Tell me about a time you had to shut down a feature or project your team cared about.
How to approach it
The interviewer is watching how you lead people through a loss. Be honest about the decision, then show what you did for the team and for the users who relied on it.
How a strong answer opens
“We decided to retire a bulk-editing tool my team had built and loved, because few accounts used it and it slowed every release. I'll cover how I told the team, what I gave them next, and how we moved its users to the replacement.”
Outline of a strong answer
Try answering out loud for a few minutes before you open this.
- What was shut down, why, and who made the call
- How and when you told the team, and how you handled their reaction
- What you did for users: notice, migration, or a replacement
- How you gave the team ownership of what came next
- The result: users kept, people retained, and what survived
- What you would do the same way next time
Where this question usually goes wrong
Dwelling on your disappointment or blaming leadership, and skipping how you looked after the team and the users who relied on the feature.
Learn the method
Model answers 11 to 20 in Module 4, Behavioral and leadership.
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More behavioral questions
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision, committed to it anyway, and made it work.
- Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete data.
- Tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to a customer or partner.
- Tell me about a time you had to balance user needs against business goals.
- Tell me about a time you launched something quickly and then had to fix it.