I run a plant-based ice cream business. Like any business, finding the right candidate is hard. It's not something you want to get wrong — and in the ice cream business, it's especially hard.
Why? No one aspires to work as a server in an ice cream shop for their whole life. It's not a stepping stone on anyone's career ladder. For most people, it's just a filler while they pursue something else. And that's totally okay. I get it.
But that doesn't change the fact that when I hire someone, I want them to be the most competent, best candidate I can get. Even if it's just scooping ice cream.
So the question becomes: how do you weed out the good candidates from the bad ones? Simple — my one-question interview hack.
Why Traditional Interviews Don't Work
Over the last ten years, I've interviewed and hired more people than I can count for my ice cream stores. Some I wish would never leave. Some I can barely remember. And some I probably shouldn't have hired.
Here's the problem with a standard interview: competent people can come across as incompetent. Incompetent people can come across as competent. And completely incompetent people come across as, well, completely incompetent — but those are rarer than you'd think.
I'm not hiring for some complex executive role. I'm not looking for someone to come in and increase sales, hit KPIs, or build a growth presentation. I'm looking for a self-starter I can trust — someone with excellent customer service instincts, who takes initiative, is reliable, and is easy to manage and give feedback to.
A traditional interview isn't always the best vehicle for finding that. You can ask someone if they're reliable and every single person will tell you yes. You can ask if they're a team player and every single person will tell you yes. Those questions don't filter anything — they just tell you who's good at answering interview questions.
So, over the years, I've tried to stack the deck in my favor by asking one unconventional question instead. A question designed to catch people off guard. A question that doesn't have a right answer — but does have a right response.
The Ultimate Interview Question
It probably won't shock you that my favorite interview question is about ice cream. What might surprise you is why.
Here it is:
"If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be — and why?"
At first glance, it might look like a fun, break-the-silence kind of question. But that's not why I ask it. It's the most powerful question I've got in my back pocket, and here's why: there's no right answer, and that's the point.
I don't care what flavor someone picks. Vanilla, mint chip, some flavor I've never even heard of — it doesn't matter to me.
I care about how they explain why they chose it. What's their thought process behind it? How do they react to the question — do they take it seriously, or dismiss it as something silly?
It shows me how they respond to something unexpected. Can they engage with it? Can they think on their feet and make a connection they've never had to make before? It's designed to be a question they can't prepare for. They can't have rehearsed it, because who rehearses for ice cream flavors?
Same Flavor, Two Completely Different People
Take vanilla.
Someone could say:
"Vanilla. Because I'm dependable, I get along with everyone, and I think the basics matter. Vanilla is the flavor most people expect an ice cream shop to get right. It has to be good. That's the same level of care and consistency I'd bring to this role."
That's a great answer.
But someone else could say:
"Erm... I don't know. I can't think of one. Vanilla?"
Same flavor. Completely different impression.
Now, that doesn't automatically mean the second person wouldn't be a good employee. They could be nervous, or simply caught off guard. That's partly why I ask it — it tells you something, but it doesn't tell you everything, and I try to hold that lightly.
But it can also tell you something else. When I watch someone's body language in that moment — and yes, interviewers do pay attention to body language — a flat, checked-out answer can be its own kind of tell. Sometimes it's nerves. Sometimes it's someone quietly telling you they're not that interested in the role at all.
Here's the thing, though: the flavor itself tells me almost nothing. The way they answer tells me a lot.
Suddenly You've Learned Something
That's what gets me about this question every time. It sounds silly. It sounds like a throwaway. Honestly, I feel a little silly asking it every single time.
And then someone gives you an answer, and suddenly you've learned something real about a person — from a question that sounded like a joke thirty seconds earlier.
Sometimes the questions without a "right" answer tell you far more than the ones that do. The moment a question has a correct response, people stop showing you who they are and start showing you what they think you want to hear.
This one, they can't prepare for. So they can't perform it.
So — What Flavor Are You?
Next time you're interviewing someone, try asking a question they couldn't have rehearsed on the drive over. It doesn't have to be about ice cream. It just has to have no right answer.
Watch what happens in the pause before they respond. That pause tells you more than the resume did.
So — if you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be? And more importantly, why?
About Me
I'm Michael Philippou, co-founder of Big Love, a plant-based ice cream business in Santa Monica that I've been running with my wife Victoria for over ten years. Before ice cream, I was a lawyer. I write about the real, unpolished lessons of running a small business — no gurus, no hype, just what's actually worked and what hasn't. You can find more of these stories on my YouTube channel, Real Business Real Lessons.