Practice 30 Microsoft Program Manager interview questions covering cross-team collaboration, technical trade-offs, and product strategy.
Question 20 of 30
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Karrie Day is a certified career coach and strategist with a passion for helping her clients define and reach their professional goals. She offers career advancement services such as brand development, resume writing and critiques, job search strategies,
Microsoft employees work in various environments including on-site, remote, and hybrid settings. Interviewers ask this question to gain insight into a candidate's ability to foster a healthy team environment regardless of the work setting of each team member.

Karrie Day is a certified career coach and strategist with a passion for helping her clients define and reach their professional goals. She offers career advancement services such as brand development, resume writing and critiques, job search strategies,
Remember to include any coaching or mentoring activities you regularly perform to encourage project managers or other team leads within your area of responsibility to improve teamwork. Interviewers value candidates who can influence others to actively contribute to the health of their teams.

Karrie Day is a certified career coach and strategist with a passion for helping her clients define and reach their professional goals. She offers career advancement services such as brand development, resume writing and critiques, job search strategies,
"My approach to fostering teamwork and collaboration in a remote setting is multifaceted. First, I hold daily calls with the team leads within our program. It was easier to get a sense of how things were going when everyone was collocated. I was able to walk around and gather most of the information I needed informally. Now, I make sure that we check in regularly so that we address things early and often. Also, I make it clear that they can reach out to me at any time. I am here to serve them and help them be successful in any way that I can, and I make sure to reiterate that often.
Second, I have asked all of our scrum teams to add an additional question to their daily stand-up calls. They answer 'What do you need from anyone on the team today, and when do you need it?' This identifies dependencies and helps everyone organize their work to best support one another. This addition has led to a significant reduction in delays.
Third, I encourage our team leads to lead by example. I ask them to reach out to the members of their teams daily. This is usually a quick Slack chat just to check in and make sure their teammates have everything they need to be successful. I also ask that they schedule monthly team-building activities. They set aside time to eat a meal together, watch a movie, learn a new skill, or whatever. It helps everyone stay connected, and I really enjoy participating in these meetings as much as possible."
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Written by Karrie Day
30 Questions & Answers • Microsoft

By Karrie

By Karrie