Project/Program manager Interview questions (with sample answers) - Insist on High Standards

Insist on the Highest Standards: Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high-quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

• Tell me about a time when you’ve been unsatisfied with the status quo. What did you do to change it? Were you successful?

  • While working for company ZYX, I was successfully able to revamp the PMO model that helped the organization to effectively all the projects upcoming and in progress. Key highlight was the introduction of the discovery phase in the project lifecycle. Additionally, I was able to bring Agile model to company AAA that resulted in effective delivery and frequent value realization of the initiatives undertaken by the organization.

• Tell me about a time you wouldn’t compromise on achieving a great outcome when others felt something was already good enough. What was the situation?

  • At company AAA, I led a complex program to successful MVP. While the congralutions were underway, I took the initiative of enrichment of backlog of the items that were still crucial to the organization. The initiative helped circle back the core team very quickly to focus on the future deliveries while celebrating the current successes.

• What measures have you personally put in place to ensure performance improvement targets and standards are achieved?

  • I strongly believe in setting high targets for myself and my team whether through individual development plan IDP or vision for the program . Through constant check-ins and using the personal IDP as anchor to monitor the progress with my supervisor, I always keep working on developing myself.

  • Additional pointers to address these questions:

    • Values that the team will bring in the next quarter,

    • KPIs - constant oversight and fed the cadence.

• Describe the most significant, continuous improvement project that you’ve led. What was the catalyst for this change and how did you go about it?

  • Optimizing the Program methodology at various companies while executing my assigned projects and delivering them in a timely manner. The motivation was driven out of the challenges faced during intial engagements in these companies that led me on this path.

• Tell me about a time when you worked to improve the quality of a product / service / solution that was already getting good customer feedback? Why did you think it needed more improvement?

  • At company BBB, I worked with the customer service to understand the customer desires to receive email invoices, instead of a paper one. It didn't sound right to me. I worked closely with the customer service to understand the reasoning, many often the customers were told that paper choice is the only option available. That didn't align with BBB's push to go paperless and reduce carbon foot-print. I worked on some data model and projected that ~50K invoices could be digitalized across BBB on a yearly basis. In order to make a good business case for successful approve, I also collected supportive data including:

    • The cost of the implementation could be recouped within 2 years

    • Help the company to go a step closer to reducing carbon footprint

    • Better customer service.

• Additional questions to consider in this category:

  • Give an example where you refused to compromise your standards around quality/customer service, etc. Why did you feel so strongly about the situation? What were the consequences? The result?

  • Give me an example of a goal you’ve had where you wish you had done better. What was the goal and how could you have improved on it?