Describe a time when miscommunication caused a problem. How did you resolve it and prevent it from recurring?
Why This Is Asked
Interviewers want to see that you take ownership of communication failures and learn from them. They're assessing your self-awareness, problem-solving, and ability to implement process improvements—not just blame others.
Key Points to Cover
- What went wrong and whose expectations were misaligned
- How you identified and fixed the immediate issue
- What you did to prevent recurrence (process, documentation, rituals)
- What you learned about your own communication habits
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
- Own your part in the miscommunication—don't make it entirely about others
- Emphasize the prevention step; interviewers want to see you improve systems, not just fix one-off issues
✍️ Example Response
STAR formatSituation: We were building an integration with a partner's API. I had communicated the launch date to our product manager, who had shared it with the partner. The partner had built their side and was ready. Our team, however, was behind—we'd hit an unexpected auth complexity. I hadn't updated product on the delay, and they hadn't asked. We missed the committed date by a week. The partner was frustrated, and we had to scramble to explain and reset expectations.
Task: I had to fix the immediate situation, own my part, and put in place a process to prevent this from happening again.
Action: I immediately apologized to the product manager and the partner. I took ownership—I should have flagged the delay as soon as we knew we were at risk. I set up a call with the partner to explain, provide a revised timeline, and offer a status update cadence. For the fix, we reprioritized and delivered within the new window. For prevention, I introduced two changes: (1) a weekly "external commitment" check-in where we reviewed any dates we'd shared with partners or customers and validated we were on track; (2) a simple rule: if we're more than 2 days off a committed date, we communicate proactively—no waiting for someone to ask. I also added "external commitments" to our sprint planning so we explicitly tracked them.
Result: We delivered to the partner on the revised date. The relationship recovered. We had no similar miscommunications in the following year. I learned that I had assumed "no news is good news"—but when others are depending on you, you have to over-communicate, especially when things slip.
🏢 Companies Known to Ask This
| Company | Variation / Focus |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Ownership — "Tell me about a time miscommunication caused a problem" |
| Collaboration | |
| Meta | Cross-functional alignment |
| Microsoft | Collaboration |
| Stripe | Reliability |
| Lyft | Execution |