Behavioral question
Was there a time when you disagreed with the manager's decision? How did it play out, and what happened in the end?
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
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What this question tests
Tests professional disagreement and influence skills, checking whether the candidate can push back constructively and accept an outcome gracefully either way.
How to approach it
- Situation: pick a real, specific decision, a roadmap call or a launch timing decision, where you genuinely disagreed with your manager.
- Task: state your position and why it mattered enough to raise, not a trivial disagreement.
- Action: describe how you raised the concern, the data or reasoning used, and the setting chosen deliberately, a 1:1 versus a group meeting.
- Show you sought to understand their reasoning too, not just push your own view, showing collaborative rather than combative disagreement.
- Result: state the actual outcome, whether your view prevailed, a compromise was reached, or you were overruled.
- Reflect: explain how you executed afterward, especially if overruled, since full commitment despite disagreement is often the real signal being tested.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks a real, substantive disagreement rather than a trivial or fabricated one, showing genuine judgment was at stake.
- Shows a constructive, evidence-based approach to raising the concern rather than an emotional or purely positional argument.
- Demonstrates genuinely listening to the manager's reasoning, not just waiting to restate your own point.
- Shows full commitment to executing the decision afterward, even when overruled, which is often what's really being tested.
Common mistakes
- Describing a disagreement where you were obviously right and the manager obviously wrong, with no real nuance.
- Failing to show follow-through or commitment after the decision was made, suggesting poor team player behavior.
Likely follow-up questions
- How did you know when to stop pushing and accept the decision?
- Has your view on that decision changed with hindsight?
More behavioral questions
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- How do you make sure you keep improving as a PM?Google · Behavioral · Easy
- How do you motivate a Product team?Amazon · Behavioral · Easy
- How do you prioritize requirements?PayPal · Behavioral · Easy
- Tell me about a time when you used data to influence/persuade people.PayPal · Behavioral · Easy
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 13: Lead the room: staff moves, forward-deployed PM, and the portfolio
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop