Behavioral

Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information. How did you make it and what was the outcome?

Product Manager

Stripe

Amazon

Uber

2U

Yext

Accenture

Did you come across this question in an interview?

Answers

Anonymous

4Strong
We had to decide whether or not to keep investing in, or sunset a feature that came out of a hackathon project. The feature itself was well-coded, and the design was created by a designer, and functionally it worked. However, it was built on an untested assumption that customers would actually get value from automating and thus losing some control over a fairly sensitive and infrequent workflow. That meant that the feature was launched as quickly as possible due to the hackathon nature, and (i) confused customers, as it wasn't in our public roadmap or well packaged in the app, and (ii) led to low adoption and thus no meaningful testing feedback to further develop the feature. While there were hypotheses that an adapted version of the feature could be more valuable (and verified during sales demos) for a new, larger customer segment - we decided to instead deprecate the feature as it was a distraction, and not a high impact investment at the time given other priorities. 

Learning: 
- Have a product person leading any new feature, so that there is a clear value hypothesis and alignment with GTM functions to launch and communicate the feature successfully to customers 
- Do not assume that customers will want to adopt something just because they mention it 
- Well coded, designed feature without a clear value prop is still without value 




Anonymous

4Strong
One instance stands out when I was writing a recommendation letter for a colleague. I lacked comprehensive knowledge of their performance in certain areas. To tackle this, I focused on aspects I knew well, like their communication skills and reliability. I highlighted their strengths, drawing from past interactions and feedback from others. However, I acknowledged the gaps in my knowledge, stating that I couldn't comment on certain aspects. Honesty was crucial. As a result, I made the decision to emphasize what I could confidently endorse, rather than speculating on areas I wasn't familiar with. The letter was well-received, as it provided valuable insights into the individual's strengths while transparently addressing the limitations of my perspective. It emphasized the importance of leveraging available information effectively and being forthright about uncertainties.

Anonymous

as a fresher i didn't get any experience about own decision making . but if i had a chance to take any decision i crucial time without proper information about the topic . i would prefer to take other opinion on the process and try to set back everything and give best out of few things gathered
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  • Tell me about a time when you made a decision with incomplete information. How did you do it and what was the outcome?
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Interview question asked to Product Managers interviewing at BrowserStack, Bosch, ASML and others: Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information. How did you make it and what was the outcome?.