Tell me about a time when you had to work with another team to accomplish a goal. What did you learn from that experience that you can bring to NASA?

"In my current position, I work on a cross-functional team to create, plan, and execute an annual company-wide conference. We have members from several teams working from several locations, so maintaining strong communication is key to the success of our collaboration.

Given our busy schedules and locations, we have minimal opportunity to meet together as a group. So, we schedule recurring meetings at a mutually agreed upon time, ensure that at least one representative from each team is present, and share full notes and follow-up on our shared drive. We maximize technology to facilitate smoother transitions and timelines by utilizing shared calendars, shared drives, and group chats in Microsoft Teams to stay connected. As a result, we're able to hit our targets and execute the event each year without hiccups."

"My team partners with other teams on a regular basis. A lot of the solutions we work on are integrated and require assistance from other teams. Additionally, we work with outside vendors on occasion and partner with the teams who work for those companies.

I was recently working on a project to implement a vendor solution that required excellent teamwork on my part. The vendor embellished the capabilities of their solution in the sales process and it left my users with a number of critical functional gaps to account for. It became apparent to me early on in the process that the solution would not work as designed, so I partnered with the senior analyst from the vendor team to validate the gaps and collaborate on potential solutions. We ultimately came up with several creative options that met the needs of the users.

I learned it is important to stay focused on the goals of a project when issues like this arise. My clients and some of the members of my team were upset about the vendor lying about their solution capabilities, but the goals of the project and the needs of the users were the same. Instead of focusing on why things went wrong, I remained positive and reached out to the other side to find a way forward. I would bring the same positive and collaborative spirit to NASA."

"I currently manage projects for three cross-functional teams. They each support a different group and their projects do not typically have crossover. However, one of my teams was working on a business-critical project with regulatory deadlines. They were at risk of running behind and our customer made several last-minute scope change requests.

I pulled the leaders from all three of my teams together to make them aware of the situation. I asked if the other two teams would be willing to offer support. They stepped up and we worked out a plan to add two resources to the struggling team to get the project done.

The resources that helped were incredibly valuable, and the situation helped me see an opportunity to restructure the way we staff projects. I am in the process of working with my director to create more cross-project knowledge-sharing opportunities to better support our customers during times like these in the future. I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate similar creativity, leadership, and process change skills at NASA."

Given the large scale of many of NASA's projects, it is possible that you will need to collaborate with several teams at a time, across time zones, or even with teams in space. So, when you think of your example, be sure to briefly share the circumstances of the example and more heavily emphasize what went into making cross-functional teamwork a success. As you research this role prior to your interview, try to look for clues into what departments you could be working with and describe a similar example in your response.