I spoke to guy once who was researching what makes a high functioning team for some large (unarmed) company. His insight over the various studies he’d looked at was as follows.

1. High functioning teams are in the order of 5–10 people 2. Everyone in the team is respected for what they bring to the group regardless of experience.

If you’ve 20 years experience you’re valued for your knowledge of pitfalls etc. If you’ve 2 years you might be valued for your enthusiasm. Or if your a fresh graduate you could be valued on your ability to question conventions that others do not.

My question is: given this, how would an interview ever hope to sift out a potential candidate. Especially when the qualities of the final aren’t (could never?) be properly specified relative to the team they were due to go into.