Describe a time when you established a program level process change.
Senior program managers are often tasked with ensuring cohesion and efficiency within the programs they manage. Interviewers ask this question to learn more about how a candidate would identify and implement program level process changes.
Remember to describe the impact the change you implemented had. Your answer should include any business benefits as well as benefits to team morale or customer satisfaction.
"I am currently a program manager for a technology company. There are three engineering teams that I have responsibility for, and they use scrum methodology. They did not have a program manager prior to my being hired and they collaborated informally. I appreciated the grass roots style they utilized, but I noticed an opportunity to tighten things up soon after I was hired.
I worked with the team leaders to set up a scrum of scrum style meeting three times a week. It was a 30-minute check in to talk about what each team was working on at a high level and discuss challenges. This change made a huge difference. We were able to take advantage of resources that had availability to help others, we collaborated on roadblock removal strategies, we shared best practices, and we aligned our tasks operationally. I loved how the leads embraced the meetings and utilized them to improve their individual team outputs."
