Thanks for the article and the mention. I had my debrief yesterday with the lead interviewer (a loss, unfortunately), and it went well. I called and left him a message, so he was prepared for the conversation when he called me back. He was very clear on what we did well, and most of it coincided with the messages were were trying to reinforce.

He also talked about what he had wanted to hear that he didn’t. He mentioned that he didn’t get a satisfactory answer to his “big question” (related to managing subconsultants) from any of the interviewees, so he essentially deferred to the other interviewers for their opinions. In the end, I got the impression (even though there was a scoring system) that the voting was done based on with whom the panel felt a strong connection and rapport.

The conversation was a good one – he actually mentioned that the debrief call was a “good business move” on our part and that it served to position us well for future work, increasing our understanding of the client and building the relationship.

I had most of my “formal” questions answered during the conversation without needing to ask, underscoring the need to have a loose structure when entering into a debrief conversation.

One other thing to note – I was not part of the actual interview, but was the lead in the preparation. I made this clear during the conversation, mentioning that it was a conscious decision to have someone from our firm, but not in the interview, do the debrief to avoid any potential conflicts (or hurt feelings!).

All in all, it was a great move and it will absolutely become part of all of our wins and losses in the future. It is a great tool and serves to “close the loop” after interviews.

Thanks again for the help.

Mark Wainwright

http://www.hardingco.com/blog/2009/02/02/learning-from-loss/