What are the key questions you like to ask and why?

There are two questions I always like to ask during an initial interview with a candidate:

1. Tell me about a problem you have worked on and how you solved it? - In full transparency, I actually borrowed this question from an article I read about Elon Musk's interview questions. I found the reasoning behind this question to be extremely interesting. First, you gain insight into the types of challenges the candidate has come across and their thought process for overcoming those challenges. Second, Musk says that this question shows him if the candidate truly worked on resolving this problem. Someone who was integral in the solution of a problem will know all the details and be able to explain in length what they were thinking was during the process. I have found a lot of success in asking this question.

2. I ask candidates to share with me a time they had to articulate value of their product/solution to a customer. As I mentioned in another question, showcasing your company's value is one of the most important responsibilities of a CSM. If a candidate does not have experience with this, how can I expect them to articulate value to our customers?

• What does "Customer Success" mean to you?
  Customer Success as a field and profession is relatively new, and the term can mean different things to different people. A candidate's answer helps me assess their whether their experience is aligned to a proactive vs reactive approach, what kinds of customers they've worked with in the past, how they think about the customer experience, and more.
  

• If you were constructing a CS team from scratch, what metrics would you use to gauge success? Both
  internally and customer-facing?
  While this is a highly debatable topic, the key is that metrics described cannot only be financial. Yes, at the end of the day (... or, quarter) we are all working towards financial outcomes. But Revenue Retention is a lagging indicator, and it's important to understand that leading indicators such as product usage, presence of risk factors, and engagement are critical for proactive customer success.
  

• How do you know a customer is successful?
  The best candidates use this as an opportunity to talk about aligning the value a company's product and services drive to the customer's business goals. I'm looking for CSMs who focus on a customer's business-level outcomes at a strategic level, rather than those who focus on getting their customers to adopt our product or services.