Handle Dissatisfied Enterprise Client | Dataford Interview Questions

Company Context

AtlasWork is a B2B SaaS workflow platform used by mid-market and enterprise teams to manage approvals, task routing, and internal operations. The company has 1,200 paying customers, $45M ARR, and competes on ease of setup and strong customer support.

Problem

A top-20 client representing $1.8M in annual contract value is threatening not to renew. Their operations team says the product is "too rigid" for a newly launched compliance workflow, adoption has dropped from 72% weekly active usage to 41% over the last two months, and executive sponsors are escalating the issue. Internal teams disagree on the root cause: Sales believes the client was oversold custom capabilities, Customer Success says onboarding was incomplete, and Engineering says the requested changes would require major platform work.

The CEO asks you, as the PM responsible for workflow configuration, to lead the response. You need to stabilize the relationship, understand whether this is a one-off account issue or a broader product gap, and recommend what the company should do next.

Deliverables

Explain how you would diagnose the client's dissatisfaction and separate symptom from root cause.
Identify which users and jobs-to-be-done you would prioritize within the client account.
Recommend a product and non-product response plan for the next 30-90 days.
Define how you would decide between building a client-specific solution, creating a scalable product improvement, or declining the request.
Propose success metrics and communication steps for internal and external stakeholders.

Constraints

You have 6 weeks before the renewal decision.
Engineering capacity is limited to 2 frontend and 2 backend engineers for one quarter.
The company does not want to create bespoke features that increase long-term maintenance burden.
Any short-term workaround must not compromise security or compliance commitments for other customers.

Problem

Deliverables

Explain how you would diagnose the client's dissatisfaction and separate symptom from root cause.

Identify which users and jobs-to-be-done you would prioritize within the client account.

Recommend a product and non-product response plan for the next 30-90 days.

Define how you would decide between building a client-specific solution, creating a scalable product improvement, or declining the request.

Propose success metrics and communication steps for internal and external stakeholders.

Constraints

You have 6 weeks before the renewal decision.

Engineering capacity is limited to 2 frontend and 2 backend engineers for one quarter.

The company does not want to create bespoke features that increase long-term maintenance burden.

Any short-term workaround must not compromise security or compliance commitments for other customers.