills the silence themselves
- Misses the constraint the buyer hinted at
Follow-up prompts
- “What did you think the buyer was not telling you?”
- “What would you check before a second call?”
Dimension 3
Summary accuracy
Tests: Whether they heard the buyer or heard their own pitch.
“Ask them to summarise the buyer's situation in under a minute at the end.”
Strong answers show
- Summary uses the buyer's words and priorities
- States what they do not yet know
- Buyer agrees without correcting anything material
Weak answers sound like
- Summary is a restatement of the product fit
- Overstates urgency the buyer never expressed
- Buyer has to correct the basics
Follow-up prompts
- “What is the one thing you are still unsure about?”
- “How would you write that summary in a follow-up email?”
Dimension 4
Agreed next step
Tests: Whether the call ends with mutual commitment or a polite goodbye.
“Listen for how the call closes.”
Strong answers show
- Proposes a specific next step tied to the buyer's problem
- Asks who else should be involved and why
- Confirms date, participants and purpose
Weak answers sound like
- I will send some information over
- Books a demo nobody asked for
- Ends with no next step at all
Follow-up prompts
- “What would you have done if the buyer had said no to that step?”
- “What would you send within the hour?”
Average score: not scored yet
Summary accuracy is the hardest dimension to fake and the most predictive. A 2 there is a decline for any role where the seller owns discovery.
The 1–5 scoring language
Agree the wording with the panel before the first interview. Most disagreement in a debrief is two people using the same number to mean different things.
- 1 — No evidence
- Could not give a real example, or the example contradicted the claim.
- 2 — Weak evidence
- General answer, or evidence that belonged to someone else on the team.
- 3 — Meets the bar
- Specific example, owned by them, holds up under one follow-up.
- 4 — Strong
- Specific and measured, plus a clear account of what they would change.
- 5 — Exceptional
- Evidence you could hand to the board, and they taught you something.
How this maps to the Adroit Five Stage Screening Process
The live discovery exercise is stage three of the Adroit Five Stage Screening Process, run against a realistic scenario before you meet the shortlist. We report what happened and how it was scored; the exercise you run in your own process stays yours to score.
Brief the buyer properly, or the exercise is theatre
- Give the internal buyer one real problem, and one surface complaint that is not the real problem.
- Tell them to answer honestly but not helpfully - no volunteering the underlying issue.
- Give them a constraint they will only mention if asked, such as an internal deadline or a rival project.
- Keep the same brief for every candidate so scores are comparable.
What separates real discovery from a checklist
A rehearsed candidate runs a qualification sequence: budget, authority, need, timing. A capable one starts wider, notices the gap between what the buyer says and what they mean, and asks the question that makes the buyer pause. The pause is the signal worth scoring.
Common scoring mistakes
- Rewarding confidence and pace rather than the quality of the questions.
- Letting the internal buyer help, which flatters every candidate equally.
- Scoring after the debrief has started, when other opinions have already landed.
- Using a different buyer or scenario for different candidates.
Common questions
- Is a live exercise fair on nervous candidates?
- It is fairer than an unstructured conversation, provided you share the format in advance and score behaviour rather than polish. Say explicitly that you are not looking for a perfect call.
- Can this be run remotely?
- Yes, and for most roles it should be, because the job happens on video. Keep cameras on and hold the same time limit for everyone.
Sources and review
- Written by
- Adroit Staffing
- Reviewed by
- Adroit Staffing editorial review
- First published
- Last reviewed
This page is practice guidance from our own Sales and GTM recruitment work. It makes no claims about current market data, so it cites no external figures.