← Datadog
Datadog role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A cloud platform that monitors servers, apps and logs, and checks security, so engineers see problems in one place.
Who you'd be calling
VPs and Directors of Engineering, DevOps, SRE, Platform and Security leads at cloud-based tech companies and large enterprises.
Your opener
“Hi [Name], this is [You] from Datadog. I know I'm interrupting your day. I'm calling engineering leaders to ask how they find out when something in their systems slows down or breaks. Can I ask how your team handles that today?”
Problems you solve for them
- Problems hidden across many separate monitoring tools
- Slow troubleshooting when apps or servers misbehave
- Security and performance data kept in different places
Discovery questions to ask
- What tools do you use today to monitor your apps and infrastructure?
- When something breaks, how long does it take to find the cause?
- Do your engineering and security teams look at the same data?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ No problem, I'll be brief. I just want to know how your team spots issues in production. Can I ask you one question?
“Not interested.”
→ Fair enough. Can I ask what you use for monitoring today, so I know whether this is even relevant?
“We already use another monitoring tool.”
→ That's common. How many different tools do your engineers check when something breaks? If it's more than one, that's usually the gap we help close.
“Just send me an email.”
→ Sure. Who owns monitoring on your team, you or a DevOps lead? I'll send something short for the right person and follow up next week.
Competitors worth knowing
Dynatrace, New Relic, Splunk, Grafana
Interview tips for this company
- Learn what 'monitoring' and 'observability' mean in plain English, like a dashboard that shows how healthy your software is.
- Datadog's posting talks about hard problems and being highly motivated. Show curiosity and drive, with a story about learning something difficult.
- Expect technical buyers, so be honest about what you don't know and offer to bring in a colleague.
Written from public information about Datadog to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.