Project Deep-Dive (Four-Axis Rubric)

Conversational deep-dive on one or two recent projects, graded against four axes: Leadership, Craftsmanship, Execution, Impact. Bring an architecture diagram (white-board or pre-drawn) and lead the interviewer through with two-to-three years of context. The round runs from `phone screen` through `onsite` depending on level. Requirements Format: 50–60 minute conversation. Sometimes 10 minutes of slides, mostly dialog and diagram-on-whiteboard. The interviewer asks 5 anchor questions and probes deeply: What was the impact of the project? What was your role? How did the project come to be — brand new, extension of existing work, or a rewrite? How were technical decisions made — who weighed in, what were the trade-offs? How did you work cross-functionally — PM, design, sister engineering teams? Pick a project with these properties: Technically complex enough to support 30 minutes of detail. Quantifiable business impact. Multi-quarter duration. Cross-functional collaboration. Genuine leadership / scope on your side. Reported grading axes: Leadership — set direction, unblocked others, brought stakeholders along. Craftsmanship — quality of the technical choices and engineering hygiene. Execution — shipped, kept timeline, managed scope. Impact — what changed for the business / for the team after the project. Notes Visualization advice: keep the diagram verbal first, then draw. Avoid a 20-slide deck — a single one-pager is acceptable; pre-loaded slides are not required. Be ready for the "what would you do differently" question; it tests calibration, not regret. A common probe: "who else made this decision?" — interviewers grade whether the candidate falsely centers themselves on group decisions. Phone-screen variant runs ~45 minutes and stays at a higher level; the onsite variant goes 60 minutes and drills technical specifics. Preparation Pre-pick two projects from the last 2–3 years; rehearse a 5-minute lead-in for each. Prepare an architecture diagram you can sketch in < 2 minutes on the whiteboard. Map your story to the four axes — confirm each axis has a concrete anecdote. Practice the cross-functional collaboration narrative: which PMs, which sister teams, what specific friction did you resolve. For the project-retro phone-screen format, the four axes (Leadership / Craftsmanship / Execution / Impact) are stated explicitly — frame your narrative against them out loud.