Story bank

The real examples you tell when they ask “Tell me about a time…”. Most people need six to eight good ones to cover nearly every question.

6 stories
3 complete · 3 missing a part · 3 kinds of question not covered
These are the demo’s stories. Add your own interview and your stories come from your CV.

Pausing onboarding to fix payments

Fernway, 2023 · from Halden
STAR
Changing course

Fits: Changing the roadmap; A payments metric drops

Seems to come up in 1 of your 1 answer.
Practise it

Growing checkout conversion by 17%

Brightpay, 2021 · from Halden
STAR
A result you’re proud of

Fits: Growing conversion 17%; Measuring a payment flow

Practise it

Leading a team of five through a reorg

Fernway, 2024 · from Halden
STAR
Leading or influencingChanging course

Fits: Competing requests

Practise it

A launch that missed its date

Brightpay, 2022 · from Halden
STAR
A mistake or setback

Fits: A project that failed

No action yet. Interviewers will ask for it, so have a line ready.
Practise it

Disagreeing with engineering on fraud rules

Fernway, 2023 · from Halden
STAR
Disagreement or conflict

Fits: Disagreeing with an engineer; Build or buy fraud detection

No result yet. Without a result, interviewers ask “so what happened?” and the story loses its point.
Practise it

Moving from design into product

Brightpay, 2021 · from Halden
STAR
Changing course

Fits: Design to product

No action or result yet. Without a result, interviewers ask “so what happened?” and the story loses its point.
Seems to come up in 1 of your 1 answer.
Practise it

What your stories cover

The kinds of “tell me about a time” question nearly every interview asks.

  • A result you’re proud of
    Growing checkout conversion by 17%
  • Disagreement or conflict
    Disagreeing with engineering on fraud rules
  • A mistake or setback
    A launch that missed its date
  • Leading or influencing
    Leading a team of five through a reorg
  • Changing course
    Pausing onboarding to fix payments; Leading a team of five through a reorg; Moving from design into product
  • Pressure or a deadline
    No story yet
    Build one
  • A customer or stakeholder
    No story yet
    Build one
  • Learning something fast
    No story yet
    Build one

Skills the job asks for

In the job spec, but none of your stories shows them yet.

Stories come from your CV and cover letter, and from the ones you build. A story counts as covering a kind of question from its title and what it fits. “Comes up in” is a rough match on your answers, to show which stories you reach for most.