Latest / Interview Prep with Fexingo: Behavioral Questions, Case Studies, and Hiring Manager Insights / How to Answer the Tell Me About a Time You Made a Mistake Question
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've ever been in an interview and heard the words 'Tell me about a time you made a mistake,' you know that moment where your brain short-circuits a little. Luna: It's almost harder than the strength question because you're supposed to admit failure but still look good. Lucas: Exactly. And most candidates either pick something too small — 'I accidentally used a wrong font in a slide deck' — or something too catastrophic — 'I lost the company two million dollars.' Neither works. Luna: So what does work? What are hiring managers actually listening for? Lucas: They want three things. One: that you actually take ownership. Two: that you understood what went wrong at a root-cause level. And three: that you built a system or changed a behavior so it doesn't happen again. Luna: Right, it's not about the mistake itself, it's about the recovery. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to give you a framework that I think works better than the standard STAR for this specific question. I call it SBL — Situation, Behavior, Learning. Luna: SBL. Okay, walk me through it. Lucas: Situation: you set up the context quickly — what was your role, what were you trying to do. Behavior: what did you actually do that was the mistake? And Learning: what you took away and what you changed. Luna: So it's STAR without the 'Result' step, because the result here isn't the point. Lucas: Exactly. The result is embedded in the learning. The interviewer doesn't need to know that the project was delayed by a week — they need to know that you now run a pre-launch checklist that catches the issue before it ever happens. Luna: Do you have a concrete example? I think listeners learn best from a real story. Lucas: Yeah. Let's use a product manager at a mid-size SaaS company. The situation: she was launching a new feature and she set the pricing too low based on a competitor's public pricing, without checking actual customer willingness to pay data. Luna: Oof — that's a classic mistake. Lucas: Right. The behavior: she presented the pricing to the VP of Product, who approved it, and they launched. Within two weeks, they saw uptake was huge but revenue per user was half of what they needed for the unit economics to work. Luna: So the mistake was relying on external benchmarks instead of primary data. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the learning: she didn't just increase the price and move on. She went back and did a full willingness to pay study — they used a Van Westendorp model — and then she proposed a three-tier pricing structure that actually aligned with customer segments. Luna: And did the company adopt it? Lucas: They did. The new pricing rolled out in the next quarter. Revenue per user increased by 40 percent, and more importantly, she created a pricing validation process that the entire product team now uses before any new feature launch. Luna: That's a perfect SBL story. The learning is concrete and systemic. Lucas: And she can say that the process she built saved the company an estimated two hundred thousand dollars in potential mispricing on future features. That's the kind of number that makes an interviewer sit up. Luna: Let's talk about what not to do. I've heard candidates blame a teammate or say 'I should have communicated better' without any specifics. Lucas: Blaming others is the fastest way to get rejected. Even if the mistake was truly a team failure, you have to frame it as what you personally could have controlled. 'I should have escalated earlier' or 'I should have asked for a second opinion' — that shows ownership. Luna: What about picking a mistake that's too small? Like the font example I mentioned earlier. Lucas: That signals that you don't have high standards or that you haven't faced real challenges. But you also don't want to pick something that got you fired or caused major harm — unless you have an incredible turnaround story. Luna: So the sweet spot is a mistake that was significant but fixable, and where you can show clear learning. Lucas: Exactly. I'd say aim for something that cost under fifty thousand dollars or a delay of a week or two — something that matters but isn't catastrophic. Luna: One other trap I see: candidates try to spin the mistake as actually a good thing. 'My mistake was being too perfectionistic' — that's not a real mistake. Lucas: Hiring managers see right through that. Give a genuine mistake. The vulnerability actually builds trust. If you show that you can admit error without crumbling, that's a huge signal for a high-functioning team. Luna: I want to add one more thing: the timing of your story. Don't pick something from a decade ago. Use a mistake from the last two years, ideally from a role similar to the one you're interviewing for. Lucas: That's a great point. It shows you're self-aware in your current environment and you're actively improving. Lucas: Quick honest thing — we get a lot of questions from listeners about how to keep this show free and ad-free. The answer is that a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that literally funds us producing this many episodes. Luna: If we've helped you think through a career move or a tough interview, that's the reason we do it. And that support is what keeps it going. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small group, but it makes a huge difference. So thank you to those who do. Now, let's talk about how to actually structure your answer in the moment. Lucas: When you're in the interview, you have about two minutes to deliver your SBL story. Start with the situation in one sentence. Then the behavior in two to three sentences. Then the learning in one to two sentences. Luna: And practice it out loud. The mistake story is one you want to have rehearsed because it's easy to ramble when you're nervous. Lucas: Totally. And one more piece of advice: end with a forward-looking statement. Something like 'Since then, I've used that pricing validation process on three more launches, and we haven't had a mispricing issue since.' Luna: It closes the loop and shows sustained improvement. Lucas: Exactly. So to recap: pick a real mistake, own it, use the SBL framework, and show systemic change. That's how you turn the toughest question into your strongest answer. Luna: And if you want more examples, we have a full database of sample answers in the Fexingo career center. Lucas: We'll link to it in the show notes. Next episode, we're tackling the 'Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information' question — which is basically the same as ambiguity, but more decision-focused. Luna: Can't wait. Thanks for listening, and good luck in your interviews.