Describe a Situation Where You Influenced Strategy at an Organizational Level - Bar Raiser Evaluate

Evaluate These Two Answers

"Tell me about a time you identified a big opportunity that was outside your team’s scope and took initiative to drive it forward."

SDE 2⏱ 3 minAmazon Bar Raiser. LP evaluated explicitly. Content scored, not delivery.

Score BOTH answers on Ownership Signal, Action Specificity, and Quantified Impact BEFORE applying the rubric.

If you scored Candidate A >40 total, your calibration is biased toward fluency. Bar Raisers ignore delivery and score content only.

Candidate A

During a routine sprint, my manager suggested I look into this since I had bandwidth. We found that the existing data pipeline was causing delays in reporting, which impacted downstream teams. After discussing with my team, we identified some bottlenecks and implemented fixes to improve throughput. This helped reduce latency somewhat, but the opportunity for a larger redesign was not pursued as it was outside our immediate scope.

Fluent delivery, confident tone - most untrained evaluators score this high

Candidate B

I noticed during a cross-team review that the data pipeline was causing significant delays in reporting, which no one had formally addressed. Nobody had filed a ticket or asked me to investigate, so I proposed a comprehensive redesign to leadership, highlighting how this could reduce latency by 40% and improve decision-making speed across multiple teams. I influenced leadership to allocate resources, led the design and implementation, and tracked a 25% increase in throughput post-launch, which saved approximately $50K monthly in operational costs and enabled faster product iterations.

35-55 seconds longer - every extra second is signal-dense content

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Score Comparison

Dimension

Weight

Candidate A

Candidate B

structure star

15%

12

14

ownership signal

30%

1

28

action specificity

25%

8

24

quantified impact

20%

4

19

self awareness

10%

0

10

Total

25 No Hire

95 Strong Hire

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Auto-Fail Markers

Candidate A implies manager direction

"Candidate A - my manager suggested I look into this since I had bandwidth"

Ownership requires self-initiation. Manager-assigned = execution. Score 1 on ownership_signal (weight=30) = No Hire always.

Candidate A uses collective language hiding individual contribution

"Candidate A - we found that the existing data pipeline was causing delays"

Using 'we' hides individual ownership and impact. Score 1 on ownership_signal (weight=30) = No Hire always.

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Bar Raiser Notes

Ownership weak - manager-directed; collective language hides individual contribution; zero quantification; no clear second-order impact; No Hire.

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Fix-It Challenge

Ownership initiation

Before"my manager suggested I look into this since I had bandwidth"

→

After"I noticed the gap during a routine review. No ticket existed. Nobody had asked me to investigate. I decided to act because the delays impacted multiple teams."

Shows self-initiation and ownership rather than manager assignment.

Individual contribution clarity

Before"we found that the existing data pipeline was causing delays"

→

After"I discovered that the existing data pipeline was causing delays"

Highlights personal ownership and responsibility.

Quantify impact

Before"implemented fixes to improve throughput"

→

After"implemented fixes that reduced latency by 20%, improving reporting speed and enabling faster decision-making"

Adds measurable impact and business relevance.

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Coaching Notes

• At Amazon, Think Big means proactively identifying opportunities beyond your immediate scope without waiting for direction; phrases like 'my manager suggested' signal lack of ownership and are disqualifying.
• Use first-person singular ownership language ('I noticed', 'I proposed') to clearly demonstrate initiative and influence.
• Quantify impact with metrics and business outcomes to show the scale of your thinking and results.
• Demonstrate influencing leadership and cross-team collaboration to reflect Amazon’s bias for action and ownership.
• Avoid collective 'we' language that obscures your individual contribution; Bar Raisers look for clear personal ownership.

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Model Answer Guidance

A strong Think Big answer at Amazon starts with you noticing a problem or opportunity without being asked, proposing a bold solution, influencing leadership to act, and delivering measurable impact that benefits multiple teams or the business broadly. Use precise ownership language and quantify results to distinguish yourself.