Can you describe a situation where you had to make a difficult decision to achieve a project objective?

This question aims to understand your decision-making ability, particularly when confronted with challenging situations. The interviewer wants to see evidence of your problem-solving skills and your ability to stay focused on achieving the end goal, even when facing difficulties.

When answering this question, I recommend you to:

• Provide a concrete example from your work experience where you had to make a tough decision to meet a project's goals.
• Define the Challenges you encountered.
• Describe the Options you considered.
• Discuss the Decision you made.
• And ultimately, explain the Outcome and learning.

In one of my previous roles, we were working on a very tight schedule to deliver a marketing campaign project for a client. Unfortunately, halfway through, our graphic designer had some personal issues and could no longer continue working on the project.

There were two options we had - one was to hire a new designer which would’ve been time-consuming (but doable). The next option was to redistribute the tasks among the current team members, which would put additional pressure and might lead to an overload.

I decided to opt for the second option as it would take less time. However, I had thorough discussions with the team members before taking this decision and assured them that they could work overtime hours for which they will be paid accordingly.

As a result, we were able to deliver the project on time. It was a challenging decision, but it taught me the importance of flexibility in project management and leadership.

During a project at my last job, we discovered halfway through that a significant piece of our work would not deliver the results we’d promised to our client. We had two options: continue knowing it would be inadequate or inform the client that the project needed to change drastically.

I decided that our best course of action was to communicate the problem and our proposed solution to the client. It was a difficult decision because it meant admitting our initial plans were flawed and putting our client relationship at risk.

However, after I explained the situation and solution carefully, the client agreed to our revised plan. Ultimately, the project was a success and it significantly deepened our client relationship. This experience reinforced the importance of transparency and honesty in my work.