Describe a situation where you had to pivot your team's strategy quickly. What happened?
Why This Is Asked
Interviewers want to see that you can lead through change and uncertainty. They're assessing your agility, communication skills, and ability to rally the team around a new direction—especially when people may be invested in the old plan or resistant to change.
Key Points to Cover
- What triggered the pivot (market, customer, technical, leadership decision)
- How you communicated the change and the rationale to the team
- How you helped the team let go of the old plan and embrace the new one
- How you managed the transition (reprioritization, scope changes, stakeholder updates)
STAR Method Answer Template
Describe the context - what was happening, what team/company, what was at stake
What was your specific responsibility or challenge?
What specific steps did you take? Be detailed about YOUR actions
What was the outcome? Use metrics where possible. What did you learn?
đź’ˇ Tips
- Choose a pivot that was meaningful—not a minor scope tweak
- Show that you acknowledged the team's frustration or disappointment before moving forward
- Emphasize clarity—people need to understand why and what's next
✍️ Example Response
STAR formatSituation: I led a team building a new mobile app for a B2B product. We were six months in when the company acquired a competitor with an existing app. Leadership decided to sunset our project and adopt the acquired product. My team of 12 had invested heavily—they were frustrated and demoralized.
Task: I needed to pivot the team quickly, communicate the rationale, and find a new mission that felt meaningful.
Action: I learned the full context first—why the acquisition, what the timeline was, what roles we'd have. I held a team meeting within 48 hours. I started by acknowledging the disappointment: "I know we've poured ourselves into this. The decision to pivot isn't a reflection of our work—it's a business decision." I explained the rationale clearly: cost, time-to-market, and strategic fit. I then laid out what was next: we'd integrate our best features into the acquired app, and half the team would move to that product. I gave people 1:1 time to process. I also advocated with leadership for retention bonuses and clear role clarity. I reprioritized our backlog, communicated with stakeholders, and set a 30-day transition plan.
Result: We retained 11 of 12 engineers. Within three months, we'd shipped two major features into the acquired product. I learned that pivots require acknowledging loss first, then providing clarity. People can move on when they understand why and what's next.
🏢 Companies Known to Ask This
| Company | Variation / Focus |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Bias for Action, Think Big — "Tell me about a time you had to pivot" |
| Navigating ambiguity, agility | |
| Meta | Moving fast, impact at scale |
| Microsoft | Growth mindset, execution |
| Stripe | Moving fast in ambiguity |
| Uber | Entrepreneurship, ownership |