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Program Management: Due Dates

Program Management: Due Dates

Example interview question on handling tight deadlines.

We'll cover the following...

Question

Your engineer comes to you and tells you that a particular feature cannot be launched by the due date. How do you respond?

Background

This situation is a very common occurrence, and this question is a great way to see how you would handle a tough, ambiguous interaction with key cross-functional stakeholders. These scenario-type questions are trying to gauge how you will handle a similar situation at work and if you are able to reach a consensus on a plan of action.

We’ll treat this question as a role-playing exercise with back-and-forth questions from the interviewer to better reflect how a real-life interview would work.

Solution approach

Since this involves a sensitive interpersonal interaction, we don’t want to jump to conclusions right away. We should aim to gather facts and ...