Tell me about a time when you failed badly and what you learned from it?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

During my internship at a local company, I was responsible for managing the
company's social media accounts. After my first month, my supervisor provided
feedback that my posts were not engaging enough and lacked the brand's voice,
resulting in low interaction rates.

Instead of getting discouraged, I took this as a valuable learning opportunity.
I asked for a meeting with my supervisor to get more specific feedback and
understand what aspects needed improvement. She suggested studying the company's
previous successful posts and getting a better grasp of the brand's tone and
target audience.

I took her advice and spent time analyzing the company's social media analytics
to identify patterns in high-performing posts. I also researched best practices
for social media engagement and attended a webinar on effective social media
strategies.

With this new knowledge, I revised my content strategy to include more engaging
visuals, compelling captions, and interactive elements like polls and questions.
Over the next few weeks, I monitored the engagement metrics closely and adjusted
my approach as needed.

Gradually, I noticed a significant improvement in likes, comments, and shares on
our posts. My supervisor also acknowledged the positive change, and the
experience taught me the importance of being receptive to feedback and
continuously striving to improve my skills.

Anonymous · Answer

I was working with a pharma startup to build a datalake. We had only 8 weeks to
both collect requirements and then build the same and my team consisted of me an
infrastructure engineer, and a data architect. We did not have direct access to
the end users of the datalake, who were the scientists, but had to get
requirements through a client manager. This client manager was also not easily
accessible as he was travelling a lot. I spent a week with the client manager
gathering requirements and working with my team to build the datalake. The data
pipelines and datalake structure was completed fast but the infrastructure build
was getting delayed. I made a plan of replacing the data architect with an
infrastructure architect to boost the infrastructure work and keep everything
within budget. I worked this plan with the infrastructure manager, but I was not
able to get a go ahead with the client manager who was travelling at that time.
When the client manager came in I presented the plan. This was already in action
as the data architect was released from the project and the infrastructure
architect had started working. The client manager did not approve the plan as he
had more data work to do - which was not informed to us. I scheduled a two hour
meeting with the client manager to talk about the remaining work, estimate it
and plan on how to do this. In this meeting I figured that we had 6-8 days of
work remaining. We were already at week five of 8 weeks, so with careful
planning, we could get this one done without a cost overrun. I talked with the
infrastructure engineer and made sure that he could complete his tasks in one
week, which gave me 2 weeks of budget left. I worked with the engagement manager
to bring in a data engineer, who was able to scale up in one week. The project
completed on time with no schedule or budget over runs. After this project I
made sure that risks like access to stakeholders were handled earlier - I
ensured that every project after this that there is dedicated communication
channel with the stakeholder specifically mentioned in the SoW. I also carved
out time in short projets like these in building a rapport quickly not only with
the stakeholders, but folks adjacent to the project whom I can contact in
exigencies.

Anonymous · Answer

During my research project, I was tasked with determining the accuracy of our
model classifying stack overflow posts. We used the F1 metric to quantify the
accuracy. The general process for this was to extract classifications from the
model, and then to manually verify the accuracy of those predictions. I
completed these steps and presented my findings to the professor. However, I had
misunderstood how F1 was calculated, due to a lack of preparation I had made
assumptions. I had incorrectly extracted the classifications from the model, and
so I had to redo the entire process which set us back a week. The lesson learned
was that in order to accomplish a task/meet a goal, it is important to fully
understand the steps it takes to reach that goal. Spending more time at this
phase compounds into saved time later, since it’s more costly to redo work after
an error than correcting a misunderstanding before taking any action.

Anonymous · Answer

In my early days as Program Manager, I managed a project for one of our main
customers. This project consisted in a touch screen device to control a Large
format printer for HP. The project had a very tight schedule and I promised to
deliver the first EVT units in a certain date.
T: As PM, it was my responsibility to coordinate a cross-functional team to
deliver the program on time, within budget, and in line with the scope agreed
with our customer.
A: When I started to dive deep into the project and analyze the technical
details, I realized that meeting the original delivery timeline was not
feasible. So, I immediately met the core team to develop a new and realistic
schedule to mitigate the issue. To ensure better alignment, I implemented daily
opening and closing meetings with the team to monitor activities and prevent
task duplication between cross-functional teams. Two key factors contributed to
the milestone delay: a delay in component deliveries and one mistake on my
part—I didn’t include in my schedule the LT for one of the Reliability tests
required by Engineering before the Ok2ship milestone.
R: I highlighted the issue to my manager and shared with him the root cause of
the problem and the new plan. Then, we reached the customer together to explain
the situation and kept working together on the new committed schedule.
This experience taught me valuable lessons. Now, I always build buffer time into
my project schedules and work more closely with core team members to anticipate
potential risks. However, the most important lesson I learned was the value of
honesty and proactive communication—raising concerns early is crucial to
success.

Anonymous · Answer

While I was working at Alpha Design Technologies I made a mistake in which I had
overlooked and approved a mistake in the design choice by one of the engineers
in the team and approved the design document . The problem was that the Engineer
had selected a Capacitor for design in the Transmitting section of the Radar
which would not withstand high pressures and since it was a defense based
product this would not comply with the Military Standards and hence would not
comply with the product specifications requested by our customer.
The problem was later rectified as I discussed with the engineer to replace the
existing Aluminum electrolytic capacitor with a Tantalum capacitor of same value
and size to meet the required product specifications and got the design change
approved by higher management.
I learned that I must always take a deep dive into every small detail without
assuming anything. I  informed all engineers that if any component details were
missing in the datasheets which they felt they required I would reach out to the
companies directly to get every single detail required before we could choose
any particular component required for design.

