What is a Consultant at Attentive?

As a Consultant at Attentive, you are at the forefront of driving value for some of the most innovative brands in the e-commerce and retail space. Attentive leads the industry in personalized mobile messaging, and our Consultants serve as the strategic bridge between our powerful SMS platform and our clients' overarching marketing goals. You will guide clients through complex implementations, optimize their messaging strategies, and ensure they realize maximum return on investment.

This role directly impacts client retention, product adoption, and overall business growth. You will operate in a high-velocity, pre-IPO-momentum environment where your strategic insights shape how businesses communicate with millions of consumers. Because our professional services organization is rapidly evolving, this position requires a high degree of autonomy, resilience, and the ability to build processes where none currently exist.

You can expect a demanding but highly rewarding environment. The role is designed for self-starters who thrive on solving ambiguous problems, managing high-profile client expectations, and scaling professional services within a fast-paced technology company. Your work will directly influence how our product is utilized in the wild, making you a critical asset to both our clients and our internal product teams.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the types of inquiries you will face during your interviews. While you may not get these exact prompts, they reflect the core themes of situational judgment, strategic implementation, and cultural resilience that Attentive prioritizes. Use these to practice structuring your narratives.

Situational & Client Management

This category tests your ability to handle difficult client scenarios, manage expectations, and operate without a strict playbook.

• Walk me through a time when a client was unhappy with an implementation timeline. How did you resolve it?
• How do you handle a situation where you are assigned a project but given no clear onboarding or process guidelines?
• Tell me about a time you had to deliver difficult news to a key stakeholder.
• Describe a scenario where you had to manage conflicting priorities across multiple high-value accounts.
• How do you ensure your clients feel supported when your internal team is currently overworked?

Strategic Implementation & Problem Solving

These questions evaluate your technical aptitude, your strategic thinking, and your ability to drive ROI through software.

• How would you measure the success of a new platform rollout for a major retail brand?
• Walk me through a complex technical roadblock you faced during a SaaS implementation. How did you overcome it?
• Tell me about a time you used data to change a client's mind about their marketing strategy.
• How do you ensure a client fully adopts a product rather than just using its basic features?
• Describe your process for translating a client's business goal into a technical implementation plan.

Culture Fit & Adaptability

This category probes your resilience, your work ethic, and your ability to thrive in a demanding, high-velocity environment.

• Tell me about a time you had to step outside your defined role to ensure a project succeeded.
• How do you maintain high performance in an environment where goals and structures are constantly shifting?
• Describe a time you worked in a high-pressure, "all-hands-on-deck" situation. What was your role?
• How do you hold yourself accountable when there is no formal system tracking your daily performance?
• Why do you want to work in a hyper-growth environment, and how do you manage the stress that comes with it?

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for the Consultant interview at Attentive requires a strategic mindset and a clear understanding of our fast-paced culture. You should approach your preparation by focusing on how you handle ambiguity, drive client success, and maintain high performance under pressure.

• Situational Judgment and Problem-Solving – This evaluates your ability to navigate complex client scenarios, ambiguous onboarding processes, and tight deadlines. Interviewers will look for your capacity to structure unstructured problems and deliver actionable solutions without requiring heavy oversight.
• Strategic Implementation and Domain Expertise – This assesses your knowledge of SaaS implementations, digital marketing, and client strategy. You can demonstrate strength here by clearly articulating how you have successfully guided clients through technical integrations and strategic shifts in the past.
• Resilience and Adaptability – This measures your ability to thrive in a high-growth, demanding environment. We evaluate how you handle high expectations and rapid changes in momentum. Strong candidates show a track record of taking ownership and maintaining exceptional quality even when resources are stretched.
• Communication and Stakeholder Management – This looks at how you influence clients and internal teams. You must demonstrate the ability to set firm boundaries, manage client expectations, and communicate clearly, even when updates are sparse or timelines shift.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Consultant at Attentive is designed to be rigorous and sets a high bar for acceptance. Your journey typically begins with an initial recruiter screen to align on your background and evaluate baseline culture fit. From there, you will move into conversations with hiring managers and team leads to discuss your past consulting experience, your approach to client strategy, and your adaptability in high-growth SaaS environments.

A critical component of the process is a take-home homework assignment. This assignment tests your practical ability to handle the types of strategic and implementation challenges you will face on the job. If you pass the assignment, you will advance to the final rounds, which consist of back-to-back interviews with Directors and senior leadership. These final rounds heavily index on situational questions, testing your real-time problem-solving and your alignment with our high-performance culture.

