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Behavioralstandard
Describe a conflict between two teammates that you helped resolve.
How to approach it
Show that you found the real issue underneath, such as unclear ownership or clashing goals, rather than just calming people down.
How a strong answer opens
“Two senior people on my team clashed in every design review, and it turned out they'd both been told they owned the same decision. Here's how I found that out and fixed it.”
Outline of a strong answer
Try answering out loud for a few minutes before you open this.
- Who was involved and what the project stood to lose
- What the conflict looked like on the surface, such as sharp comments in reviews
- The one-on-one conversations you had to hear each side
- The root cause you found, for example two people told they owned the same decision
- The fix: a clear owner, a written decision, a shared goal
- How the project and the working relationship looked afterward
Where this question usually goes wrong
Describing how you calmed people down without finding the underlying cause, such as unclear ownership or clashing goals.
Learn the method
Conflict and disagreement in Module 4, Behavioral and leadership.
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More behavioral questions
- 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.
- Tell me about a time you said no to a stakeholder.
- Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult stakeholder.
- Tell me about a week when everything was urgent. How did you decide what to do first?