Strategy question

Someone left a prototype of your new smart speaker at a cafe, and the tech press is writing all about it. What are some risks that your team and product now face? How would you mitigate them?

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Crisis/risk management judgment: can you identify concrete business risks from a leak and propose specific mitigations, not just 'do damage control'.

Identify risk 1: competitors gain early insight into features/design, potentially accelerating their own competing launches.
Identify risk 2: uncontrolled narrative, since tech press speculation may misrepresent features or pricing before the official reveal.
Identify risk 3: internal, employee trust and process concerns about how prototypes are handled, if the leak stemmed from a process failure.
Propose mitigation 1: proactively engage press with limited, controlled information to correct inaccuracies without fully revealing the launch.
Propose mitigation 2: audit and tighten prototype handling/physical security processes to prevent recurrence.
Propose mitigation 3: consider accelerating the official announcement timeline if the leak has significantly compressed your lead time advantage.

Separates external risks (competitive, narrative) from internal ones (process failure), covering the full picture.
Proposes a concrete, proportionate response (controlled press engagement) rather than either ignoring it or panicking with a rushed launch.
Considers the real option of moving up the launch timeline if the competitive risk is severe, showing strategic flexibility.
Addresses process fixes to prevent recurrence, not just this one incident.

Only discussing PR/messaging risk and ignoring the competitive intelligence risk to competitors.
Proposing to ignore the leak entirely, which underestimates the narrative risk from uncontrolled press speculation.

Would you consider moving up the launch date? What would that decision depend on?
How would you investigate and fix the source of the leak?