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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

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1. \n

   This is my first time conducting technical interviews (most of which have been virtual), and I had one interview where I had a strong feeling that the candidate was cheating. They breezed through the short problems I gave them, and they were able to explain their reasoning. But during the live coding problem, they sat in silence for five minutes, and when I asked them what they were thinking, they didn\u2019t respond. Then they started cranking out perfect code without explaining anything.

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   How do you address cheating in interviews? What if it turns out to be just nerves? I don\u2019t want to assume anything, but I also wouldn\u2019t feel comfortable confronting them about it either.

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2. \n

   I work as a team lead for a small group of 4 other devs. Our Product Owner is currently handling the requirements for new features to onboard a new large client. This involves them attending client meetings and generally isolating the development team from client shenanigans which is normally great, but it\u2019s becoming INCREASINGLY obvious that someone on the client team has his number and he\u2019s getting HORRIBLY out-negotiated. This has resulted in a bunch of missing requirements, changing requirements, last minute feature adds, and general confusion. I\u2019m trying to push back, but the leadership team is coming back with \u201cWell we promised\u2026\u201d and my entire team is stressing out. Note that this is AFTER we were already pressured to overcommit on capacity to get these \u201cabsolutely necessary\u201d features developed for the client to go live.

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   I like my PO, he\u2019s a good guy and normally does good work, what can I do to help him stop from getting his butt kicked in these meetings?

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   (Note: the POs are neither above nor below us in the org tree, our closest shared higher-up is the VP and I obviously don\u2019t want to escalate it that far)

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