S.T.A.

R WORKSHEET FOR INTERVIEWING

Your Behavioral Question(s): ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Interviewer: Coach candidate through each STAR section and probe/challenge the candidate’s performance (functional expertise), long-term impact (Leadership Principle) and results.

SITUATION/TASK - Describe the situation/task you faced and the context of the story Notes
S Answers the questions: where did this occur, when did it happen, why is it important?

Probing Questions:

T
 Why is this important? What was the goal?
 What was the initial scope of the project? What were the challenges?
 What were the risks and potential consequences if nothing happened?

Challenge Questions:
 Why did you choose this story to illustrate a xyz accomplishment?
 What other stories can you think of that demonstrate…xyz?
 Could you come up with an example that is more recent?

ACTION - What actions did you take?

A Answers the questions: what did you personally own, how did you do it, who else was involved?

Probing Questions:
 Deep probe functional expertise and/or assigned core competency.
 Were you the key driver or project owner?
 What was your biggest contribution? What unique value did you bring?
 What were the most significant obstacles you faced? How did you overcome them?

Challenge Questions:
 What did you do specifically versus the team?
 How did you set priorities…deal with xyz problem… or get manager buy-in?
 What decisions did you challenge? Why? How did you influence the right outcome?

RESULTS - How did you measure success for this project?

R
What results did you achieve?
$ Cost savings, revenue generation
# Quantify to understand volume, size, scale
% Percentage change, year over year improvements
 Time to market, implementation time, time savings
 Impact on the customer, the team
 Quality improvements

Probing Questions:
 Why did you choose to focus on these results? What other results were important?
 You mentioned revenue, what percentage change is that year over year?
 What trade-offs did you have to make to achieve this? (quality, cost, time)
 I’m concerned about… (the time it took, the volume, the customer impact), tell me more…

Challenge Questions:
 What were the lessons learned? What would you have done differently?
 How would you implement this at Amazon?
 How did these results compare to your actual goals? (refer back to goal stated in Situation)
Customer Obsession
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to
competitors, they obsess over customers.
Mixe
Concern Mild concern Mild strength Strength
d
 Takes actions guided by customer input
 Works backwards from the optimal customer experience
 Makes decisions or takes actions without adequately  Tries to surprise and delight the customer
considering the customer impact  Applies time and energy to make the customer experience more
 Fails to collect or respond to customer input efficient or enjoyable
appropriately  Identifies new ways of gathering feedback from customers
 Fails to meet customer commitments  Listens to feedback from customers and uses it to make
 Loses and doesn't regain customers' trust improvements
 Develops a project approach based on industry trends  Pushes back when necessary to ensure that decisions consider
rather than customer needs what is best for customer in the long-term
 Unable to identify primary customers  Earns customers trust by delivering promised services and
products which meet or exceed expectations
 Stops activities that no longer enhance the customer experience

1. Describe a difficult interaction you had with a customer. How did you deal with it? What was the outcome? How would you handle it
differently?
2. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer. Why did you do it? How did the customer respond? What was the
outcome?
3. Give me an example of when you were able to anticipate a customer need with a solution or product they did not know they needed or
wanted yet. How did you know they needed this? How did they respond?
4. Give me an example of a time when you asked for customer feedback. How did you use that feedback to drive innovation or
improvement? How did the customer respond?
5. Tell me about a time when you evaluated the customer experience of your product or service. What did you do? What was the result?
6. Tell me about a time when a customer came to you for something that would not actually address their need. How did you approach the
situation? What was the result?
7. Sometimes customers make unreasonable requests. Tell me about a time when you have had to push back or say no to a customer request.
What did you say or do in response to that request?
8. Tell me about a time when you had to balance the needs of the customer with the needs of the business. What did you do? What was the
result?
9. Give me an example of a time when you had to think about the unique backgrounds of a customer base (either internal or external) that
you hadn’t yet served. How did you know what products or services they needed? (DEI)
10. Give me an example of a change you implemented in your current team or organization to meet the needs of your customers. What has
been the result? (Manager)
 Ownership
Leaders are owners. They think long term and don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company,
beyond just their team. They never say "that's not my job."
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Makes decisions for short-term team success rather
than long-term value
 Describes setbacks or problems without talking about  Actively makes improvements outside of one's area of
how to address them responsibility
 Relies on others to remove roadblocks  Makes decisions that consider risks and future outcomes
 Avoids tough decisions  Makes decisions that are scalable and contribute to long-term
 Avoids addressing problems that are in others' work success
areas  Takes the lead in solving problems
 Blames others for setbacks  Takes accountability for dependencies and their work
 Assigns work to others because the work is  Takes ownership for mistakes
undesirable  Accepts responsibility
 Walks away if there are too many difficulties  Inspires others to take ownership
 Creates solutions that negatively impact other teams  Sees things through to completion

1. Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility. Why was it important? What
was the outcome?
2. Describe a time when you didn't think you were going to meet a commitment you promised. How did you identify the risk and
communicate it to stakeholders? Is there anything you would do differently?
3. Give me an example of an initiative you undertook because you saw that it could benefit the whole company or your
customers, but wasn’t within any group’s individual responsibility so nothing was being done.
4. Tell me about a time when you made a hard decision to sacrifice short term gain for something that would create long term
value for the business. What was the outcome? Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?
5. Describe a time when you had to transition a project you owned to a new owner. What steps did you take to make sure the
transition went smoothly? Tell me about a time that you chose to get involved in a project that you had already transitioned to
somebody else. What was the situation? Why was it important to get involved?
6. Tell me about a time when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation? Why did you
decide to step in? What actions did you take?
 Invent and Simplify
Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware,
look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited to "not invented here." As we do new things, we accept that we may be
misunderstood for long periods of time.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Accepts current processes even if there is room for
 Generates new ideas or methods for solving a
improvement
problem
 Creates a cumbersome process to solve a short-term
 Identifies areas for improvement and deliver new
problem
features that are scalable and avoid unnecessary
 Allows complex processes to exist within their control
complexity
 Doesn't share discoveries and insights with others
 Actively gathers ideas from a wide range of internal
 Only focuses on ideas and resources that can be gathered
and external sources
internally
 Focuses on solutions that will impact the customer
 Discourages others from exploring new ideas
experience long-term
 Looks for a standard process or series of steps to copy
 Seeks out opportunities to improve a product or
 Speaks at length about the difficulty of doing something
process
without naming ideas for a better process

1. Give me an example of a complex problem you solved with a simple solution. What made the problem complex? How do you
know your solution addressed the problem?
2. Describe the most innovative thing you’ve done and why you thought it was innovative. Ask for one or two more examples to
see if it's a pattern of innovative thinking. What was the problem it was solving? What was innovative about it?
3. Tell me about a time when you were able to make something simpler for customers. What drove you to implement this
change? What was the impact?
4. Describe a time when you influenced and drove new thinking and innovation out of your team. Give an example of how your
approach led to a specific innovation.
5. Tell me about a time when you had a challenging problem or situation that the usual approach wouldn't address. How did you
select an alternative approach? What alternative approach(es) did you consider? What was the end result? What was the
impact?
6. Tell me about a novel idea you had or decision you made that had a big impact on your business. What was novel about it?
 7. Tell me about a time when you identified a simple change on your team to make the culture more inclusive. What problem
were you trying to solve, what was the outcome? (DEI)
8. Tell me about a time when you enabled your team/a team member to implement a significant change or improvement. What
problem were you trying to solve? How did you measure success? What was the end result/impact? (Manager)

Learn and Be Curious

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore
them.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Seeks opportunities to explore new possibilities and learn
 Prefers to stay with familiar situations and use new skills
existing skillsets  Shows curiosity about how things work
 Actively avoids new experiences or trying new  Consistently asks "I wonder what would happen if..." to
things make continued improvements
 Avoids, disregards, or acts defensively toward  Accepts new and challenging situations, despite the risk of
feedback from others failure
 Reacts to negative situations by focusing on what  Willing to pursue knowledge that does not have an
went wrong rather than how to improve for the immediate gain or deliverable
future  Seeks and embraces feedback from others
 Does not take steps to develop oneself  Discusses lessons learned from past setbacks
 Currently working on initiatives to improve themselves

1. Tell me about a time when you realized you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well. What did
you do about it? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently?
2. Describe a time when you took on work outside of your comfort area. How did you identify what you needed to learn to be
successful? How did you go about building expertise to meet your goal? Did you meet your goal?
3. Tell me about a time when you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem. How do you learn what
you don't know? What were the options you considered? How did you decide the best path forward? What was the outcome?
4. We all have things about ourselves we'd like to improve on at work. Give me an example of something that you've worked on
to improve your overall work effectiveness. What resources did you identify to help you develop? What was the impact?
 5. Give me an example of a time when you explored a new or unexpected area of an existing space. Why hadn't this been
explored already? Why did you move forward? What were the results or what was the impact?
6. Describe a time when someone on your team challenged you to think differently about a problem. What was the situation?
How did you respond? What was the outcome?
7. Tell me about a time when you used external trends to improve your own company's products or services. How did you keep
Bias for Action
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk
taking.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Moves quickly on a project, even when some information
is lacking
 Moves slower than necessary when faced with
 Understands when to consult with others and when its not
incomplete information
necessary
 Hesitates longer than necessary when making
 Willing to make small progress toward a solution rather
even small decisions
than finding the perfect solution right away
 Fears making mistakes and doing things that
 Deals with problems quickly so others can make progress
haven't been done before
 Carefully considers what is important to get done right
away and what can wait

up to date with external trends? How did you decide to apply them to your own company? What was the result?
8. Give me an example of a time when you were intentional about learning different cultures or identities. How has this led to a
better customer or workplace experience? (DEI)

