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Prioritize Work With Limited Capacity

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Welcome to your interview.

The question is on your right: Prioritize Work With Limited Capacity. Take a moment with it first.

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Problem

You are the Engineering Manager for a team with more work than capacity. Several projects are competing for the same engineers, and the requests come from product, platform, support, sales, and security. You need to decide what to prioritize, what to defer, and how to explain the trade-offs clearly.

Context

The team owns a critical product area and cannot absorb every request at once. Some work is customer-facing, some reduces operational risk, and some unblocks other teams. The challenge is not just choosing the right work, but keeping stakeholders aligned as capacity shifts.

Question

How do you prioritize projects when your team has limited capacity?