Part 1: The Exemplar Case

Below is an exemplar story, presented as a model answer to the behavioral question: 'Describe a situation where you identified a critical customer need that conflicted with existing company priorities or short-term business goals. How did you advocate for this customer, and what was the outcome?'

Exemplar Story:

As a Product Manager at a SaaS company, I encountered a situation where a critical enterprise customer, representing significant annual recurring revenue, expressed deep frustration over a missing feature. While this feature wasn't on our immediate product roadmap, which was focused on smaller enhancements and bug fixes for the current quarter, it was absolutely crucial for their team's workflow and retention. Our existing roadmap aimed for quick wins, but this was a foundational need for a key account.

My task was to build a compelling internal case for prioritizing this customer's need, despite its conflict with our short-term objectives and a desire to avoid 'one-off' feature requests.

I initiated a deep dive, conducting multiple follow-up sessions with the customer to quantify the exact impact of the missing feature – detailing lost hours, data inaccuracies, and operational bottlenecks. I then cross-referenced this pain point with feedback from other similar enterprise clients, identifying a pattern that confirmed it wasn't an isolated request but a broader market need. I also performed a quick competitive analysis to show that rivals were starting to offer similar functionality, highlighting a potential competitive gap. Collaborating closely with engineering, I secured a rough estimate of the development effort needed. Armed with this data, I prepared a comprehensive internal proposal. I framed the customer's need not merely as a single request, but as a strategic opportunity to retain a high-value account, unlock a new use case for our product across other enterprise clients, and strengthen our competitive differentiation. I presented this case to senior leadership and the product steering committee, emphasizing the long-term strategic value and potential ROI, even if it meant adjusting some lower-priority tasks. I also offered a phased implementation approach to mitigate immediate disruption.

As a direct result of this advocacy, the leadership team recognized the strategic importance of the feature. While it didn't jump to the very next sprint, it was elevated to a high-priority item for the subsequent quarter's roadmap, with a commitment communicated directly to the customer. This proactive communication and eventual feature delivery were instrumental in the customer renewing their multi-year contract, expanding their usage, and the feature becoming a key selling point for our sales team when acquiring new enterprise accounts. My advocacy not only strengthened a critical customer relationship but demonstrably impacted our product strategy and revenue growth.

Part 2: Deconstruct the Answer

The STAR method is a structured approach to answering behavioral interview questions. It helps you provide concrete examples of past experiences by focusing on four key elements:

• Situation: Set the scene and provide necessary details about the context.
• Task: Describe your role and what was required of you in that situation.
• Action: Explain what you did to address the situation and complete the task.
• Result: Share the outcomes of your actions and what you learned.

Read the 'Exemplar Story' above and answer the following questions to identify the STAR components.