AppfolioMediumExecution00:00Welcome to your interview for the Engineering Manager role at Appfolio.
The question is on your right: Decide on Framework Migration. Take a moment with it first.
Talk your thinking through with me if you like - when you're confident, submit your answer and I'll grade it like a real screen. You have three graded attempts to score 7/10 or better.
You are the engineering manager for a team responsible for a high-traffic resident and leasing workflow in a B2B SaaS platform. Your team needs to deliver a major self-service experience improvement this quarter, but the current frontend framework slows development and has known performance issues in complex forms. Several senior engineers want to adopt a newer framework that could improve long-term velocity and reliability, while others argue that migrating now will jeopardize the launch and create operational risk because only one engineer has real production experience with the new stack. Product leadership is pushing for visible customer-facing progress this quarter, and support has flagged that the current workflow already drives elevated ticket volume for larger customers.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Team size | 6 engineers, 1 designer, 1 product manager |
| Delivery deadline | 14 weeks |
| Existing codebase | ~120K lines in current frontend framework |
| In-scope user flows | 4 critical workflows, 22 screens |
| Current monthly active users | 48,000 |
| Current support ticket volume | 320 tickets/month tied to these workflows |
| Allowed downtime | None |
| Budget for external help | $40K |
How would you decide whether to adopt the new technology or stay on the existing framework, and how would you plan execution so the team can still deliver business value on time while managing technical, delivery, and stakeholder risk?