Launch Self-Serve Analytics Dashboard | Dataford Interview Questions

Project Background

NimbusHR, a mid-market HR software company, wants to launch a self-serve analytics dashboard for HR admins before its annual customer conference in 10 weeks. The feature is expected to reduce ad hoc reporting requests by 30% and support a planned upsell to the Pro tier. You are the program manager coordinating a cross-functional team of 11 people across product, engineering, design, data, QA, and go-to-market.

Key Stakeholders

The VP of Product wants a conference-ready launch with a polished demo. The Head of Sales wants at least three enterprise customers live before the event to support renewals. The Engineering Manager is concerned about technical debt in the reporting pipeline and limited backend capacity. The Data Governance lead requires audit logging and role-based access controls before any customer data is exposed.

Constraints

The launch deadline is fixed: 10 weeks, ending on September 15. Remaining project budget is $120,000, including vendor costs for embedded charting and external security review. The team includes 4 engineers, 1 designer, 1 data engineer, 1 QA lead, 1 PM, 1 PMM, 1 sales enablement manager, and you. Two engineers are only available at 50% capacity because they are supporting a payroll migration. The dashboard depends on a data model refresh that will take 3 weeks and on legal approval of updated analytics terms.

Complications

A top customer has requested custom export functionality that is not in the current scope.
The external security review vendor can only start in Week 7, leaving little buffer before launch.
Sales has already hinted externally that the feature will be available "this quarter," creating expectation risk.

Your Task

Build a 10-week execution plan with phases, owners, and key dependencies.
Define what ships at launch versus what is deferred, and explain your trade-offs.
Identify the top risks, mitigation plans, and escalation triggers.
Propose launch success criteria and a post-launch monitoring plan.
Explain how you would communicate status and decisions to executives, Sales, and Engineering.

Problem

Project Background

Key Stakeholders

Constraints

Complications

A top customer has requested custom export functionality that is not in the current scope.
The external security review vendor can only start in Week 7, leaving little buffer before launch.
Sales has already hinted externally that the feature will be available "this quarter," creating expectation risk.

Your Task

Build a 10-week execution plan with phases, owners, and key dependencies.
Define what ships at launch versus what is deferred, and explain your trade-offs.
Identify the top risks, mitigation plans, and escalation triggers.
Propose launch success criteria and a post-launch monitoring plan.
Explain how you would communicate status and decisions to executives, Sales, and Engineering.

Problem

Project Background

Key Stakeholders

Constraints

Complications

A top customer has requested custom export functionality that is not in the current scope.
The external security review vendor can only start in Week 7, leaving little buffer before launch.
Sales has already hinted externally that the feature will be available "this quarter," creating expectation risk.

Your Task

Build a 10-week execution plan with phases, owners, and key dependencies.
Define what ships at launch versus what is deferred, and explain your trade-offs.
Identify the top risks, mitigation plans, and escalation triggers.
Propose launch success criteria and a post-launch monitoring plan.
Explain how you would communicate status and decisions to executives, Sales, and Engineering.

Problem

Project Background

Key Stakeholders

Constraints

Complications

A top customer has requested custom export functionality that is not in the current scope.
The external security review vendor can only start in Week 7, leaving little buffer before launch.
Sales has already hinted externally that the feature will be available "this quarter," creating expectation risk.

Your Task

Build a 10-week execution plan with phases, owners, and key dependencies.
Define what ships at launch versus what is deferred, and explain your trade-offs.
Identify the top risks, mitigation plans, and escalation triggers.
Propose launch success criteria and a post-launch monitoring plan.
Explain how you would communicate status and decisions to executives, Sales, and Engineering.