Two client challenges I recently encountered that I want to share with you. I’ll cover both what went wrong, and how we worked on fixing it.
The Pause Paradox
What went wrong
One client got asked a behavioral question.
They knew they had a great story for it.
They opened their mouth and started talking immediately, trying to think and speak at the same time.
Another client was practicing product sense.
Each step of the framework they worked through, they just kept going. Never stopping to collect their thoughts.
I asked a clarifying question, they jumped straight to answering.
In both of these situations, they were prioritizing answering quickly instead of answering with clarity and confidence.
When I see people do this, what comes out of their mouths are filler words, tangents, forgotten details, and answers that meander without a clear structure.
How to fix it
The first step is the easiest. JUST PAUSE!
5 seconds, 30 seconds, hell, even 60 seconds is ok.
Just preface a long pause with “give me a moment to collect my thoughts on this and I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”
Behavioral interview. Product sense. Case study probing question.
Doesn’t matter.
Start with the pause.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet on what to do.
- Hear the question & write it down
- Tell the interviewer you’re going to prepare an answer
- Take 15-60 seconds of silence
- Write down your notes (or type them)
- Then start talking
I had three different clients this week who all showed immediate, visible improvement when I coached them to do this.
The paradox is that slowing down makes you sound faster and sharper. You come across more confident and clear when there is structure to what you say.
When you do this, your working memory isn't overloaded trying to structure and speak simultaneously.
You avoid filler words because you know what you're going to say.
You can deliver a clean, confident answer instead of thinking out loud.
Interviewers see thoughtfulness, not hesitation or backtracking mid-answer.
Speed provides zero bonus points in interviews.
No interviewer has ever said, "Well, they answered in 8 seconds instead of 30 seconds, so I'm going to recommend a hire."
But plenty of interviewers have passed on candidates who rambled through every answer.
The Missing Hook
What went wrong
Everybody wants to stand out in interviews, and they are relying too much on their experiences to do the heavy lifting.
They replay feedback to me that says things like “we’re looking for someone more strategic.”
So with one of my clients we did some behavioral interview story practice and while they took the pause, what they started with wasn’t differentiating (or ‘strategic’).
They had all the STAR elements:
- ✅ Situation
- ✅ Task
- ✅ Action
- ✅ Result
But there was more they could have said to stand out.
They were missing a hook.
A way to connect the story they’re about to tell with the question they were just asked.
A guiding principle or belief statement that frames what the story will demonstrate.
How to fix it
For your story library, you should write a strategic guiding principle that you can connect to a story you’re about to tell, and match it to a question you were asked.
So when you get asked something like “tell me about a time you built a product from 0→1” you just add a sentence at the very beginning that hooks the interviewer.
For example:
"I believe the best product strategies come from finding the intersection of customer pain and business opportunity. I’m going to tell you about a time when I discovered [problem] and generated [impact] as a Senior PM at [company]."
Here’s another for a common stakeholder question:
"As a PM, I've learned that stakeholder buy-in isn't something you get after you build the strategy, it needs to be built into the process. Let me tell you about a time when I had to work with challenging stakeholders to build and deliver a product strategy that led to [outcome] while I was a PM at [company]..."
This approach does a few things:
- Shows strategic thinking before you even get to the story
- Gives the interviewer a framework for evaluating your answer
- Makes your story feel intentional instead of reactive
Putting It Together
So here's what I want you to try before your next interview:
Before the interview:
- Pick 3-5 of your best stories
- Write a "hook" for each one that captures your guiding principle
- Have these visible during the interview (seriously—keep them open in a doc, quit trying to memorize everything)
During the interview:
- When asked a behavioral question, pause for 15-30 seconds
- Prepare your hook & 2-3 key bullet points
- Deliver your hook first, then walk through STAR
- Check in periodically: "Would you like me to go deeper on this, or should I move on?"
Maybe your stories are already good. They just need better framing.
Let me know how this goes for you.
P.S. If you want help developing and refining your stories, or improving your delivery, check out my upcoming Storytelling Workshop for PMs.