In this module10 lessons
Conflict and disagreement
Answer conflict prompts about engineers, managers and stakeholders with stories that show curiosity, a clear way to decide and a relationship that survived.
6 min readFull kit
What conflict questions actually test
Every working adult has had conflict, so the interviewer isn't asking whether you have. They are asking how you behave in it. Do you get curious or defensive? Do you separate the person from the problem? Can you decide, or escalate cleanly, when talking runs out? And does the working relationship survive?
PMs disagree for a living. You will push back on engineers, designers, sales, legal and your own manager, often in the same week. Interviewers want evidence you can do that without leaving damage behind you.
Three types of answer lose points:
- The avoider. "We had a few conversations and aligned." Nothing happened, so nothing can be scored.
- The steamroller. "I showed them the data and they came around." The other person has no point of view, and you changed nothing about your own.
- The villain story. The other person was difficult, unreasonable or incompetent. The interviewer starts to wonder how you would describe them.
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Practice this lesson
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with an engineer about how to build something.
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager and turned out to be wrong.
- Describe a conflict between two teammates that you helped resolve.
- Tell me about a time you said no to a stakeholder.
- Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult stakeholder.