How to Answer Situational Interview Questions

0:28This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-theanine for both kiddos and grown-ups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find Oli Sleep Solutions for the Whole Family at Oli.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. Situational questions are pretty common in job interviews. These are typically open-ended prompts that ask you to describe how you solved a particular problem, align stakeholders on a project, or influence someone to think in a certain way? While they can be tricky to answer, they're also a really good opportunity to showcase why you're a great fit for a role.

1:11And you can set yourself apart from other candidates by using something called the Carl method. Let's say you're a product manager at a media company, and the hiring manager asks, tell me about a time when you solved a big problem on your team. Now, if you were using the Carl method, you might say, So last year there was a big decline in user engagement on our mobile app and since we rely on in-app purchases for revenue, it was a critical business problem and I knew we had to solve it quickly. I worked with the analytics team to gather user feedback across the whole app and figure out when people were dropping off versus clicking through to our products.

1:47We actually learned there were some technical issues making it difficult for people to purchase the things they wanted. And once I shared that with the design and user experience team, we could come up with a plan to launch an update that would resolve the issue. This all happened within like two weeks, but once we launched the update, user engagement did increase by 28%. The big lesson for me and the company was that people aren't just going to stick with us because we're a big brand. It prompted me to proactively and regularly look at user feedback to make sure their experience is as seamless as possible.