Be prepared for a dynamic experience. Because we are moving incredibly fast, communication timelines can sometimes fluctuate, and you may find that different interviewers ask overlapping questions. Use these moments strategically to reinforce your core narrative and demonstrate consistency.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from the initial screening phases through the practical assessment and into the final leadership rounds. You should use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you dedicate ample time to the homework assignment while keeping your situational examples fresh for the final behavioral rounds. Keep in mind that scheduling and communication updates may vary slightly depending on the specific team's workload and regional hiring dynamics.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

Situational Judgment and Client Management

As a Consultant, your day-to-day involves navigating complex client demands and internal resource constraints. This area matters because we need professionals who can independently manage accounts without relying on rigid, pre-existing playbooks. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to handle difficult clients, prioritize tasks when overworked, and maintain composure. Strong performance means providing structured, step-by-step approaches to ambiguous client scenarios.

Be ready to go over:

• Managing Client Expectations – How you reset timelines or handle scope creep during an implementation.
• Operating Without a Playbook – How you successfully deliver results when internal processes (like onboarding or billing) are still being formalized.
• De-escalation Strategies – Techniques you use when a client is frustrated by technical roadblocks.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Strategies for monetizing professional services, tracking individual performance metrics autonomously, and building scalable client templates.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to deliver a successful client implementation but lacked the internal resources or clear processes to do so."
• "How would you handle a situation where a high-value client demands a feature that our product does not currently support?"
• "Walk me through a scenario where you had to push back on a client's timeline to ensure the quality of the implementation."

Strategic Implementation and The Homework Assignment

Attentive places a heavy emphasis on your ability to execute. The homework assignment is your opportunity to prove you can do the actual work. This area evaluates your strategic thinking, your attention to detail, and your ability to translate platform capabilities into ROI for the client. Strong candidates treat the assignment as a real client deliverable, showcasing impeccable presentation skills and deep strategic thought.

Be ready to go over:

• Platform Adoption – How you build strategies to ensure clients fully utilize a SaaS platform.
• Data-Driven Recommendations – Using client data to suggest specific marketing or implementation actions.
• Presentation Skills – How you communicate complex technical or strategic concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – SMS marketing compliance (TCPA), cross-channel marketing attribution, and API integration overviews.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Present your findings from the homework assignment as if I were the VP of Marketing at the client's company."
• "What metrics would you use to define a 'successful' implementation for a new brand on our platform?"
• "How do you ensure a client transitions smoothly from the sales cycle into active professional services?"

Culture Fit and High-Growth Resilience

Attentive operates with intense momentum, often described as a "lets-go-IPO" energy. This area evaluates whether you have the grit and drive to succeed in a demanding, high-velocity environment. We look for candidates who are willing to go above and beyond and who view challenges as opportunities to build. Strong candidates demonstrate a proactive mindset, a high threshold for stress, and a dedication to team success.

Be ready to go over:

• Adaptability to Change – How you pivot when company goals or product features change rapidly.
• High-Performance Mindset – Examples of times you sacrificed short-term comfort to ensure a critical business win.
• Autonomy – How you ramp yourself up and learn new tools when formal onboarding is light.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Navigating organizational restructuring, mentoring peers in a high-stress environment, and driving cross-functional alignment.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Describe a time you had to work under extreme pressure or tight deadlines to get a project over the finish line."
• "How do you stay organized and motivated in an environment where individual performance tracking is highly autonomous?"
• "Tell me about a time you identified a broken internal process and took it upon yourself to fix it."

Key Responsibilities

As a Consultant at Attentive, your primary responsibility is to act as the strategic lead for our enterprise and mid-market clients, guiding them from contract signature through successful platform implementation. You will design tailored SMS marketing strategies, configure the platform to meet specific client needs, and ensure that the technical setup aligns perfectly with their business objectives. This requires a deep understanding of the client's industry and a proactive approach to identifying growth opportunities.

You will collaborate heavily with cross-functional teams, serving as the voice of the customer to Product and Engineering while partnering with Sales and Customer Success to ensure a seamless client journey. Because our professional services framework is continually evolving, you will also be responsible for identifying gaps in our current workflows—such as onboarding or billing processes—and helping to build scalable solutions that benefit the entire team.

