Become a Top 1% Candidate: My Behavioral Interview Playbook (Part 2)
The R-STAR framework to crush "Tell me about a time when"
In part 1 of this series, we covered the importance of behavioral interviews. My strong performance convinced the hiring manager to bring me on at a higher level than they originally planned.
We tackled the “why” questions—those tricky, foundational ones like “Tell me about yourself”—using the powerful 3W framework.
Now, in part 2, we’re shifting gears to the “story” questions. These are designed to uncover how you actually work in real-life situations. You know the ones:
Tell me about a time when…
You led a project
You solved a conflict
You overcame a challenge
Or everyone’s favorite: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
At the end of this article, you’ll find a complete guide with essential behavioral questions and ready-to-use formulas to help you nail every one of them. Bonus: If you’re a paid subscriber, you can download it for free!
Let’s get into it 👇
1. What “story” questions are really digging for
How do you handle failure and grow from it?
Can you spot and solve problems on your own?
Do you take charge without waiting for step-by-step instructions?
How do you collaborate, support your team, and resolve conflicts?
Remember our hiring manager? She’s on a beach in Cancun, sipping a piña colada, knowing you’ve got everything under control back at the office. Numbers are crunched, projects are humming along, and she doesn’t have to worry for a second.
That’s her dream candidate—you.
Your job in that interview? Show her you’re the one who’ll make that dream a reality.
2. You only need 2-3 stories
Want to save yourself from scrambling during interviews?
Here’s a little secret: You don’t need a different story for every behavioral question they throw at you. Instead, master 2-3 powerful stories and tweak them to fit multiple questions.
One strong project story can cover:
Leading a project
Managing an end-to-end analysis
Collaborating with cross-functional teams
Using your technical skills to tackle a complex problem
Then, add a conflict or failure story to your toolkit. This one can cover:
Disagreements with colleagues
A time you failed (ouch, but necessary)
Navigating tough conversations with non-technical teams
💡 Practice your two stories to fit every question.
As Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
3. Let’s answer “Tell me about a time when you led an analysis from end to end”
Here’s my R-STAR framework:
See it in action:
Result: Sure! Let me tell you about a time I uncovered a $30M product opportunity.
Situation: To give you some context, my team focuses on account safety for our European clients, with most of our attention on larger accounts since they drive over 70% of our revenue.
Trigger: One day, I heard from our engineers that they were getting flooded with tickets from smaller clients whose accounts had been hacked. It got me thinking—could we be missing something important here? I decided to dig into the data.
Action: I analyzed small client accounts and found that due to a lack of focus on their safety, they were churning at twice the rate of our larger clients. This was contributing to 50% of our revenue loss—roughly $30M.
Result: I presented my findings to senior PMs and engineers, and recommended we invest in small account safety to reduce hacks and prevent churn. The team agreed, and we launched an initiative to protect these accounts and retain more revenue.
Why does this work?
Because you hit them with results twice—once at the start to grab attention, and again at the end to remind them of your impact.
Steal this formula to answer situational questions
Result: Start strong by sharing the high-level impact.
“Let me tell you about a time when I did X… and saved Y revenue.”
Situation: Set the stage by explaining your team’s role
“For context, my team focuses on…”
Trigger: Highlight how you initiated the project.
“I noticed… I ran a query… I heard from…”
Action: Walk through the steps you took, with specific numbers
“I did X… and discovered Y.”
Result: Wrap it up by showing what changed because of your work. Highlight the partners you worked with
“I presented/recommended… then we did X.”
Pro tip 💁♀️
Signpost your story. Notice how each step is introduced with a clear signal like “For context” or “I presented”? It makes your answer easy to follow.
Show you drive results by using phrases like “I decided to” and “I recommended”
Flex your partnership skills by calling out who you worked with, for example “I presented to senior PMs and engineers”
Always quantify your impact. If you haven’t already, check out how to do this with your resume bullets in my article here.
There’s another type of questions that always sneaks up on candidates: conflicts and failures.
Tell me about a time when…
Tell me about a time you failed.
Describe a situation when you handled a conflict.
How did you handle working with a non-technical audience?
What did you do when your team’s priorities clashed with another team’s?
And then, there’s that curveball question that throws people off every time:
"What are your strengths and weaknesses?"
Want to nail those questions like a pro? Want to know how to twist the R-STAR framework to fit other questions? Wanna learn the SEWI framework?
Grab my 17-page playbook below with essential questions and plug-and-play formulas to help you crush your next behavioral interview ⬇️
Become a Top 1% Candidate: My Behavioral Interview Playbook
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