# Managing poor performers on your team: interview preparation Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/questions/1541/managing-poor-performers-team Source observed: 2026-11-04T21:51:19.639Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T21:51:19.639+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-06T01:12:23.148+00:00 --- # What is your approach to managing poor performers on your team? We provide interview preparation through Aced, formerly Exponent. This behavioral question is intended for Engineering Manager interviews and asks candidates to explain how they handle poor performance on their teams. ## Question details - **Category:** [Behavioral](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=behavioral) - **Role:** [Engineering Manager](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=em) - **Company filters:** [Google](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=google), [Stripe](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=stripe), [Service Now](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=service-now), and [Anthropic](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=anthropic) - The question has been reported as last asked **2 months ago**. - The page records **16+ interviews** associated with the question. Our video asks Amazon Software Development Manager Sagar how to handle poor performers. ## Membership access Membership includes: - 100+ expert answer videos - Access to all courses - Peer-to-peer practice - Private Discord community - Full question database [Upgrade](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions) or [upgrade now](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions). ## Interview experiences The page includes five shared interview experiences related to companies and roles associated with this question. 1. **[Service Now · 2 months ago](https://www.aced.io/experiences/service-now-sr-staff-engineering-manager-interview-ca1296)** — Engineering Manager, Sr. Staff / L7. The candidate described the interview as extremely professional, polite, friendly, welcoming, and low-pressure, with interviewers helping the candidate shine. 2. **[Google · 7 months ago](https://www.aced.io/experiences/google-staff-engineering-manager-interview-fd33b1)** — Engineering Manager, Staff / L6. The candidate described a five-interview final process: two remote rounds followed by three in-person rounds. Google evaluated engineering-management skills, “googliness,” broader competencies, cognitive skill, and deep system-design implementation thinking. The candidate failed a must-pass coding round involving code review and debugging and was told to wait 12 months before interviewing again. 3. **[Anthropic · 7 months ago](https://www.aced.io/experiences/anthropic-engineering-manager-interview-028476)** — Engineering Manager. The process consisted of a recruiter screen, a 55-minute phone screen, and a five-interview remote final loop with no take-home assignment, despite the role being based in San Francisco. The candidate described recruiter feedback between rounds and an EM system-design round focused on critiquing a prebuilt Anthropic-style inference design rather than creating a design from scratch. The process emphasized the resume, project decisions, management style, and culture more than coding or AI trivia. The candidate was rejected after feedback that the people-management round lacked the expected depth. 4. **[Google · a year ago](https://www.aced.io/experiences/google-staff-engineering-manager-interview-733722)** — Engineering Manager, Staff / L6. The candidate described people management and system-design rounds in March 2025, another system-design round in May, code review in June, and “Googlyness” in July. In August, the candidate reported that all rounds were positive and that team matching was still pending. 5. **[Stripe · a year ago](https://www.aced.io/experiences/stripe-senior-engineering-manager-interview-182626)** — Engineering Manager, Senior / L5. The candidate had completed three mock interviews and felt prepared. The Execution and Strategy interview was described as disengaged, with one panelist’s video off, limited eye contact, rushed questions, and little interaction; a management round 45 minutes later was more conversational. The candidate did not pass and received no feedback. ## Community answers No community answers have been contributed yet. To submit an answer, [log in or sign up](https://www.aced.io/signup?src=nav&returnPath=/questions/1541/managing-poor-performers-team). ## Related questions - [What is your approach to market/user research?](https://www.aced.io/questions/481/approach-market-user-research) - [What's your approach to prompt engineering?](https://www.aced.io/questions/5603/prompt-engineering-approach) - [What is your team management style?](https://www.aced.io/questions/3234/team-management-style) ## Related courses ### [Engineering Management Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/engineering-management) ![Engineering Management Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/5AqarwlCDWmr0W7AbMJFwp/16862dab13471f5eb8728b27eb2fbc07/engineering_management_track_compressed_bbabaec4a6__281_29_9a9687c1fb.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We cover mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates for engineering manager roles at Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Stripe, and other top companies. Topics include system design, people management, project retrospectives, behavioral interviews, and more. ### [System Design Interviews](https://www.aced.io/courses/system-design-interviews) ![System Design Interviews](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/78x7miFZFjBCrM5GqftrMJ/2f6d26e632c4e7265c49f6a180227edb/system_design_track_compressed_26ac98a46e__281_29_5be2280f31.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We teach approaches to current system-design questions across product, infrastructure, and AI domains through in-depth video examples, written breakdowns, reference patterns, and mock-interview answers from senior engineers and managers. ## Practice Use [Practice with AI](https://www.aced.io/practice/ai/new?type=Behavioral&question=managing-poor-performers-team&src=questions) to practice this behavioral question. Submitting an answer marks the question complete. --- [Read this page’s summary](https://www.aced.io/agents/api/public/v1/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aced.io%2Fquestions%2F1541%2Fmanaging-poor-performers-team&trace=t_679ff9ab98f3) ## Ask a follow-up about this page Need a more specific answer? Ask the exact question you have. It returns a fresh, cited answer from Aced (formerly Exponent)’s knowledge base. No account or API key required. Open this URL with your own question, URL-encoded. Include your question in q. All research inputs are optional; no account or setup. `GET https://www.aced.io/agents/agent/faq?q={question}&trace=t_679ff9ab98f3` [Tool guide and examples](https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access) · [OpenAPI](https://www.aced.io/agents/api/public/v1/openapi.json) · [Page TLDR form](https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-tools/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aced.io%2Fquestions%2F1541%2Fmanaging-poor-performers-team). Opening a form does not execute a tool.