Engineering Manager Behavioral Interview Questions

Vaishnavi T. - "During my time as a Product Manager, we were preparing for a major product release with a tight deadline and discovered that implementing both a new feature and crucial performance improvements wasn't feasible within the timeframe. So, I organized a meeting with stakeholders to assess the impact of each option. We analyzed user data, projected ROI, and considered long-term product strategy. Ultimately, I decided to prioritize the performance improvements. As a result, the product launched on tim"See full answer

Scott S. - " Project Overview: Real-Time Risk Management System Objective The goal was to develop a real-time risk management system capable of processing and analyzing large volumes of trading data to provide near-instantaneous risk assessments. This system was crucial for enabling traders to make informed decisions while managing their exposure to various market risks in real-time. Complexity Factors 1. \\Data Volume and Velocity\\ \\High Throughput:\\ The system needed to ha"See full answer

Santhosh K. - "As an engineering manager, motivation is key to the success of the team. Here are some ways to motivate the team: Set clear goals: Clearly defined goals help team members understand what they're working towards and give them a sense of purpose. Offer growth opportunities: Providing opportunities for professional development and advancement can increase motivation and job satisfaction. Provide recognition and rewards: Recognising and rewarding team members for their hard work and achieve"See full answer

onering2ruleall - "My leadership style is flexible and adaptive, it varies depending on the team members and the needs of the company. My leadership goal is to empower the team and inspire and grow leaders. In order to achieve that, I combine transformational, democratic and coaching leadership styles. Usually when we are facing a new type of challenge, or at the early stage of a project, I like to adapt the transformational leadership which allows me to listen to all the suggestions from the team members and sta"See full answer

RestlessMonk - "My style of inspiring / discovery sessions / brainstorming / execution guidance / upskiling the team has always been Outcome driven. Outcomes always took the central focus of our efforts, and hence easier prioritisation and a clarity on why a decision failed or succeeded. I take personal responsibility to help the teams to define outcomes if it is a complicated charter and for most help them fine tune the outcomes to keep them simple, progressive and aspirational."See full answer

Pramod S. - "Engineering Managers (EMs) juggle multiple responsibilities, which can vary significantly depending on the company, team, and organizational needs. One of the most critical skills for an EM is strategic thinking. This includes setting a clear vision for the team, participating in roadmap planning meetings, and crafting actionable roadmaps to guide the team toward its goals. In addition to strategic thinking, an EM must excel in three key areas: People Management: This involves ensuring te"See full answer

Chantal C. - "Understand gaps team by interviewing on 1:1, reading past performance reviews and talking to old managers/cross functional Identify Goals and use the SMART framework to set those goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, relevant, time related) Share with team and make sure they understand them. Clarify questions if needed. Explain WHY these goals matter. Tie to company goals/mission/culture. Put together an action plan TOGETHER- give often feedback: "pinches no punches"See full answer

Graig - "Yes to peer manager from stackholder team the problem was every time she wanted say something she used to have three way connect with me and my manager"See full answer

Delyan P. - "Leadership though empathy - I helped underperforming engineer to break into product since she had great product qualities like good attention to the user.. Now she is my peer and we cross-collaborate extensively. I have earned her trust and she can go the extra mile when my team needs some support."See full answer

Shawn S. - "Context: As a people manager, my biggest thing is to foster psychological safety for my team members and the way I do that: building rapport between me and my direct reports, weekly team meetings I ensure all voices are heard, have people share about themselves and encourage them to get to know one another. Team members had a good understanding of each other’s working style. One of the recent projects my team was responsible for building out the espresso test framework on android. This was"See full answer

Catherine I. - "I always ask to clarify if this is a brand new team. If so, then I focus on bringing in people with strong technical aptitudes(since I'm hiring for software engineering), but also team members that have experience mentoring and good communication is a must. I look for people who have leadership qualities. I emphasize that building a brand new team isn't something I can do on my own, so the initial hires of that team are very important to help me expand it."See full answer

shg - "In my experience, project success translates to three things: Customer Success => Quality increments to service leading to customer success. (Measure by KPIs like customer satisfaction score, SLA, Revenue growth etc) Team Success => High Team morale with successful execution and collaboration of project. Individual Success => Individual career goals and aspirations are met I think the later two are difficult are measured via KPIs. Although there can be indirect KPIs to measure those as we"See full answer

BePostive - "· How well the team is self-motivated and contributing overall success of the company by releasing high quality bug prone releases · Growth of their team members · Does the manager encouraging and supporting career switch based on the individual desire or passion"See full answer

BePostive - "· Sometimes I have to step back and think through and respond later, not giving decision then and there · Manage between written vs oral communication, I tend to do mode of communication like oral during releases rather written"See full answer

Graig - "Reflect leadership quality in software engineering team"See full answer