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Behavioralstandard
Tell me about a mistake you made that affected customers.
How to approach it
Lead with the honest impact on customers, then show how fast you responded and what you changed so it would not repeat.
How a strong answer opens
“I approved a release that double-charged about 300 customers for a day. I'll walk through how we found it, what we did in the first 24 hours, and what I changed so it couldn't happen again.”
Outline of a strong answer
Try answering out loud for a few minutes before you open this.
- The mistake and how many customers it affected, and how
- How you found out, and how quickly
- What you did in the first day: fix, tell customers, support the help team
- The root cause and your share of it
- The process change you put in place, such as a launch checklist step
- Evidence the change worked
Where this question usually goes wrong
Minimizing the customer impact or blaming engineering instead of owning your part and showing the process change you made.
Learn the method
Failure and mistakes in Module 4, Behavioral and leadership.
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