Crack mid-senior FAANG+ SDE, EM behavioural, system design interview in 1 hour | DM me “COACH” | Engineering Manager @ Amazon | Engineering Career Coach
Famous SDE, EM behavioural question, "how did you work with cross-functional teams" is not about working. It's also not about the tools you use to work together. It is actually about handling vested interests. Why? Before that, lets first understand what is a cross-functional team. These are teams made of people from different functional expertise. For example, Product Manager, Developers, QA, UX, all in one team to solve a business problem. 3-4 developers + 1-2 PM + 2 QA + 1-2 UX Although these individuals are part of this team, but their managers are not same (in most of the cases). Meaning they are still reporting to their managers of their specific functional team. This is where challenges start to show. Each of these have their vested interests. Dev :- Use the latest and shiniest tech QA :- Make the entire product release a bug PM :- Keep squeezing in more and more features UX :- Become the most frustrated user of the product Shouldn't this lead to a better product? No, because while the team is cross-functional, they are only focused on their specific functions, instead of the specific problem because of which they all came together. Cherry on top is their managers are not same. So, how do you handle this situation at work and answer it in interviews. [1] If anyone deviates from original business problem due to their "best functional knowledge", bring them back by going back to business problem. [2] Communicate like you are talking to a 5 year old. Most of the problems start because we assume communication already happened and everyone is aware of the decisions. [3] Keep communication in written, you don't want to hear later, "oh, I meant that..." [4] Give respect to get respect. Escalate about those who keep disrespecting others. [5] If people disagree, understand where they are coming from. Try giving reasoning behind your stand with data. [6] After disagreement if the final decision in not in your favor, don't take it personally. [7] And finally, talk confidently, explain logically. Projects don't fail due to technology, they fail due to people. It gets worse, when people have vested interests with different reporting. If organisations wouldn't have people problem, then many of you and I won't be having the job we have today (we wouldn't need so many people at workforce). That's why behavioural interview are not hypothetical. They extract the best and worst of you from your own stories and serve it in a platter to interviewer. Need help with difficult behavioural interview questions? DM me COACH.
📌 📌 BONUS : WHY Behavioural Interviews? Behavioural interviews are conducted to assess how will you behave in certain situations in the future based on how you behaved in those situations in the past. While these interviews don’t require you coding the situation, but they definitely (101%) need structured preparation like any other interview round. I wish, I would have prepared for them in a structured manner when I was appearing for the first behavioural interview of my career. I would have avoided many mistakes I made in that interview. So, after first few failures, I came up with a step-by-step preparation method for behavioural interviews. This plan has also helped many SDE, EM I have coached in 2024.
❤️❤️ Folks, if you liked this raw post on cross functional team work with actionable insights for interviews and at work, then please share it with your network by reposting. Let's make this question as easy as possible for everyone we know of.
Aravind Arul
1mo
Always loved the "Explain it to me like I am 5". The goal is to always simplify! Chandra Shekhar Joshi
Hina Arora
1mo
Insightful breakdown! Successfully navigating cross-functional dynamics is key to project success. Chandra Shekhar Joshi
Anil Patel
1mo
Great breakdown of handling cross-functional teams! Your insights on dealing with vested interests and fostering communication are spot on. Chandra Shekhar Joshi
Mayank Ahuja
1mo
Agree. But sometimes it gets difficult to deal with people when non tech folks start giving tech assumptions, or vice versa.
This is such a valuable perspective on cross-functional teams. Chandra Shekhar Joshi It’s true that individual interests can derail projects if not managed properly.
Rajveer Prasad
1mo
Great insights! Chandra Shekhar Joshi Cross-functional collaboration is all about balancing different priorities and interests while keeping the focus on the core business problem. Clear communication and mutual respect are crucial for navigating these challenges successfully.
Crack mid-senior FAANG+ SDE, EM behavioural, system design interview in 1 hour | DM me “COACH” | Engineering Manager @ Amazon | Engineering Career Coach
1mo📌📌 An engineer needed help with only one thing for his behavioural rounds, i.e. how can he calculate the impact of his work. Because he had failed 2 times in the past. I taught him 3 ways through which he can calculate it. Guess what, he cracked a FAANG company. Today I am sharing the same 3 points with you (for free). Simplest case: When you have explicit numbers - sales, profit, customer retention. This is the easiest case, because you have a metric in place. Harder case: When you don't have explicit numbers - re-architecture project, reusable utility. In this case check the number of hours saved for others. You will be surprised by seeing the kind of leverage these projects create for your company. Hardest case: When it is neither of the above, like you mentored someone. Check if that person got promoted, converted, improved their performance. If you are able to do the hardest one repeatedly, you are at the top of pyramid in terms of impact crated. Because now its not only the impact of your work, but also the impact of others work, whom you helped. Found it useful, share with others by reposting the post.