Please tell us a time when you put an idea into action. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said and did.

Sample One

After working six months in an engineering sales position, I realized that I was spending way too much time filling out paper work and compiling reports. After several conversations with my peers about how they allocated their time, I discovered that everyone felt our administrative duties were interfering with the time we could spend in front of customers. I decided that we needed an account management system to automate the way we compiled, analyzed and published our forecasts, market share positions and revenue trends.

When I recommended a new system to my managers, they seemed interested but no one took action. Since money did not exist in the yearly budget to hire consultants to automate our account management process, I told my managers that I would build a prototype, reasoning that once I had proved how much time could be saved they would recognize that this system would pay for itself. My prototype was a success, and with the budget constraints my boss decided that he could not bring in an outside consultant and that he wanted me to build the production system myself. After four months of nights and weekends, learning a new programming language and writing 2100 lines of code, I had a beta version of a tool I called Account Analysis.

My Account Analysis tool compiled all our sales data, allowing us to track revenue, calculate forecasts and determine the total available market at the click-of-a-button. Sales people save about five hours a month on paper work using the Account Analysis tool. This means more time generating revenue for the organization. Furthermore, by centralizing our sales data and simplifying report generation, I saved the sales managers about 6 hours a month versus the manual process. The software I created is now used by the 32 other sales representatives in my region. Account Analysis is now a vital part of the region’s everyday account management practices and I am proud that something I built is positively affecting so many people.

This experience has bolstered my confidence in my ability to develop an idea into a product: I recognized a problem, found a solution, pitched the solution to my target market and delivered the product. Transforming an idea into reality gives me a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Sample Two

As a senior member on the Hammond International Development team, I was asked to lead a team of four people in designing and developing a Reconciliation module, a tool that would allow our clients to automate the reconciliation of their derivative trades. I knew that putting the idea of an efficient Reconciliation tool into action would have a significant impact on our target market and lead to a consistent stream of revenue.

In formulating a design, I conducted a thorough analysis of the existing reconciliation processes currently in use. I spent an afternoon at one of our client sites analyzing the way in which they performed their reconciliations. Through this, I noticed that their preferred approach was to use Excel. Therefore, I determined that our tool should allow the user to view all of the trade details in an Excel-like format. I also felt that the process of storing derivative trades in electronic files was too risky. These files could easily be deleted and so I conceived of another mechanism for storing the trades. After producing a high level design document, I began the challenging step of transforming the design into an actual product.

My first function was to organize the project. I called weekly staff meetings, where the Reconciliation team would discuss their efforts during the week. I outlined a clear project plan, setting deadlines for even the most mundane of tasks, and I illustrated the impact that any slippage would cause. By breaking the Reconciliation project down into numerous mini-projects, I eased the tension within the team. Instead of looking at a large unknown quantity of tasks, everyone now understood what their responsibilities were.

Now that the project was organized, I also needed to make sure the team was motivated. I conveyed to the group the importance of the Reconciliation module within the company, and how I envisioned it becoming one of our key selling points during the pre-sales process. This fervor spread to the rest of the team. Everyone now began to look at our project as an opportunity to make a strong impact on the company’s bottom line. At one point, I realized that the stress level of my team was gradually increasing and was negatively impacting our output. I decided to break up the monotony of the work and allow our team to interact socially as well. I worked with another developer to organize a staff football game. The next day, everyone showed up fully energized, albeit a bit sore. By motivating the team, I ensured a quality output on the project.

The Reconciliation product that I created has quickly become one of the key selling points, generating more than $3M in revenue for the Hammond International platform. By constructing a clear design and motivating the team, I was able to lead our team and bring my idea to a successful fruition.