I went straight to escalation in my answer and could tell that wasn't the right move.
Show that you first seek to understand the root cause of the delay by talking directly with the cross-functional team, then align on shared goals and priorities. Emphasize collaboration over escalation, and describe how you would adjust plans, renegotiate dependencies, or escalate only after exhausting direct problem-solving.
Pro tip: Frame the situation as a shared problem rather than a blame game—ask what you can do to help unblock them, and bring data on impact to make trade-offs concrete.
Talk directly with the cross-functional team to understand why they're moving slowly—competing priorities, resource constraints, unclear requirements, or technical blockers.
Reconnect on the overall business objective and quantify the impact of the delay on customers and company metrics to create urgency and shared ownership.
Collaboratively brainstorm ways to accelerate: reprioritize their backlog, provide additional resources, reduce scope, or find workarounds that unblock progress.
If alignment fails, escalate with a clear, data-backed proposal to leadership, focusing on solutions and trade-offs rather than blame.
Update your roadmap and stakeholders transparently, and establish a cadence to monitor progress and prevent future misalignment.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.