Anonymous · Answer

Certainly, here's an example:

"In my freshman year, I participated in a science fair project with high hopes
of winning a prize. Despite investing significant time and effort into my
project, it failed to meet the judges' expectations, and I didn't receive any
recognition. Initially, I felt disappointed and frustrated by the outcome.
However, I chose to view this experience as a learning opportunity rather than
dwelling on the failure. I sought feedback from the judges to understand where I
went wrong and what I could improve upon in the future. I also reflected on my
approach to the project and identified areas where I could have been more
thorough or innovative. While it was disheartening not to achieve my desired
outcome, the experience taught me valuable lessons in resilience, humility, and
the importance of perseverance in the face of failure. It also motivated me to
work harder and approach future projects with a more strategic mindset."

Anonymous · Answer

When my team and I deployed the campus network, I neglected to stay updated on
the project's progress and didn't have a clear plan of action, leading to delays
in project execution. Consequently, I had to work diligently to complete the
project within the allotted time, which was stressful. To address this, I now
make sure to regularly monitor the project's status and have a clear
step-by-step plan in place.

Anonymous · Answer

During my research project, I was tasked with determining the accuracy of our
model classifying stack overflow posts. We used the F1 metric to quantify the
accuracy. The general process for this was to extract classifications from the
model, and then to manually verify the accuracy of those predictions. I
completed these steps and presented my findings to the professor. However, I had
misunderstood how F1 was calculated, due to a lack of preparation I had made
assumptions. I had incorrectly extracted the classifications from the model, and
so I had to redo the entire process which set us back a week. The lesson learned
was that in order to accomplish a task/meet a goal, it is important to fully
understand the steps it takes to reach that goal. Spending more time at this
phase compounds into saved time later, since it’s more costly to redo work after
an error than correcting a misunderstanding before taking any action.

Anonymous · Answer

When my team and I deployed the campus network, I neglected to stay updated on
the project's progress and didn't have a clear plan of action, leading to delays
in project execution. Consequently, I had to work diligently to complete the
project within the allotted time, which was stressful. To address this, I now
make sure to regularly monitor the project's status and have a clear
step-by-step plan in place.

Anonymous · Answer

An important mistake I made very early in my experience in product management
was my first leadership opportunity with my Consulting Club invention Corps I
was leading a team of three and it was fully remote this was very early in the
pandemic one of the big failures I made was not asking for help I was a little
confused about how I should schedule my project when I should start you know
what the core what the template for scheduling was and as a result I took a
little bit extra time and I ended up starting our project one week later than we
should have this was a huge issue you know I should have reached out to my
supervisors or I should have reached out to my project members and ask them what
they think as a result we ended up facing a little bit of crunch time towards
the middle and end of the project it forced unfortunately my team members and I
had to pull a few all-nighters to make sure we hit our deadlines and so it
taught me two things one plan plan I now for all my projects that I've had since
I have a very detailed notion board full with a kanban board project updates and
a more systematic approach to meetings and the second is to just ask for help I
know that that's sometimes a little bit scary and it was very scary for me but
I've learned that it is so important and honestly isn’t that daunting once you
ask. People want to help you and they want you to succeed, especially in yoru
own community.

Anonymous · Answer

At CenterCard, when I was a Director Of Technology, I was managing an
Infrastructure for my company. When we set up a K8s infrastruce, we need to
install ElasticSearch  - with cost optimization in mind, I had my team install
ELK on K8s. What I did not take in mind is my teams ablitiy to support
ElasticSerach, when we initially released to Prodcution,we had a outage. Our
team took longer than expected time causing bad customer experience.
I had to make a painful choice to switch to managed ELK. I did a retrospective
and realized that I failed to access my team strengths.

Anonymous · Answer

When I was first promoted to a supervisor, I had a responsibility to meet
Survey, Productivity and call handling time. I monitored calls and coached the
call I observed rather then looking for trends and behaviors.  I also failed to
identify if it was a skill or will.  From that failure it led me to review
reports at the beginning of my shift, look for trends and behaviors and to focus
on coaching measurable action plans. This strategy has helped me to achieve top
quartile results each year.

Anonymous · Answer

I remember having failed from badly understand a business requirement. The
misunderstanding was discovered only on Preproduction so we lost time re-develop
the functionality and redeploy the new release. To rectify the situation, I
utilized systematic feedback from the business and incorporate them soon in the
development.

Anonymous · Answer

It was when I presented one information to management team and I was asked one
question that I did not expect and I do not have information on hand. The
meeting was ended with no conclusion due to decision cannot made.

what I learnt from this situation is I must well prepare. For example in the
next meeting, I had prepared all related information and tried to think in
different dimensions. that meeting went well and conclusion can be made.

Anonymous · Answer

I recall a time when we were assigned a complex task with tight deadline and we
were unable to complete the taak within the time range due to lack of proper
time management and understanding the severity of the issue.At that time I
realized that it is important to manage time and understanding the urgency of
the task is very imprtant before working on it

Anonymous · Answer

I founded my startup in XXXX, spent the next 3 months interviewing potential
customers and users and mapped out user journeys. We got a lot of positive
response and most people were keen to see us build the product and eventually
use it. So we spent the next 9 months building the product. At the end we
weren't able to sell the product for what we hoped for. The mistake we made was
to assume that if people want a product, they would be willing to pay for it.
Turns out, the problem we were addressing was not urgent enough or important
enough. Our learning was that we needed to test for user propensity to pay first
before launching a product or service and not getting carried away by good
feedback.

Tell me about a time when you failed badly and what you learned from it?

Did you come across this question in an interview?

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