Talking about a project that failed

6 min read · Updated 12 October 2026

"Tell me about a project that didn't go well" is a question about judgement, not failure. They want to see what you learned and what you changed.

A four-part answer

• Context. One sentence on the project and your role.
• What went wrong. Specific, and owned by you.
• What you did. How you responded at the time.
• What changed. What you do differently now.

Worked answer: a launch that slipped

"I led design on a checkout redesign that shipped six weeks late because I didn't test the address form with real users early. We fixed it after launch. Now I test the riskiest screen in week one, before anything is polished."

Worked answer: research nobody used

"I ran a month of interviews and wrote a long report that the team didn't read. Since then I share findings weekly in a short message, and the team asks for the next one."

What to avoid

A failure that's secretly a strength ("I work too hard"), or one that blames someone else.