Tailoring Your Answers

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To deliver unforgettable interview answers, we need to learn how to tailor our responses to match the company, the role, and the specific audience we’re speaking to. This session explains how to adapt our stories based on context, organization type, and our own leadership philosophy—even when we haven’t faced a specific scenario before.

• Tailor Stories to the Team and Business
  • We must deeply understand the hiring team and the company’s business context to highlight the most relevant parts of our story.
  • Even small adjustments—altering 10% of a story—can have a big impact in aligning with the company’s values and needs.
• Adapt Answers Based on Company Type
  • For example, when answering a question about influencing stakeholders, we need to highlight different dynamics depending on whether it’s a startup (external stakeholders like customers or investors) or a big org (internal cross-functional teams).
  • Similarly, questions about balancing delivery vs. quality should be approached differently for consulting roles (focus on fast delivery and milestones) vs. product roles (focus on long-term impact, maintainability, and operational excellence).
• Responding to Questions You Haven’t Faced Before
  • If we haven’t directly experienced a situation (e.g., managing underperformers or doing capacity planning), we should draw on adjacent stories and clearly articulate our leadership philosophy and approach.
  • It’s helpful to describe what we’d do in the first 90 days on the job—such as building a plan or upskilling—and how that reflects our values and learning mindset.
• Use Leadership Philosophy as a Guide
  • Our answers should reflect consistent values, such as building high-performing teams, holding people accountable, and prioritizing quality.
  • Even without a direct experience, framing our response through this philosophy helps convey credibility, ownership, and potential.