Day-to-day, you will lead client meetings, present strategic roadmaps, troubleshoot implementation roadblocks, and analyze campaign performance data. You must be comfortable managing multiple high-stakes projects simultaneously, often acting as the sole driver of progress for your accounts. Your success is measured by the speed and quality of your implementations, the immediate ROI your clients see, and your ability to thrive autonomously.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be competitive for the Consultant role at Attentive, you must bring a blend of strategic consulting experience, technical aptitude, and exceptional stakeholder management skills.

• Must-have skills – You need a proven track record (typically 3–5+ years) in SaaS implementation, professional services, or client strategy. You must possess exceptional situational judgment, the ability to independently manage enterprise clients, and the resilience to operate in a high-stress, fast-paced environment. Strong analytical skills and presentation capabilities are non-negotiable.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience specifically within marketing technology, SMS/email marketing, or e-commerce is highly valued. Candidates who have navigated the ambiguity of a pre-IPO or hyper-growth startup, and those who have experience building internal operational processes from scratch, will stand out significantly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview process for a Consultant at Attentive? The process sets a very high bar and can be demanding. While the situational questions may seem straightforward, interviewers are looking for deep, structured answers that demonstrate exceptional resilience and strategic thinking. Expect to invest significant time in the homework assignment.

Q: What is the culture like on the Professional Services team? The culture is highly driven, fast-paced, and embraces a high-performance mindset. It is an environment suited for self-starters who are willing to push hard to achieve company goals, especially given the strong momentum of the business. You must be comfortable with autonomy and ambiguity.

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The timeline can vary, but it generally spans 3 to 5 weeks from the initial recruiter screen to the final rounds. Be aware that communication updates may occasionally become sparse due to the fast pace of the hiring teams, so proactive follow-ups are encouraged.

Q: Will I receive feedback if I am not selected? Due to the high volume of candidates and the fast pace of the recruitment team, detailed feedback is not always provided after final rounds. It is best to focus on your own self-assessment and continuous improvement after each interview stage.

Q: How structured is the onboarding process for new Consultants? Currently, the onboarding process is highly autonomous. You will be expected to take charge of your own learning, seek out necessary information, and quickly adapt to internal tools and client accounts without relying on a rigid, step-by-step training program.

Other General Tips

• Embrace the Repetition: If back-to-back interviewers ask you the exact same situational questions, treat it as a test of your consistency and patience. Deliver your answer with the same energy and detail every time.
• Showcase Self-Reliance: Make it explicitly clear that you do not need hand-holding. Highlight past experiences where you successfully navigated environments lacking formal processes, billing structures, or performance tracking.
• Prepare for the "High-Growth" Reality: Acknowledge the demanding nature of a pre-IPO company. Frame your past experiences of working long hours or handling high-stress projects as evidence of your dedication and capability, rather than as negatives.
• Follow Up Proactively: Because communication can sometimes break down or updates may become sparse, take ownership of your candidate journey. Send polite, concise follow-up emails if timelines pass without an update.
• Treat the Homework as a Final Deliverable: The take-home assignment is a massive differentiator. Format it beautifully, triple-check your data, and be prepared to defend your strategic choices confidently against senior leadership.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Consultant role at Attentive is a unique opportunity to shape the client experience at one of the fastest-growing companies in the marketing technology space. The role requires a rare blend of strategic vision, technical implementation skills, and the sheer grit necessary to thrive in an unstructured, high-velocity environment. By proving that you can independently manage complex accounts and drive significant ROI, you position yourself as an invaluable asset to the team.

As you prepare, focus heavily on structuring your situational examples, perfecting your homework assignment presentation, and demonstrating your resilience. Understand that the interviewers are looking for candidates who can operate without a playbook and who remain unfazed by overlapping questions or shifting timelines. Targeted, thoughtful preparation will allow your expertise and adaptability to shine through during the final rounds.

This compensation data provides a baseline understanding of the salary range and total rewards package for the Consultant role. Use this information to benchmark your expectations and ensure you are aligned with the market rate for this level of seniority and impact. Remember that total compensation at a high-growth company often includes equity, which reflects the significant value you bring to the organization.

You have the experience and the drive to succeed in this process. Continue to refine your narratives, lean into your strategic expertise, and review additional insights on Dataford to ensure you are fully prepared. Approach every conversation with confidence, and show the team exactly why you are the right person to help scale their success.