Technical abilities

• Programme auditing and performance diagnostics [9/10]: We were genuinely impressed by how Pragya approached the audit question. She walked through a structured, tiered framework covering publisher segmentation, tracking verification, commission review, and competitor benchmarking, and it felt like something she's actually done many times rather than something she rehearsed for the interview. She instinctively clarified whether the account was already live before diving in, which we thought was a good reflection of how she operates in practice. Her mention of distinguishing between Postback and Pixel tracking, and how tracking issues often explain apparent performance drops, showed a level of technical literacy you'd genuinely want in someone managing live programmes from day one. When the follow-up question pushed her on what to do when tracking is clean but performance is still down, she worked through the problem logically, considering publisher-side issues, ad placements, expired offers, and even Adobe Analytics discrepancies. She also mentioned going directly to the publisher to ask if anything had changed on their end, which reflects a practical, hands-on instinct. She did occasionally meander a little in how she explained her thinking, and at times the structure could have been tighter, but the underlying knowledge was clearly there.

• Publisher recruitment and relationship management [8/10]: This is an area where Pragya has clearly put in real time. She drew a sensible distinction between launching a programme from scratch versus scaling an existing one, and her answer covered the full funnel, from content and editorial publishers for awareness through to cashback, loyalty, and referral programmes for conversion and retention. She name-dropped tools like SimilarWeb, ZoomInfo, and SEMrush in context rather than just as a list, and her outreach approach, sending three spaced emails per week to avoid inbox fatigue, reflected someone who has actually done this work at volume. The dormant publisher question also gave us a good read on her – she followed a logical escalation process, tried CP increases and bonuses first, then moved to a final warning email, and explained why she'd always give notice before removing someone from a programme. When the follow-up asked what she'd do if a publisher left for a competitor's higher commission, she was measured about it. She'd try to negotiate within budget, acknowledge advertiser constraints, and know when to walk away. We feel that kind of commercial realism, knowing where the ceiling is and being honest about it, is something you want in someone managing multiple accounts.

• Client communication and account ownership [8/10]: We feel Pragya is genuinely comfortable in the client-facing side of this role. When asked how she'd handle the scenario of 120 affiliates with only 15 generating revenue, she didn't shy away from telling the client the truth. She said she'd put a deck together, walk them through the numbers including revenue, ROAS, AOV, conversions, and EPC, and frame it around what needs to happen next. We genuinely appreciated her directness, which was credibly backed by structured data. She also mentioned that she defaults to weekly calls and prefers to have conversations rather than just fire off emails; her approach to the tiered commission question reinforced this behaviour. When a client pushed back on moving away from a flat fee, she built a clear case around situational commissioning, used the Expedia example to make it concrete, and explained the logic clearly without overcomplicating it.

• Programme strategy and prioritisation [7.5/10]: The final scenario question, working with a mixed publisher base and a platform migration on the horizon, gave us the clearest window into how Pragya thinks strategically. She organised her priorities around the funnel, starting with content and editorial partners to drive awareness, moving to sub-affiliates and voucher or cashback publishers for conversion, and then to comparison engines for high-intent traffic. We think the logic was sound and the sequencing made sense given the 30-day constraint she was operating within. What we found particularly thoughtful was her instinct to flag the migration risk. She raised the point that moving from an existing network to Partnerize mid-momentum could cause a loss of traction and revenue during the transition period, and suggested at least exploring whether there was a case to pause it if the programme was improving. That said, she's less experienced on the pure strategy side, and we don't think she'd walk in and immediately redesign a programme architecture from the ground up, but for the scope of this role that's fine; we believe the foundations are there.

Areas of growth