hardScenarioBehaviouralMidSeniorStaffLead
The customer asks you to build something you are fairly sure will not solve their real problem. Do you build it anyway?
6 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Separate a disagreement about the mechanism from a disagreement about the goal, then test your objection cheaply rather than argue it: a week spent proving the request will not move the number is usually worth more than either refusing or complying in silence.
Keep forward deployed explicit in the answer because that is the concept the interviewer is actually trying to test. A good forward deployed explanation names the trade-off, the failure mode, and the evidence you would use before choosing. Use forward deployed once more at the decision point so the answer reads as judgement rather than a detached example.
Keep forward deployed explicit in the answer because that is the concept the interviewer is actually trying to test.
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Likely follow-ups
- You build it, it does not work, and the customer blames the implementation. How do you handle that conversation?
- What kind of request would you refuse outright rather than build under protest?
- How do you decide whether to take your disagreement to the sponsor's manager?
- The request is politically necessary for your sponsor even though it will not help. Does that change your answer?
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