Thanks for writing that up; really interesting stuff. I agree with many of the critiques you make. I suspect that it may be easier to get the sort of standard process you describe implemented in a relatively small organization that has a relatively consistent set of products and commensurate challenges than in a large, diverse organization like Microsoft, where I learned to interview. The Microsoft interviewer has the challenge of finding candidates that are good both for the specific team they're interviewing for, and also have the general skills necessary to work with other teams in the future. As you say, it's a hard problem.
But Microsoft is a large organization, with deep pockets! Is time spent crafting meaningful challenges for each team really that much more than, say, the man-hours that each team will have to spend to interview candidates?
