From a candidate: thoughts on UX design challenges
There has been a fair amount of discussion recently on design challenges i the UX hiring process, from how hiring teams can best use them to evaluate candidates, to how job seekers should best approach their execution.
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There is no doubt that giving a hands-on pseudo-assignment can be an effective way to determine how a potential employee works, thinks, and approaches challenges, how they leverage potential collaborations, if they can think on their feet, and if they are likely to be a good fit with the rest of the team. From an employee perspective, design challenges also provide some information about a potential employer, and depending on the type of challenge, can be a fun way to meet the team and get a feel for how they work. And since we need not forget that evaluating fit goes both ways during the hiring process, a design challenge can give us candidates a decent sense of whether this team is one we’d be happy spending the large part of our days with.
But there are good design challenges, and there are the not-so-good. Bad design challenges are bad for both sides of the hiring process. They waste job seeker time, and they will keep the best designers out of the candidate pool. A good design challenge can take many forms, whether it’s performed in person during the interview or prepared ahead of time and formally presented to the team. The most fun challenges may involve a collaborative process, and the most interesting will prompt a solution to fascinating problem. But good challenges all occur as part of a discussion between team and candidate, and both parties should find some value in the process.
I don’t know if I am a minority, but I genuinely enjoy design challenges. I love a good puzzle, and relish the opportunity to jump into solving an interesting problem without real-world constraints. But I also have a limited amount of time, and need to choose how to spend it wisely. So please use design challenges conscientiously and respectfully of the time you are asking your candidates to invest.
From the perspective of a potential employee, here are my sincere pleas to hiring design managers:
1. Please don’t ask me to invest time in a challenge before we have even spoken. I am a conscientious job seeker and a good designer. I want to do a good job on the work that I produce, and will take your challenge seriously. But that requires time and energy, and I do have a day job. Before you ask me to spend precious evening hours on your design challenge, please take the time for a phone call so both of us can get a sense if this is position is likely to be a good fit.
2. Please don’t ask everyone to do your design challenge. Clearly as a candidate I am not aware of all factors going into your search process, and don’t know how wide a net you need to cast. We are not married yet, and I have no claim to exclusivity. But it is disheartening to learn that you sent that same challenge that I just poured my best work into out to 50 other people, just to see what you got back. A design challenge should be a more selective invitation, not a general casting call.
3. Please don’t ask me to do your job for you. A design challenge should ideally cover neutral territory, and not focus on the same type of work your company does. You may feel that a realistic project will allow the best glimpse of how an applicant works in your domain, but a design challenge is inherently not a real-world scenario, and from the applicant’s point of view, it can be deviously difficult to tell if a company is really looking to hire, or is casting a creative net for free ideas.
4. Know that the best candidates may opt out. If I am offered a design challenge as a first step of a hiring process, before even a phone screen to explore general compatibility, I am going to take a long look at the company and at the challenge to decide if it is worth the time and energy required to produce a quality solution. And my response is likely to be “No, but thank-you” if a small company asks me to spend a week designing and coding a solution to a problem specific to their product.
So there it is. I am not one to debate the merits of a design challenge, because I do believe they are useful, and as a currently job-seeking designer, I approach the task as a fun creative riddle to solve. But the experience is much more likely to be mutually beneficial if job seekers approach the challenge with creative conscientiousness, and if hiring companies present the challenge with full respect of the time and creative energy they are asking of their candidates.
