Interpreting a Company Culture Memo (Data Scientist, HR Screen)

You are interviewing for a Data Scientist role at a tech company that publishes a public "Culture Memo" with value statements. Your task is to translate ambiguous slogans into practical behaviors, validate how culture shows up in day-to-day operations, and propose measurements to test alignment.

Tasks

1. Identify three commonly used culture-memo statements (e.g., "Act like an owner," "Bias for action," "No ego") that could be ambiguous or weaponized. For each, provide:
   • One clear, policy-level clarification that sets boundaries and expectations.
   • One concrete counterexample that would violate the clarified policy.
2. Draft five pointed questions to ask the hiring manager that probe how the memo manifests in daily practices. Cover: decision rights, risk tolerance, failure handling, feedback cadence, and performance management.
3. Propose three measurable indicators you would track in your first 90 days to test alignment between the memo and reality. For each indicator specify: how you’d collect it (surveys, artifacts, metrics) and thresholds that would trigger action.
4. Provide one past example where you upheld or challenged a written culture, including the trade-offs you accepted and the outcome.