# Recover from a Missed Deadline ### Prompt Tell me about a deadline you missed or were on course to miss. Explain how the commitment was made, when you recognized the risk, how you communicated it, what recovery options you proposed, and what you changed afterward. **Candidate hint:** Select a real miss with consequences. A strong answer does not redefine the deadline after the fact or blame another team for every cause. ### Constraints & Assumptions - State what you personally owned. - Give the timeline of when warning signs appeared and when stakeholders learned about them. - Explain the trade-off among scope, date, quality, and risk. - Include prevention changes that address the cause rather than only the symptom. ### Clarifying Questions to Ask - Would an individual deliverable or a team milestone be more useful? - Should I emphasize the immediate recovery or the process change afterward? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - An unambiguous commitment and the impact of missing it - Early signals, honest ownership, and timely communication - Concrete options with trade-offs rather than a vague request for more time - Protection of quality and users during recovery - Root-cause learning and evidence that the corrective change helped ### Follow-up Questions 1. Why did you not see the risk earlier? 2. What would you have done if the date truly could not move? 3. How did you rebuild trust with affected stakeholders? 4. Which metric or checkpoint now gives you earlier warning?