Tara-Nicholle Kirke

MyFitnessPal CMO: The boss shouldn’t be the only one weighing in on job candidates
– The Biz Journals

For Tara-Nicholle Nelson, the tough part about the traditional job interview is this: Candidates are good at the one-on-one.

“Interviews are hard because most people do pretty well,” Nelson said. “They come in and say the right things.”

Nelson is the chief marketing officer for MyFitnessPal, a healthy living app with more than 65 million users that also prides itself on having a collaborative staff. For her, the problem is this: When you assume that the most qualified candidates get the in-person interview, you’re dealing with a smaller pool of people who have prepared, who are cool under pressure and who appear to be well-suited for the position.

Not to mention there are entire industries and careers devoted to prepping interviewees for every possible question. (Seriously, when I was applying for my first job, I think I bought half the books on the job-search shelf at Barnes and Noble.)

So how does an interviewer decide who’s best?

Nelson’s strategy: Bring in the team. It’s a tactic employed by tech giants such as Amazon, and since Nelson was hired eight months ago, she’s used it to build her team of seven — and their marketing strategy — from nil. Collectively, the group controls everything from market research and user insights to social media and content generation, and collaboration is key to their success, Nelson says.

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