1. Give me an example of a calculated risk that you have taken where speed was critical. What was the situation and how did you
handle it? What steps did you take to mitigate the risk? What was the outcome? Knowing what you know now, would you
have done anything differently?
2. Tell me about a time when you worked against tight deadlines and didn't have time to consider all options before making a
decision. How much time did you have? What approach did you take? What did you learn from the situation?
3. Describe a situation where you made an important business decision without consulting your manager. What was the situation
and how did it turn out? Would you have done anything differently?
 Earn Trust
Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward
or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team's body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their
teams against the best.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Builds positive working relationships by treating others and their ideas
 Fails to treat others and their ideas with respect
with respect  Seeks out and accepts feedback for self or team
 Blames others for mistakes  Takes responsibility for shortfalls
 Denies or covers up mistakes  Openly acknowledges mistakes
 Publicly criticizes or humiliates  Provides feedback to others in a respectful manner
others  Represents data and information entirely transparently
 Honors commitments and makes good on promises

4. Tell me about a time when you had to gather information and respond immediately to a situation. What was the outcome?
Would you have done anything differently?
5. Give me an example of when you had to make an important decision and had to decide between moving forward or gathering
more information. What did you do? What was the outcome? What information is necessary for you to have before acting?
6. Tell me about a time when you saw an issue that would impact your team and took a proactive approach to solve it. What was
the issue? What did you do and what was the outcome? What did you learn from this situation?
7. Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision quickly but needed to gather diverse perspectives from those on your
team? (DEI)
8. Tell me about a time when you felt your team was not moving to action quickly enough. What was the situation? What did you
do? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently? (Manager)
9. Tell me about a time when you were able to remove a serious roadblock/barrier preventing your team from making
progress. What was the barrier? How were you able to remove it? What was the outcome? Knowing what you know now,
would you have done anything differently? (Manager)

1. Tell me about a time when you had to communicate a change in direction that you anticipated people would have concerns
with. What did you do to understand the concerns and mitigate them? Were there any changes you made along the way after
hearing these concerns? How did you handle questions and/or resistance? Were you able to get people comfortable with the
change?
2. Give me an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received. What was it and what did you do about it?
3. Describe a time when you needed to influence a peer who had a differing opinion about a shared goal. What did you do? What
was the outcome?
4. Give me an example of a time when you were not able to meet a commitment. What was the commitment and what were the
obstacles that prevented success? What was the impact to your customers/peers and what did you learn from it?
5. Tell me about a time when your team’s goals were out of alignment with another team you relied on in order to meet your
goal. How did you work with the other team? Were you able to achieve your goals?
6. Tell me about a time when you uncovered a significant problem in your team. What was it and how did you communicate it to
your manager and other stakeholders? What did you do to address the problem? How did you manage the impact of this
problem for the rest of your team?
7. Describe a time when you improved morale and productivity on your team. What were the underlying problems and their
causes? How did you prevent them from negatively impacting the team in the future?
8. Tell me about a time when a team member was struggling at work and you stepped in to help out. Why did you think they were
struggling? Why did you decided to step in and support? What did you do to help out? How did it impact your work? What
was the outcome? What did you learn from that situation?
9. Tell me about a time when you experienced someone being treated unfairly. How did you respond? Would you have done
anything differently? (DEI)
 Dive Deep
Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. No
task is beneath them.
Mixe
Concern Mild concern Mild strength Strength
d
 Stays connected to the details of projects and programs
 Does not understand the details of projects  Understands how different groups or systems work
 Does not understand how different groups or systems together
work together  Critically evaluates metrics and data
 Only holds surface-level understanding of metrics and  Asks good questions that provide clarity to situations
data  Steps in and gets work done
 Does not question assumptions  Investigates and get details in order to solve a problem
 Unable to step in and get work done  Gathers information to solve a problem, even if
it's difficult or time-consuming

