Product wants to launch a feature, but the error budget is exhausted. What do you do?

Summary

Follow the error budget policy that product and engineering agreed in advance: normally, feature launches pause and the team works on reliability until the service is back within SLO. Exceptions should go through the escalation path the policy defines, with the risk made explicit, rather than being negotiated ad hoc.

Longer Answer

Make it constructive: show the data (what consumed the budget), propose the specific reliability work and its timeline, and look for lower-risk options (launch behind a flag to a small group, after the fix lands). If the SLO is routinely missed and nobody acts, revisit whether the SLO reflects what users and the business need, because an ignored SLO is worse than none.

Key Points

• Follow the pre-agreed policy.
• Exceptions via defined escalation.
• Show data; propose a plan.
• Revisit the SLO if constantly ignored.

What interviewers look for

Using the policy and data to align with product, without being obstructive.