Behavioral: Influencing Stakeholders To Drive a Product Decision
Scenario
Cross-functional product development at Meta often requires influencing without direct authority. As a Data Scientist, you collaborate with PMs, engineers, designers, infra, privacy/integrity, and research to make evidence-based decisions.
Prompt
Tell me about a time you influenced multiple stakeholders to drive a product decision.
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How did you communicate trade-offs?
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How did you align teams and lead to execution?
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What was the measurable impact?
What to Cover
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Specific situation and decision context (product, users, metrics, constraints).
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Stakeholders involved and their goals/incentives.
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Decision options considered and trade-offs (impact, cost, risk, privacy, integrity, latency).
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Your influence tactics (data, experiments, qualitative research, 1:1s, decision doc, DACI/RACI).
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Execution steps (owners, milestones, guardrails, rollout plan).
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Quantified results and learning.
Use a structured story (e.g., STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result) in 2–3 minutes.