Welcome to your interview.
The question is on your right: Automation vs Manual Operations. Take a moment with it first.
Talk your thinking through with me if you like - when you're confident, submit your answer and I'll grade it like a real screen (7/10 or better passes). Discussion and graded submissions share your five interviewer interactions, so spend them well.
You are advising a company that runs a growing set of operational workflows, and the team is debating whether to build automation or keep using manual processes. Some work is repetitive and high volume, while other work changes often and still needs human judgment. Leadership wants a clear way to decide where automation creates value and where manual execution is still the better choice.
How do you decide whether to invest in automation versus manual operational processes?
You are the Engineering Manager for an operations-heavy product area at a financial software company. Your team handles recurring workflows that affect customer onboarding, exception handling, and internal support, and the current process mix is part automated and part manual.