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Tell me about a time you had to make an unpopular decision...
Startup CTO
Tell me about a time you had to make an unpopular decision with your team. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
Last year, I decided to pause all feature work for two sprints to pay down critical tech debt. The team was frustrated because we had just committed to a product roadmap with tight deadlines...
That sounds like a tough call. How did you communicate this decision to the team, and how did you get their buy-in?
I held a team meeting where I showed them our incident data — we'd had 3 production outages in 6 weeks, all caused by the same legacy service. I framed it as an investment: two sprints now would save us months of firefighting...
Tap to speak
Tell me about a time you had to make an unpopular decision with your team.
- Used concrete data (3 outages in 6 weeks) to justify the decision
- Demonstrated clear stakeholder communication by presenting a comparison framework
- Could quantify the impact more — what was the cost of each outage?
- Consider mentioning how you measured success after the tech debt sprint
Your answer demonstrates strong situational awareness by using incident data to frame the decision. To elevate further, quantify the business impact and tie the investment to measurable outcomes...
“We were averaging 3 P1 incidents per month. I gathered data, calculated 120h of engineering time lost, and presented a trade-off analysis to leadership...”
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About me
I'm Stephane Moreau, a Senior Engineering Manager based in London, UK, with over a decade of experience leading high-performing teams in tech.
Whether you're transitioning into leadership for the first time or looking to refine your skills as an experienced manager, I'm here to provide the guidance and support you need to excel in your next role.