My Star Stories as of 2025

28 December 2024 - 4 mins read time
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Table of Contents

Below is a concise, streamlined set of STAR stories. Each entry focuses on the key points—Situation (S), Task (T), Action (A), and Result (R)—in a clear, interview-ready format.

1. PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: Gartner & Forrester Product Demo AI

S: Cordial participated in a Forrester Wave assessment, similar to the Gartner Hype Cycle.
T: I was responsible for quickly building and integrating AI features (v1) into production under intense pressure.
A: Collaborated closely with Sales and the VP of Engineering to prioritize key AI features that would differentiate our product.
R: Cordial scored 5/5 on the AI capabilities dimension, demonstrating strong product leadership in the evaluation.

2. MISTAKE: AI Service Update @ NeurIPS

S: I deployed a “Message Understanding” feature into staging and moved my ticket without broadly communicating the release plan.
T: I needed to ensure the service was deployed to production alongside frontend and backend changes.
A: While attending the NeurIPS conference, I noticed urgent Slack messages, left to coordinate with QA, Product, and SRE teams, and deployed the service into production immediately.
R: The sub-feature was unavailable for 15 minutes. I initiated a postmortem and updated company-wide release practices to avoid similar communication gaps.

3. CHALLENGING EMPLOYEE: Jarret & Sprints

S: Our new AI team lacked coordination with other teams, and the product manager did not want us to adopt Scrum methodology.
T: My goal was to establish a proper sprint schedule and promote better coordination.
A: I took the lead in setting up sprint ceremonies (reviews, retros, planning, daily stand-ups) and assigned responsibilities among team members. R: We improved planning, delivered more features, and I was later promoted to team lead. Recently, they dissolved the old team structure and named me AI Lead, giving me a new department.

4. STAKEHOLDER’S TRUST: Message Insights Rollout Despite Moratorium

S: We built our second major feature—Message Understanding—for analyzing millions of messages. It was slated for release right before BFCM, when the CTO wanted a feature freeze due to platform stability concerns.
T: I needed to finalize testing and approvals while addressing stakeholder hesitation about releasing before BFCM.
A: Collaborated with the Director of Product and SREs, making a case that our feature was stable and would provide valuable data.
R: The feature launched successfully without impacting the platform, providing immediate insights on 1B+ emails sent over the weekend.

5. MOST DIFFICULT PROBLEM: AI Service Integration RPC Layer

S: During my first two months, we had to show AI capabilities for a Forrester Wave report by integrating a Python microservice with a legacy PHP platform.
T: Create an API-based integration that mirrored PHP’s behavior, including how arrays/dicts and authentication were handled.
A: Worked with the Head of Architecture to design a robust API layer that accommodated Python while aligning with existing PHP infrastructure.
R: We met the tight deadline, earned a perfect 5/5 for AI features, and laid the foundation for future Python services in the company.

6. NEGATIVE FEEDBACK: Software Engineering Upskill

S: My manager felt my software engineering best practices, such as dependency inversion, needed improvement.
T: I committed to strengthening my coding skills and overall software design knowledge.
A: I read “A Philosophy of Software Design” and “High Performance Python,” plus completed a FastAPI tutorial to refine my skill set.
R: I successfully built a production-ready service that is now utilized by other engineers, demonstrating my improved engineering and design approach.

7. AMBIGUITY: Message Generation Approach

S: We faced competitive pressure to launch an autonomous message creation feature, but there was no clear consensus on how to implement it.
T: Explore multiple approaches, consult with the CTO, and propose a final plan.
A: Over the holidays, I strategized with my Product Manager to refine the concept. We pitched a new approach that balanced innovation with feasibility.
R: Our plan was accepted and officially scheduled on the product roadmap.

8. STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• Strengths:
– Project Management & Timely Delivery: I excel at organizing projects and ensuring features ship on time.
– Team Leadership & Motivation: I enjoy rallying teams around a common goal and driving collective success.

• Weaknesses:
– Impatience: Sometimes I prefer taking immediate action rather than waiting for more information.
– Rapid Prototyping: I tend to race into building prototypes and gather research afterward, which can occasionally require rework later.