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Executive summaries, skill ratings, key quotes, and full transcripts.

Michael Chen

Former Manager at DataFlow Solutions

5/5.0
Excellent

Executive Summary

Sarah Johnson is an exceptional product leader who combines strategic vision with operational excellence. During her two years at DataFlow Solutions, she led a consumer product team that achieved outstanding results, including a 34% increase in user retention. Her former manager, Michael Chen, highlights her rare ability to balance big-picture thinking with hands-on execution, exceptional stakeholder management skills, and strong mentorship capabilities. Sarah created a high-performing team culture with the lowest attrition rate in the organization. While she could continue developing her delegation skills, this is a minor area for growth compared to her significant strengths.

Key Strengths

Strategic Product Vision
Stakeholder Management
Data-Driven Decision Making
Team Leadership & Mentorship
Execution Excellence

Skills Assessment

Soft Skills
Leadership
Communication
Strategic Thinking
Technical Skills
Product Strategy
User Research
Analytics & Metrics

Key Quotes

"I would hire Sarah again in a heartbeat. She's one of the best product leaders I've worked with in my 15-year career."
"She has this rare combination of strategic thinking and hands-on execution. She can develop a compelling product vision and then roll up her sleeves to make it happen."
1:234:05

Audio playback available in full reports

Disclaimer: This report is for informational purposes only. Reffem does not make recommendations on whether a candidate should or should not be hired. Ratings reflect opinions expressed by references.

To: hiring-manager@client.com

Subject: Reference Check Complete - Michael Chen (Sr. Software Engineer)

Hi Sarah,

Great news - the reference check for Michael Chen is complete. Here's a quick summary:

Key Strengths Identified:

  • Expert-level backend architecture and database optimization
  • Strong initiative - created onboarding curriculum independently

"I would absolutely rehire Michael for a role that plays to his technical depth and problem-solving skills."

— Avery Thompson, Former Engineering Manager

Verification Status:

✓Identity & Tenure: Direct-from-source verified

✓Technical Scope: Confirmed via professional supervisor

✓Full Recording & Transcript: Available upon request

Let me know if you'd like to review the full report or discuss next steps.

Best,
Alex Rivera
Senior Recruiter, TalentFirst

Copy-paste ready summaries for your client communications.

Hear Reffem Dig Deeper

Hear how Reffem challenges vague answers and gets to the real story.

Sample Reference Interview

Example: Senior Software Engineer

0:43 / 0:00

Starting at Key Moment: Watch how Reffem challenges a surface-level answer.

Reffem0:00

Good afternoon, Avery. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. As you know, we're speaking about Michael, who's being considered for a senior software engineer role here. We really appreciate you sharing your insights.

Reference0:11

Of course, Jordan. Happy to help. Michael reported directly to me for three years, right up until I moved to a different department last quarter.

Reffem0:18

That's perfect. Well, to start then, how would you describe Michael's work ethic and his reliability?

Reference0:24

Michael was exceptionally reliable, especially when we were up against a really high stakes deadline. I remember a critical API migration project last year. The deadline was a hard two weeks. And Michael consistently stayed late without anyone asking just to make sure all the integration points were perfect. That was typical of him.

Reffem0:43

That's great context. So could you provide some specific examples of Michael's key strengths and maybe just importantly some areas for development you noticed?

Reference0:52

His key strength is definitely his technical depth, specifically in backend system architecture, database optimization—just brilliant. Where he had some room for development was sometimes prioritizing technical purity over practical speed.

Reffem1:07

Could you elaborate on that? I mean, if he's optimizing something, why is that a development area?

Reference1:12

Sure. There was one time Michael spent three full days optimizing a single database query. And technically, the code was beautiful. It was perfect. But that query only ran once a month for a report. A quick 30-minute fix would have been fine, and it would have freed him up for customer-facing features that were urgent. It just showed a little bit of a disconnect from the immediate business needs.

Reffem1:35

I see. That really helps frame his decision-making. OK, how did Michael handle challenging situations or, say, conflicts within the team?

Reference1:44

Michael tends to avoid interpersonal friction. He's not a confrontational person. When we had a big disagreement with the design team over a new feature, Michael actually stepped in as a sort of technical mediator. Instead of arguing, he just compiled all this detailed documentation that showed, with data, the complexity of what they were asking for. He used data to resolve the conflict.

Reffem2:04

Did that require him to step out of his comfort zone a bit to manage personalities?

Reference2:08

It did, yeah. He's not naturally outspoken, but he saw that an objective voice was needed. And the document itself kind of diffused the whole situation so the teams could focus on a solution instead of being frustrated with each other.

Reffem2:24

Right. OK, next. Did Michael effectively meet deadlines and manage his workload?

Reference2:29

For big complex projects, absolutely. Like that API migration I mentioned, he was fantastic. But for the smaller, more routine maintenance tickets, the less exciting stuff, he sometimes needed a nudge to close those out after a big project was done.

Reffem2:42

So he needed a little more accountability for the more mundane tasks.

Reference2:45

A little bit, yeah.

Reffem2:47

Got it. And how well did Michael collaborate and communicate with his teammates?

Reference2:50

Within the engineering team, collaboration was really strong. He's great at asynchronous communication—detailed code comments, pull request reviews, very proactive on Slack. He was a bit less vocal in big cross-departmental meetings, tended to only speak up when asked directly.

Reffem3:08

OK. And can you comment on Michael's ability to adapt to change? A sudden shift in project scope, for example.

Reference3:15

Oh, technically, he adapted incredibly well. When our whole infrastructure pivoted from one cloud provider to another, Michael immediately took the lead on learning the new tool set. He didn't even have to be asked. He just embraces technical change.

Reffem3:28

What ways did Michael demonstrate leadership skills or take initiative on your team?

Reference3:33

Michael's initiative was very focused on technical growth. He noticed that our new hires were taking a long time to get up to speed. So completely on his own, he designed and documented a full onboarding curriculum for junior engineers.

Reffem3:45

Wow.

Reference3:45

And that curriculum, I mean, it significantly cut down the time it took for new people to become productive.

Reffem3:51

That's a very concrete example of initiative. Did Michael display strong problem solving and critical thinking skills?

Reference3:58

Absolutely. When a mission critical service failed last spring—I mean, immediate customer impact—Michael was the one who diagnosed it. He figured out it wasn't our code, but a really obscure dependency issue from an external update. He isolated the fix and had us back online in under an hour. He's a true troubleshooter.

Reffem4:16

That shows incredible thinking under pressure. OK, just a couple more. How did Michael handle feedback and constructive criticism?

Reference4:23

Very professionally. After we talked about him being more proactive in those cross-functional meetings, he immediately scheduled weekly syncs with the product managers to make sure his work had visibility. He wasn't defensive at all. He just wanted to fix it.

Reffem4:37

Avery, thank you. These examples are incredibly helpful. So the ultimate question. Given the opportunity, knowing this role is very technical and back-end focused, would you rehire Michael?

Reference4:47

Yes. I would absolutely rehire Michael for a role that plays to his technical depth and his problem-solving skills. I would just also make sure that role had a project manager to help with prioritizing some of those smaller routine tasks.

Press play to follow along with the transcript.

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