1. Tell me about a time when you were trying to understand a complex problem on your team and you had to dig into the details
to figure it out. Who did you talk with or where did you have to look to find the most valuable information? How did you use
that information to help solve the problem?
2. Tell me about a situation that required you to dig deep to get to the root cause. How did you know you were focusing on the
right things? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently?
3. Tell me about a problem you had to solve that required in-depth thought and analysis. How did you know you were focusing
on the right things? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently?
4. Walk me through a big problem or issue in your organization that you helped to solve. How did you become aware of it? What
information did you gather? What information was missing and how did you fill the gaps? Did you do a reflection at the
conclusion of the project? If so, what did you learn?
5. Tell me about a specific metric you have used to identify a need for a change in your department. Did you create the metric or
was it already available? How did this and other information influence the change? What was the outcome of this change?
6. Have you ever created a metric that helped identify a need for a change in your department? What was the metric? Why did
you create it? How did this and other information influence change? What was the outcome of the change?
7. Tell me about a time when you had to validate the assumptions underlying a direct report's project. How did you decide follow
up was necessary? What steps, if any, did you take to validate the assumptions? What was the result? (Manager)
 Dive Deep
Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. No
task is beneath them.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Stays connected to the details of projects and programs
 Does not understand the details of projects
 Understands how different groups or systems work together
 Does not understand how different groups or
 Critically evaluates metrics and data
systems work together
 Asks good questions that provide clarity to situations
 Only holds surface-level understanding of
 Steps in and gets work done
metrics and data
 Investigates and get details in order to solve a problem
 Does not question assumptions
 Gathers information to solve a problem, even if it's difficult
 Unable to step in and get work done
or time-consuming

8. Tell me about a time when you sought diverse perspectives to evaluate the assumptions underlying a direct report's project.
How did you ensure that you were being inclusive in your review? (Manager) (DEI)

1. Tell me about a time when you were trying to understand a complex problem on your team and you had to dig into the details
to figure it out. Who did you talk with or where did you have to look to find the most valuable information? How did you use
that information to help solve the problem?
2. Tell me about a situation that required you to dig deep to get to the root cause. How did you know you were focusing on the
right things? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently?
3. Tell me about a problem you had to solve that required in-depth thought and analysis. How did you know you were focusing
on the right things? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently?
4. Walk me through a big problem or issue in your organization that you helped to solve. How did you become aware of it? What
information did you gather? What information was missing and how did you fill the gaps? Did you do a reflection at the
conclusion of the project? If so, what did you learn?
5. Tell me about a specific metric you have used to identify a need for a change in your department. Did you create the metric or
was it already available? How did this and other information influence the change? What was the outcome of this change?
6. Have you ever created a metric that helped identify a need for a change in your department? What was the metric? Why did
you create it? How did this and other information influence change? What was the outcome of the change?
7. Tell me about a time when you had to validate the assumptions underlying a direct report's project. How did you decide follow
up was necessary? What steps, if any, did you take to validate the assumptions? What was the result? (Manager)
8. Tell me about a time when you sought diverse perspectives to evaluate the assumptions underlying a direct report's project.
How did you ensure that you were being inclusive in your review? (Manager) (DEI)
 Deliver Results
Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks,
they rise to the occasion and never settle.
Concern Mild concern Mixed Mild strength Strength
 Fails to deliver on required commitments
 Does not commit adequate time and resources to  Meets deadlines and expectations with products that
deliver quality results are well-executed and high-quality
 Settles for work products that do not meet  Focuses on delivering the most important products
expectations  Able to deliver multiple projects at the same time
 Makes excuses for why things cannot be done  Overcomes and persists in the face of obstacles
before a deadline  Communicates regularly about the status of projects
 Delivers projects late or with missing requirements

1. Give me an example of a time when you were able to deliver an important project under a tight deadline. What sacrifices did
you have to make to meet the deadline? How did they impact the final deliverable? What was the final outcome?
2. Tell me about a time when you had significant, unanticipated obstacles to overcome in achieving a key goal. What was the
obstacle? Were you eventually successful? Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently?
3. Tell me about a time when you not only met a goal but considerably exceeded expectations. How were you able to do it? What
challenges did you have to overcome?
4. Tell me about a time when you or your team were more than half way to meeting a goal when you realized it may not be the
right goal or may have unintended consequences. What was the situation? What did you do? What was the outcome? Looking
back, would you have done anything differently?
5. Give me an example of a mission or goal you didn’t think was achievable. What was it and how did you help your team try to
achieve it? Were you successful in the end? Looking back, would you have done anything differently?
6. Tell me about a time when you did not effectively manage your projects and something did not get completed on time. What
was the impact? What approaches do you use to make sure you are focusing on the right deliverables when you have several
competing priorities?
7. How have you delivered quality service for customers with diverse needs? What obstacles did you encounter and how did you
overcome them? How did you audit customer experience? (DEI)
8. It can be difficult to set goals for a team that are challenging, yet achievable. Tell me about a time when you hit the right
balance. How did you approach setting the goals? What was the outcome? (Manager)