Strategy question
A top bank wants to deploy a Decagon agent, but its security review blocks launch over data retention, data residency, and deployment constraints. As PM, how would you drive the decision process to unblock this customer while avoiding one-off work and turning the solution into reusable platform capabilities for future regulated enterprises?
- Decagon
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Tests unblocking a stuck regulated deal while converting the fix into reusable platform capability instead of a one-off.
How to approach it
- Get specific on the blockers: separate data retention (how long, where), data residency (which region), and deployment constraints (on-prem, VPC) into distinct requirements.
- Bring security, legal, and engineering into one working session with the bank's security team to scope exactly what would satisfy the review.
- Distinguish what is genuinely bank-specific (their internal audit format) from what is a general regulated-enterprise need (data residency controls).
- Prioritize building the general need as a platform capability, and handle the genuinely bank-specific piece as a scoped custom addition.
- Set a realistic timeline with the bank that reflects platform build time, not a rushed patch that reintroduces the same risk elsewhere.
- Document the resulting capability, such as a regional data-residency toggle, as a reusable offering for the next regulated deal.
What a strong answer includes
- Separates retention, residency, and deployment as distinct requirements instead of treating 'security review' as one vague blocker.
- Explicitly tests each requirement for reusability across future regulated customers before committing engineering time.
- Ships the platform capability, not just a workaround, so the next bank deal moves faster.
Common mistakes
- Treating the whole request as bank-specific and building a throwaway workaround.
- Committing to a launch date before scoping what security actually requires.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you handle a second bank with slightly different residency requirements?
- What would you do if the platform fix takes longer than the bank will wait?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop