John Cutler questions the usefulness of personality and strength tests in the workplace. He notes they make for entertaining conversation and can feel uncannily accurate, but seldom improve everyday collaboration. He argues they cannot substitute for the slower work of genuinely understanding colleagues, including how people interact with others and how their context shapes behavior. The piece cautions teams against reducing people to fixed labels, which can obscure situational differences and shortcut real relationship-building. For product leaders, the point is that team effectiveness depends on attentive, ongoing understanding rather than static categorization.
01Key takeaways
- Treat personality and strength tests as conversation starters, not decision tools.
- Invest time in learning how colleagues actually work with others.
- Recognize that behavior changes with context, so avoid fixed labels.
- Use direct observation and dialogue to understand team members over time.
- Be wary of assessments that promise shortcuts to team effectiveness.
02Key sections
- Why the tests feel appealing
- Personality and strength assessments are fun to discuss and sometimes seem eerily accurate. That surface appeal is distinct from practical value.
- Limited day-to-day impact
- The tests rarely translate into better everyday work. Their insights seldom change how people collaborate or make decisions.
- Labels versus real understanding
- Categorizing people cannot replace the effort of truly getting to know them. Relationship and context matter more than fixed types.
- The risk of boxing people in
- Putting people into boxes can flatten their complexity and set expectations that limit growth and adaptability.
03From the post
“Personality and “strength” tests at work have never sat right with me. Sure, they became fodder for some fun discussions and had that occasional “wow, how right!” horoscope vibe. But they rarely seemed to help with day-to-day work, and they never replaced the hard work of truly getting to know people, including how they interact with others and how diff…”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.