What development methodologies have you used? Which one do you prefer and why?
Why This Is Asked
Interviewers want to understand your experience with different ways of working (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) and whether you can adapt to their context. They're looking for thoughtful preferences—not dogma—and awareness of when different approaches fit best.
Key Points to Cover
- Experience with specific methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, hybrid)
- Pros and cons you've observed in practice
- How you adapt methodology to team and context
- What you'd recommend for different situations
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
- Avoid saying one methodology is "best"—show you tailor to context
- Include an example of when you changed or hybridized a process and why
✍️ Example Response
STAR formatSituation: At a B2B SaaS company, I led a team that had been doing strict 2-week Scrum—ceremonies, story points, velocity tracking. But we were also supporting a legacy product with frequent production issues, and the rigid sprint structure didn't fit. We'd either drop everything for fires (breaking the sprint) or delay critical fixes until the next sprint. The team was frustrated.
Task: I needed to adapt our methodology to fit our reality—support work plus project work—without losing predictability or accountability.
Action: I proposed a hybrid: we kept 2-week cycles for project work but introduced a Kanban lane for support and unplanned work. We capped support capacity at 20% so it didn't consume the team. We also moved from strict story points to T-shirt sizing for support items—faster triage. I ran a retro to get team buy-in and iterated based on feedback. We kept sprint planning and demos for project work but made standups lighter and more async for support. I documented the approach and shared it with other teams.
Result: Within a quarter, we reduced context-switching and improved predictability. Support SLA improved from 72 hours to 24 hours. The team felt the process finally fit their work. I learned that methodology should serve the work—when it doesn't, it's okay to hybridize. Rigid adherence to one framework often creates more problems than it solves.
🏢 Companies Known to Ask This
| Company | Variation / Focus |
|---|---|
| Amazon | Deliver Results, Bias for Action — "What methodology do you use?" |
| Structuring unclear situations, collaboration | |
| Meta | Moving fast, scale |
| Microsoft | Execution, growth mindset |
| Stripe | Moving fast in ambiguity |
| Uber | Results orientation, entrepreneurship |