Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager.

Last summer I interned on the pricing team at a regional grocery chain with about 60 stores. My manager, Tom, had me analyze a test where 10 stores cut prices on store-brand basics. Sales of those items rose 14% in the test stores, and Tom planned to recommend the same cuts for every store at a leadership meeting that Thursday. I disagreed, because of something I'd found in the data on Monday. Six of the ten test stores were within a mile of stores a competitor chain had closed for remodeling during the test. In the other four stores, sales rose much less. I had to decide how to raise it. I didn't want to say it in the team meeting, so I asked him for 15 minutes alone and showed him the split. He pushed back. He said four stores were too few to prove anything, and he was right about that. So I didn't ask him to drop the recommendation. I suggested he present the 14% with the caveat and ask for a second test. He did, and the second test led to a smaller set of price cuts. I think it's good to raise a concern when you have the numbers.

Last summer I interned on the pricing team at a regional grocery chain with about 60 stores. My manager, Tom, had me analyze a test where 10 stores cut prices on store-brand basics. Sales of those items rose 14% in the test stores, and Tom planned to recommend the same cuts for every store at a leadership meeting that Thursday. I disagreed, because of something I'd found in the data on Monday. Six of the ten test stores were within a mile of stores a competitor chain had closed for remodeling during the test. In the other four stores, sales rose only 5%, which didn't cover the margin the chain gave up. I had to decide how to raise it. I was an intern in my sixth week, and he'd run pricing for nine years. I didn't want to say it in the team meeting, so I asked him for 15 minutes alone and showed him the split. I said, "I think part of this result is the competitor closing. I may be missing something about how the stores were picked." He pushed back. He said four stores were too few to prove anything, and he was right about that. So I didn't ask him to drop the recommendation. I suggested he present the 14% with the caveat and ask for a second test in 12 stores with no competitor changes. He did. In October he emailed me the result, a 6% lift, and the chain cut prices on the 40 items where that paid off instead of all 150. What I do now is bring a disagreement in private, with the evidence and a way forward, and say out loud where I could be wrong.