When have you had to change a major component of your project due to new information?

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Jeff Bezos is known to be stubborn about vision and flexible on the details. He advocates for patience, adaptability, and willingness to take a more difficult path toward success. He says you must be firm on where you want to go but flexible on how to get there. "Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly."

Your interviewer is curious about what your answer will say about you as a candidate. When sharing your example, exhibit the attitude and flexibility they are looking for in their ideal candidates. Your answer should indicate emotional intelligence, confidence, and leadership potential.

"My thesis was on the homeless crisis on the West Coast of the United States. As I examined the potential root causes - systemic issues, the opioid crisis, climate, etcetera - a new piece of evidence surfaced that caused me to rethink my entire approach. Someone who had spent significant time on the streets now assisted at-risk youth, trying to get them off the streets before they were institutionalized into that way of life. They'd also created a program designed to reintroduce those who were institutionalized to society. Additionally, they educated me on their personal history and how, since the days of the hippies of the 1960s and the Grateful Dead generation and the 'Dead Heads' who followed them, living that nomadic lifestyle, a system of graffiti tagging was generated to inform those who were used to squatting in abandoned buildings which of those buildings were vacant and were considered safe to squat. I took this information and all the other information I'd already compiled and started my thesis over from scratch. In the end, my thesis was hailed by my professors, and I graduated at the top of my class."

"I had a large project last month that was nearly complete when the client called to say that the specs provided were incorrect. Because of this, our team had to redo the entire proposal. It took us an additional four days of work, but, in the end, the client was delighted with our work, and it resulted in new opportunities with them."

I would say that being in the software and technology business means changing major components of projects regularly. I am accustomed to changing gears at a moment's notice and can adapt very well.

Anonymous Answer

"We were working on an audit report with different types of questions, but the initial requirement was for MCQs only. We then received an additional requirement that would allow users to answer other kinds of questions. We needed to make significant changes to the code as a result."

Rachelle's Feedback

This is a nice start! When answering 'when have you...' questions, it's best to provide a full story-based example. The STAR framework may be helpful for you here (Situation, Task, Action, Result). If you'd like to learn more, we have a guide here: Master Behavioral-Based Interviews Using The Star Method If you want to re-work the response, I am here to help :)

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Anonymous Answer

"At the beginning of a big project, I worked with raw data provided by the client. I was finalizing the system's data when the client realized that the data they provided us had the wrong IDs and was mixed up with other data. As a result, I had to work on the data again, which took a few more days to complete. In the end, the client was thrilled with our work and gave us more projects."

Rachelle's Feedback

This is a good start! I recommend closely following the STAR framework and adding details to your story to set the stage more fully. If you are not familiar with STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result), we have a guide that you can access here: Master Behavioral-Based Interviews Using The Star Method

Anonymous Answer

"In February 2019, I was the project leader of the IT graduates recruitment. We started off the project with the goal to recruit 38 IT graduates and I have set the entire recruitment planning based on that number. A couple of months later, senior management decided to increase that number to 47, and I had to readjust the planning, resources, and organizational details (such as room availability for interviews, etc). By September 2019, we ended up recruiting 49 new joiners."

Amanda's Feedback

Terrific response! You've provided a clear workplace example of a change that illustrates your ability to adapt, overcome the challenge, and facilitate a positive outcome. You can enhance your response by providing more detail about the skills you used to adapt such as attention to detail, problem-solving, strategic planning, teamwork, etc. to keep the project moving forward.

Anonymous Answer

"When we were user-testing an intelligent security system, we received negative feedback from the installers. The software setup processing had too many frictions. In particular, they didn't like having to spend an hour iteratively fine-tuning the camera settings, each time waiting to check whether the new settings produced adequate image quality. I needed more information, so I arranged to watch as my cofounder followed the installation instructions. The process was unnecessarily complex, time-consuming, and unintuitive. We had built a minimum viable product when we needed a minimum delightful product. I then prioritized adding an automated camera setup wizard to the product, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive."

Marcie's Feedback

It's great that you were able to recognize the product's failings and heed the negative user feedback because, in the end, you helped to dramatically improve the product. The interviewer will appreciate your flexibility and openness to making adjustments to increase customer satisfaction. Great response!

Anonymous Answer

"Everyday! One thing I can count on over the past 16 years is change is constant. I am challenged all the time to think differently. I was recently giving a presentation to corporate management via zoom. While giving the presentation management gave new info. My mgr gave me a nudge. In the middle of the presentation, I had to figure out hand gestures and pivot the talk track."

Marcie's Feedback

The interviewer will be happy to hear that you're adaptable and able to handle unexpected changes. Can you give more details about the example you cite? For example, what kind of presentation were you giving? What kind of new information were you presented with? How exactly did you pivot successfully in the midst of the presentation? Including more details will make your answer even more impactful.

Anonymous Answer

"My current project has had several delays due to frequent changes in partner applications just before we were going to start development. We had to do something different to meet target dates or not be more than 2 weeks late. We work with two partner applications to let them know what assumptions we can make to start, knowing small changes may occur later. Worked with Product owners to reduce scope. With these adjustments, we are on track."

Marcie's Feedback

Great! It sounds like you frequently deal with project changes. Can you talk more about the specifics of this project? Why are there so many changes to the partner applications? Adding some more details will further strengthen your response. Good job!

Anonymous Answer

"When automating the deployment of private cloud clusters for a client, I learned after the project had begun that the PowerShell code would need to be orchestrated as part of a _____ Pipeline.

I did not have prior experience or knowledge of _____ Pipeline. I asked the customer for examples from other projects to get a better idea of expectations. Using the provided examples as a guide, I modified the project so that the code could be called from _____ Pipeline stages allowing for an audit trail to be generated and thus satisfying the customer requirement. In hindsight, we should have invested more time brainstorming, collecting, and documenting compliance requirements with the client because although a project may seem straightforward to begin with, said project is going to need to comply with pre-existing standards that the customer may forget to mention because it is assumed that the project already knows about these standards."

Marcie's Feedback

You've done a great job here using the STAR (situation, task, action, response) method to answer this question. In addition, this example is a good one to cite because it clearly shows a time when you had to make project changes based on new information. To further strengthen your response, talk more about the end result of the project. Was the client ultimately satisfied? Nice job!

How to Answer: When have you had to change a major component of your project due to new information?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Amazon job interview.

7. When have you had to change a major component of your project due to new information?

What You Need to Know

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

How to Answer

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

Entry Level Example

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

Experienced Example

Written by Rachelle Enns on September 27th, 2021

Answer Example

I would say that being in the software and technology business means changing major components of projects regularly. I am accustomed to changing gears at a moment's notice and can adapt very well.

Written by Rachelle Enns on September 27th, 2021