Please describe a time when you had to make a decision without having all the information you needed.

Sample One

Last year I decided I had finally found the business idea that would take me from working for start-ups to developing my own. In collaboration with a friend who is a chef, I decided to start a cooking and nutritional program that would include interactive software and a cooking class component. The software would track calories, fitness and nutrition of each participant, while the classroom module would provide peer support and commitment over delicious and healthy meals.

As a business development manager who has worked across several high tech start-ups, I am skilled at market sizing, setting pricing and financial models. Despite countless efforts on behalf of my employers, when I decided to start my own business I struggled to make a decision about our pricing strategy. Soon after we formed the business, I could no longer delay the task when my partner told me she was appearing in a chef competition in two weeks. I wanted to provide brochures and have our website ready for any interested clients. I knew that price would be a major factor in any purchase decision, yet I had limited time and resources to create the optimal price list.

We had competitive research, and I knew our fixed and variable costs for providing the software and the cooking classes. Ideally I would have conducted qualitative and quantitative research as well to understand our target consumer’s willingness to pay for our product. As I had limited time, I invited ten friends over for wine one night and asked them about our product and what they thought it would cost. That exercise was helpful and garnered responses ranging from free to $100/month.

Taking the competitive date, our costs, and my “focus group” results into account I drafted a proposed pricing model of $19.95/month with a discount for 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, and one year subscription commitments. This price was in line with our competition and the pricing was more transparent. In addition, our product added cooking classes to the overall value proposition. As a final quality check, I ran my pricing model by my partner and approximately 30 of my friends via facebook. We finalized our price at $18.95 with bulk discounts, and were able to prepare the brochure for the cooking competition. As a result, we saw several hundred website visitors in the week after the event, and signed up ten new customers in that time frame.

Sample Two

During my career as an airline pilot there were continually trained for the possibility of an accident or incident while in flight. Though 99.5% of commercial flights are without incident, if you find yourself in the .5% it is important to know the emergency procedures.

Shortly after take off during a standard commuter route between Los Angeles and San Antonio I noticed the landing gear was not retracting as it should. I was nervous as I communicated with air traffic control and tried to gather the needed information to decide if we should make an emergency landing at LAX. The plane was too full of fuel to land immediately, and we needed to burn it off to make a safe landing. At the same time, jet traffic at LAX was intense due to the 8 am rush on Tuesday mornings in the terminal and I wasn’t sure when we would be cleared to fly, As I strategized my approach with the co-pilot, I knew we needed to make a decision quickly, in less than ideal circumstances and communicate our decision to passengers calmly. . I knew that passengers were going to become concerned, and would worry about their meetings or connections on the other end at San Antonio. At the same time, my crew was inexperienced and it was likely none of the flight attendants had been through an emergency landing. This was a moment where my leadership as the pilot was crucial.

I discussed the options with air traffic control and decided to circle the airport for 45 minutes to allow enough time to burn off fuel and make a safe landing. At the same time, due to space constraints we would need to be towed to a gate. This would mean over an hour of delay for our passengers, as well as the fear a mechanical issue often triggers.

I called the flight attendants into the cockpit and informed them of the situation. I explained that we needed to keep the passengers calm, first and foremost, and that it would be important to convey the plan and that it would probably be at least an hour until we landed. The crew spoke to the passengers reassuringly about the situation, and I was comfortable that we could proceed without incident.

After 45 tense minutes in the air, air traffic control guided us into onto the landing strip and we waited to be towed to the gate. The passengers cheered as we had a bumpy, but safe, landing. Though it was a stressful experience, I was gratified that all of the training I received had paid off in an emergency situation. After making serious decisions in the air with limited information, I know I can handle executive decision-making in my future career and life.