How do you build a cohesive team culture when bringing together people from different backgrounds?
Why This Is Asked
Interviewers want to see that you can unify diverse teams—different companies, disciplines, or cultures—into a high-performing unit. They're looking for evidence that you create shared norms, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging without erasing individual strengths.
Key Points to Cover
- Establishing shared goals and norms early
- Creating opportunities for connection (team rituals, retrospectives, social time)
- Valuing different perspectives and making space for varied communication styles
- Addressing conflict and misalignment proactively
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?
💡 Tips
- Reference a specific merger, reorg, or new hire wave where you built cohesion
- Show you don't force homogeneity—cohesion comes from shared purpose, not sameness
✍️ Example Response
STAR formatSituation: At a company that had just acquired a smaller startup, I was asked to merge two engineering teams—ours had 8 people, theirs had 5. The acquired team had a different culture: more informal, different tools, different norms. There was tension—our team felt they were "taking over," theirs felt they were being absorbed. We needed to become one team, not two teams sharing a Slack.
Task: I needed to create a cohesive culture that honored both groups' strengths and created shared identity—without erasing what made the acquired team valuable.
Action: I started with listening. I had 1:1s with everyone to understand what they valued from their previous culture and what they were worried about losing. I identified common ground: both teams cared about quality, ownership, and work-life balance. I established shared norms: we'd adopt their lighter meeting culture, we'd adopt our code review standards. I created rituals that brought us together: a weekly team sync with a "win" and "challenge" from each person, a monthly retro to improve how we worked. I also made space for the acquired team's identity—we kept some of their traditions. I addressed conflicts early when they arose. I made it explicit that we were building something new together, not assimilating.
Result: Within four months, the team was functioning as one. We'd retained all 13 engineers. Team NPS improved. I learned that cohesion comes from shared purpose and psychological safety—not from forcing everyone to be the same. And that honoring what people bring creates buy-in faster than imposing a single culture.
🏢 Companies Known to Ask This
| Company | Variation / Focus |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Earn Trust, Strive to Be Earth's Best Employer — "How do you build team culture?" |
| Googleyness, collaboration | |
| Meta | Building high-performing teams |
| Microsoft | Growth mindset, collaboration |
| Airbnb | Belonging, mission alignment |
| Lyft | Mission-driven, inclusion |