Build the business.
Own the outcome.
A conversation about profitable growth, customer value and leading a team that delivers.
The mandate we will explore
For this assessment, treat Branded Apps as Zeal’s business providing branded digital experiences for merchant customers, connected to loyalty and payments. You would shape the commercial offer, win and retain customers, coordinate delivery and build an accountable team.
The exact remit, targets, team, budget and decision rights are to be agreed with Zeal. State assumptions and ask what you need to know. Exercise figures below are fictional.
Your interview journey
Your story
Your background, career choices and reasons for joining Zeal, including how you respond to feedback and repair working relationships. We want specific examples, not perfect prose.
Business judgement
Commercial reasoning, pricing, retention, stakeholder dynamics and decisions under uncertainty for Zeal’s Branded Apps business.
Loom introduction
Record a 3–5 minute introduction: a commercial decision you owned, what happened, and why running Branded Apps at Zeal interests you.
Build the business
After invitation, prepare a 90-day Branded Apps operating plan, a simple financial model and an HTML board memo. Recommended cap: four hours; seven days to submit, with extensions available.
Live business defence
Defend your business plan, role-play a customer negotiation, and respond to a delivery and retention shock. Leave time for your questions.
People & references
A structured conversation about ownership, respectful disagreement and integrity. References are contacted only with your permission; no current-employer contact without explicit agreement.
Decision & offer
The hiring team reviews the evidence, resolves open questions and communicates a decision. Offer terms and acceptance are handled directly with Zeal before a candidate is marked hired.
Your first 90 days as GM
Prepare a standalone HTML board memo with a simple 12-month financial model. Use synthetic data. Aim for four hours of work and submit within seven days of invitation; tell us if you need an adjustment.
- Choose one customer segment and market. Explain the buyer, need, alternative and your first ten-customer sales motion.
- Define an offer, pricing and scoped launch proposal for a multi-site merchant. Explain when you would decline custom work.
- Model customer acquisition, churn, recurring revenue, setup fees, direct costs, staffing, cash needs and breakeven. Include a downside case with explicit formulas.
- Allocate a hypothetical team of five across sales, onboarding, customer success and shared product/engineering. Define owners, metrics, escalation and weekly reviews.
- Set 30/60/90-day outcomes with stop/go gates. Include a renewal rescue for a disappointed customer.
- Disclose AI tools and prompts, verify calculations and note limitations.
Deliver one offline HTML file up to 2 MB plus the written responses. Visual polish matters less than clear decisions, sound economics and executable commitments. No unpaid production work or confidential employer data is expected.
How we assess the evidence
Commercial & P&L ownership · 25%
Clear pricing, unit economics, cash timing, pipeline assumptions and decisions tied to profitable growth.
Customer acquisition & retention · 20%
Defined ideal customer, credible sales motion, activation and retention measures, discovery and renewal strategy.
Delivery & operating discipline · 20%
Focused 90-day plan, capacity constraints, ownership, service recovery and weekly operating cadence.
Leadership & team building · 15%
Hiring priorities, coaching, delegation, accountability and respectful handling of underperformance.
Strategic & analytical judgement · 10%
Explicit assumptions, testable choices, uncertainty and honest use of data and AI.
Integrity, empathy & commitment · 10%
Specific motivation, truthful reporting, customer empathy, realistic commitments and constructive disagreement.
1: limited evidence · 2: developing · 3: meets the bar · 4: strong evidence. Personalised questions use confirmed professional context. All GM candidates share the same core case and rubric. People make hiring decisions.