Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
What to Avoid
Answer Example

Stakeholders on technology projects typically represent groups with conflicting business needs. This question is aimed at ensuring an IT business consultant candidate has the ability to identify conflicts and facilitate their resolution.

Avoid answers focused on personality conflicts. It is difficult to be sure what kind of personality type your interviewer might have. You could potentially offend the interviewer if you speak negatively about an issue they sympathize with.

"I was the lead analyst for an application suite that managed the request and approval process for creative work and tracked all of the costs associated with it. My stakeholders were a mix of senior managers responsible for the development of media and senior managers responsible for financials. The creative side was focused on how quickly the solution could be used as any slow down to their process resulted in the loss of competitive advantage. The financial stakeholders were interested in assuring that the costs for every work assignment were tracked throughout the process. Every new data point the financial stakeholders requested frustrated the creative users.

I was encouraged to work with each group separately, but decided that it would be beneficial to bring them together so that they could foster a greater level of appreciation for the needs of each side. I facilitated a steering committee and was pleased to find that my clients quickly adopted a shared perspective resulting in my ability to more easily implement solutions that were understood and supported by everyone."

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How to Answer: Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.

Advice and answer examples written specifically for an IT Business Consultant job interview.

1. Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question

Stakeholders on technology projects typically represent groups with conflicting business needs. This question is aimed at ensuring an IT business consultant candidate has the ability to identify conflicts and facilitate their resolution.

Written by Karrie Day on March 8th, 2022

What to Avoid

Avoid answers focused on personality conflicts. It is difficult to be sure what kind of personality type your interviewer might have. You could potentially offend the interviewer if you speak negatively about an issue they sympathize with.

Written by Karrie Day on March 8th, 2022

Answer Example

"I was the lead analyst for an application suite that managed the request and approval process for creative work and tracked all of the costs associated with it. My stakeholders were a mix of senior managers responsible for the development of media and senior managers responsible for financials. The creative side was focused on how quickly the solution could be used as any slow down to their process resulted in the loss of competitive advantage. The financial stakeholders were interested in assuring that the costs for every work assignment were tracked throughout the process. Every new data point the financial stakeholders requested frustrated the creative users.

I was encouraged to work with each group separately, but decided that it would be beneficial to bring them together so that they could foster a greater level of appreciation for the needs of each side. I facilitated a steering committee and was pleased to find that my clients quickly adopted a shared perspective resulting in my ability to more easily implement solutions that were understood and supported by everyone."

Written by Karrie Day on March 8th, 2022

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