Describe changing a colleague's opinion from negative to positive
Asked at:
Anthropic
Freelancer
Meta
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What is this question about
Interviewers use this question to assess whether you can influence someone without relying on authority, pressure, or being "the loudest person in the room." They want to understand how you handle disagreement, whether you sought to understand the other person's concerns, and whether you changed their view through trust, evidence, empathy, or collaboration. At higher levels, they are also evaluating whether you can do this on consequential decisions and in a way that improves long-term working relationships.
“Tell me about a time someone disagreed with your idea and you won them over.”
“Describe a situation where a coworker was skeptical of your approach. What did you do?”
“Have you ever turned a resistant teammate into a supporter? Walk me through it.”
“Give me an example of influencing someone who initially pushed back on your proposal.”
“Tell me about a time you changed someone's mind without relying on authority.”
Key Insights
- This is not really a question about persuasion tricks; it is a question about whether you can understand why someone was negative in the first place and respond to that root cause.
- You do not get full credit for simply being right. You should show how you listened, adapted your approach, and moved the other person from resistance to buy-in without damaging the relationship.
- If the person changed their opinion only after you escalated or overpowered them, that is usually weak signal. Strong answers show influence through credibility, empathy, and follow-through.
What interviewers probe atlevel
Top Priority
At junior level, interviewers mainly want to see that you did not treat disagreement as ignorance and that you made a real effort to understand the concern.
Good examples
🟢At first I thought they were just blocking the change, but when I asked more questions I learned they were worried about breaking an existing workflow they supported.
🟢I realized their hesitation came from a recent production issue on a similar change, so I framed the conversation around reducing that risk instead of defending my idea.
Bad examples
🔴They were negative because they didn't understand the code, so I just walked them through it until they agreed.
🔴My teammate kept pushing back, but I knew my approach was cleaner, so I stayed firm and eventually they stopped objecting.
Weak answers dismiss the other person's concern; strong answers show curiosity about the reason behind the negativity.
Valuable
Even at junior level, a strong answer shows you adjusted your approach when your first instinct was not enough.
Good examples
🟢I realized I had started too deep in the technical details, so I stepped back and explained the user impact first.
🟢After the first conversation didn't go well, I changed from defending the solution to asking what specifically made them uncomfortable.
Bad examples
🔴I explained my idea the same way a few times because I knew the logic was solid.
🔴I felt they were overreacting, so I stayed focused on my original explanation until it landed.
Weak answers show rigidity; strong answers show the candidate noticed what was not working and adapted.
Choose a story where the opinion shift mattered to the work, and show something observable that indicates the person genuinely changed their view.
Good examples
🟢They went from opposing the change to helping review the implementation, which showed they were comfortable with the direction.
🟢After our discussion they not only supported the plan but also used the same approach in a later task, which told me the opinion shift was real.
Bad examples
🔴A teammate didn't like my variable naming at first, but after we talked they said it was fine.
🔴They were negative in the meeting, but after we shipped I assumed they agreed because no one brought it up again.
Weak answers use low-stakes or ambiguous outcomes; strong answers show a meaningful and observable change in stance.
Example answers atlevel
Great answers
On a recent feature, a teammate was pretty negative about adding a new filter because they thought it would make the screen harder to use and add testing risk. My first reaction was to explain why the code change was small, but I realized that wasn't their real concern, so I asked what specifically worried them. They told me they had recently helped fix a confusing UI issue and didn't want us to repeat that. I mocked up a simpler version, walked through the user flow with them, and suggested we release it behind a limited rollout so we could get feedback safely. After that, they changed from opposing it to helping review the test cases, and the feature shipped without the confusion they were worried about.
On a small backend cleanup I proposed centralizing some helper code, and one teammate pushed back saying another layer would just hide logic and slow down debugging. Instead of arguing, I asked them for a recent example where they’d been slowed down and they showed me a bug where duplicated logic made root cause hard to find. I created a short branch that consolidated the helpers, added a couple lines of explanatory comments and a tiny bit of logging, and walked them through reproducing the bug before and after—showing it was actually easier to trace with the shared helper. Seeing the concrete improvement and having input on the comments changed their mind, and they even suggested an extra log message to make future debugging clearer.
Poor answers
A teammate was negative about how I wanted to implement a small feature because they thought it was unnecessary. I explained that my approach was cleaner and would be easier to maintain, but they still pushed back for a while. I kept making the case in our conversations, and eventually they agreed to let me do it my way. The feature worked, so I think that changed their opinion.
Question Timeline
See when this question was last asked and where, including any notes left by other candidates.
Late May, 2026
Mid-level
Early March, 2026
Anthropic
Senior
Early August, 2025
Meta
Senior
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