My First Interview Experience: Product Design Internship
Recently, I started my internship as a Product Designer at PineLabs. I have received numerous inquiries about my interview experience for this role, so I have decided to document and share it with those who are interested.
Before I begin, I’d like to introduce myself. I am Datta Velivela, UX Designer or Product Designer, whichever the label you prefer. Now, let’s proceed chronologically.
- Online Application
- Round 1 — Face Time Interview with Product Designer
- Round 2 — Face Time Interview with Product Manager
Online Application
Before applying for the opportunity, I reached out to organizations that aligned my learning objectives. However, All of my cold emails are full of rejections or they are not hiring Interns or no response.
I came across another opportunity posted in a community, so decided to send another application as the responsibilities of the intern was looking mature. Of-course another application!
Round 1 — Face Time Interview with Product Designer
After a couple of days — I received a call informing me that my application had been shortlisted and I was scheduled for an interview.
During my interview with a product designer at Pinelabs. We took the time to get to know each other and he was curious about the story of ending up as a designer.
How did I get into design?
Why design?
Whoever is reading it, I would like to share that design is not my destination as I explored metrics. Now I’m curious about how PM works and sets metrics with stakeholders. Of course, it’ll take a lot of time to get there.
During the interview, I was asked to present my visual design projects,— of course I knew I have nothing apart from personal designs. I showcased few of my best work.
After showcasing, Here is the challenging part — I was asked to pick three good projects in the entire Figma file and why it is good — of course, it’s a pain for a designer or at least myself to select the designs.
However, I decided to share three of the projects.
My first UI project: Yeah you can imagine — how worse it can be. But that was the design that helped me to get a lot of actionable feedback which helped me to push myself to learn.
Hackathon project: I designed a responsive website for the mobile version. The reason behind sharing it is because that was the first time I worked asynchronously as a designer and it is a 36-hr hackathon — so I need to be quick and also provide a design that is feasible for developers to code in rest of the time.
After this, My interviewer asked about my design process
Being honest — I ended up saying “Every Design process is bull*hit”, I know this might backfire but I have the following reasons
- I never worked in an organization that follows a design process.
- Looking at online case studies “ Many of the designers don’t even know why they are using a “Design Thinking” or “Double Diamond” or “why Double diamond over design thinking” or any other processes.
I never understood what is the reason behind choosing a design process one over other.
All I know is “It is a lab experiment, where the teacher sets a goal (business metrics) and we students use titration to reach the desired x color (by solving user needs) so we can achieve the goal.”
I shared my reasons with my interviewer and we continued our discussion for a while.
Round 2 — Face Time Interview with Product Manager
A few days after my initial interview, I received a call from HR announcing that I was selected for a Round 2 interview. Again, How did I get into design? Why design?
This call is divided into 2 parts,
First, I walked him through my research case studies and he shared actionable insights that I can work on further.
Second, We picked up a problem statement and brainstormed over it, I shared my perspectives on solving the problem and he shared how would he go about solving the problem.
we continued our discussion for a while and then moved to questions.
Questions!
Of-course, I have many questions about the role and decided to ask. I shared that I’m more curious about how research works, the responsibilities of a product design intern, and how likely a product design intern can work on research.
He mentioned “You won’t do everything that you see/do in the case studies”
“You do what is needed”
You won’t always start with a problem statement or a user interview or persona”. There will be existing data or sometimes you need to research to validate the findings or you’ll be learning about how competitors are doing.
Ofcourse, A huge takeaway!
Apart from that, Here is something I learned.
Apply to get an interview not to get a job/internship.
An interview is a place you decide whether you want to work with the company or not because of various reasons such as pay, culture, and maturity of design. Likewise, companies as well — they decide whether you are the right fit or not for them.
Special Thanks to
EverydayDesign community for being part of my design journey which helped me to learn more about design with the help of folks and be consistent.
Also would like to thank Hackerabad for being part of my journey which made me a confident person and learn in public and networking.
Thanks to my dad for always motivating. I’ll work hard, will keep learning.
I’m always up for a chat 😃, happy to have a conversation.
Thank you for reading!
Your time is highly appreciated.
If you want to chat or collaborate on a project, feel free to connect with me on Linkedin, Instagram, & Twitter , or email me wdattavelivela@gmail.com.