A potential client is asking for a guarantee that a certain feature will be delivered by a certain date. Your team has not considered this feature before. What would you do?

This question is designed to assess your ability to balance client expectations, team capacity, and project timelines. It is important to understand that in the real world, work scope and client demands can change abruptly, so being able to adapt quickly, while maintaining team efficiency, is crucial. The interviewer is interested in knowing how you will handle unexpected client requests while keeping the team's productivity on track. In answering this question, you will need to consider your communication skills, feasibility analysis, project time management, and negotiation skills.

If faced with such a situation, I will firstly take time to understand the specific feature the client is requesting. Next, I would inform them that, while we value their input and suggestions, this is a feature we haven't yet considered and therefore need to discuss its feasibility with our team. This is to ensure that we can confidently deliver a high-quality product without compromising on other agreed-upon deliverables and deadlines. If after the discussion we see that it's possible to integrate this feature, we'll give the client a new timeline that takes into consideration the time needed to develop the new feature. However, if it's not feasible, we would communicate this to the client with transparency, offering alternative solutions if possible.

In a situation like this, I would first validate the details and importance of the request with the client. I would reassure them that their needs are important for us to know, but I would also explain that we need to evaluate this new feature critically before promising anything. We will conduct a thorough feasibility study involving our development team to understand the possible implications and time consumption for adding this feature. Once we have created a comprehensive view of the implications and required resources, we'd communicate with the client either confirming the addition of the feature with a revised timeline or explaining why it might be challenging to add at this stage, supplemented with possible alternatives. This approach ensures we are maintaining transparency, setting realistic expectations, and also staying flexible for our client's needs.