What are some tools for identifying motivations?

One that I use quite often, I don't know whether it's a good one, but is to think ahead to that next interview and imagine it theoretically, and to do this little play in your head where you begin to pencil in that person that's interviewing you. Are they corporate, suit-wearing... Is it a startup founder? And then as you begin to fill in those blanks, you imagine what questions they're asking.

And then think of some examples, like on an engineering career path. Maybe they're asking, "Have you worked in DevOps and infrastructure before?" And maybe if you are thinking about the answer to that question, you're confident to say, "No, that's not an area of focus for me. Actually, I get much more excitement and interest in the front end side of things." Or, as you go through this mental exercise, you find yourself almost squirming in your seat, if you're like, "Not as much as I might like." And almost trying to invent examples. And the reason why I think this exercise works is because you can almost feel where the holes are. And then that can help to inform where you might like to fill some holes.