Earning the Trust of a Skeptical Team or Stakeholder

Tell me about a time you had to earn the trust of someone you worked with. What did you do to build it, and how could you tell it had worked? ```hint Start from the gap Be precise about why the trust was missing in the first place and what that gap was costing the work; the actions you describe should answer that specific cause. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Whose trust should the story center on: an engineering or design team, a senior leader, a customer, or an external partner? - Does rebuilding trust after a missed commitment count, or should it be trust built from nothing in a new role or relationship? - Can the story come from a role before product management, as long as I owned the relationship? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Why trust was absent or damaged at the start, and what that was costing decisions or delivery - Deliberate actions sustained over time that address the specific cause, rather than a single gesture - Candor: how the candidate handled bad news, disagreement or their own mistakes along the way - Observable evidence that the relationship changed, separate from the project's business result - What the candidate does now to keep that trust, or to build it faster in a new team ### Follow-up Questions - What would have happened to the work if the trust had not improved, and what was your fallback? - Tell me about a time you lost someone's trust. What did you do to win it back? - How do you build trust quickly when you join a team mid-project with no track record?