[nmyk]

I find these types of questions invaluable as an interviewer, at least for mid-level to senior roles. And you're right, I am looking for an actual story, not just the lessons learned.

The problem with just asking about lessons learned is that anyone can memorize and rattle off a set of best practices they found in a blog post somewhere. That doesn't tell me whether they have relevant experience or not. Asking to tell me about a time when X happened and how they dealt with it cuts right to the chase, and I'm afraid there's a big difference in a response that comes straight from memory and one that's fudged or invented. The initial story might be great, but most people visibly struggle to keep inventing answers to probing follow-up questions about what happened. ("Did you consider Y as a solution? Would it have worked in this case?")

I sympathize, though - it's not like our brains have all our work experience indexed and readily available. The interviewer's choice of X is crucial. If the prompt is too specific, most candidates genuinely won't have a good answer. Too general and it won't help select for this role in particular.

An incidental nice thing about this type of question for candidates is that it can give them a sense of what this role at this company is actually like without their having to ask. I often even phrase it as "One of the challenges we're facing as a team is X. Can you tell me about a time when you faced something similar?" The discussions that follow tend to tell me loud and clear whether the candidate is a fit for the role.

Now, although I'm claiming fake stories are easy to spot, I don't know what I don't know. It's possible someone has taken me for a ride and I ended up giving them the 'strong yes'. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If you're able to craft a sufficiently detailed fake story and talk about it off the cuff for a while in depth, then you probably have enough relevant experience anyway!

[sally_glance]

As an interviewer I also like that kind of question for warm-up - but I ask it with context. Usually I would get the candidate to go over his previous employers/experiences and when he mentions one I find interesting I take note. Later I will come back to that and ask for an interesting story at that place. Doubles nicely as mini-vetting for his/her bio as well, if the position given was exaggerated the story will usually show it.

[Wowfunhappy]

I can't say whether this would help GP, but as someone who also struggles with these questions the main thing I'd ask for from the interviewer is time to think. I may need to pause for a solid 60+ seconds to go through my memories, please don't take that the wrong way.

[AyyWS]

I agree 100%. Also write down your star answers before an interview. I had 3 pages (took ~12 hours) of STAR stories/answers before anyone asked me a question.