Find your next design talent: findings from Invision’s report

No more cheesy intros on Linkedin. Hooray.

You’re the first designer on a structure that is condemned to scale? Your design side-project should be your future team.

Then, you’ll be confronting the first boss of the startup game, finding humans to work with you.

And you’re playing it in veteran mode. Three hearts, a wood shield, no armor. Meaning: not the most attractive salary package, the minimum non-working days, no foosball. Just a mission, a drive, and awesome humans around you.

A little help is not a luxury, and it came from Invision’s latest report.

Here it comes, my top findings from the report and observations on the field on how to prepare and find my future design mates. Let’s go, shall we?

Talent gravitates towards a great culture.

Being stoic when approaching recruitment is a pre-requisite. So, on what do you have an impact?

Weapons are given: Almost everything you have to offer came from your direction, you have to join the battle with what you have.

But there’s something your future co-worker value, sometimes even more than the salary, and you have something to do with it.

It’s culture.

Employees want to feel that they’re creating exciting, impactful work at a culture-forward company.

May have a distinct and adopted culture, or maybe you don’t have one. No matter if you’re mature on it or not: investing in culture is always a good idea. You have more impact than you think.

Be strategic: Ask your employees about their motivation to join the venture. And invest time and energy in this specific argument.

Lead culture amplification projects: create or contribute to publishing research, a community event, a free course, or open-source an internal tool. Or enable your teammates to develop if they aspire.

Create value aligned with your principles.

If you don’t know what your principles are, start by leading a workshop to define them. And if your company has its beliefs and culture, ask yourself what it means for a design team.

Outreach is the new recruiting.

Job boards need a redesign. HR practices aren’t aligned with today’s needs.

Job offers are memes at this moment. They are asking for too much without having a real understanding of our jobs, for example.

I was recruited in the smoothest way for my dream job. Why? Because it was human first.

People estimates relationships and human-to-human connections. A job is tedious and counter-intuitive when a human experience with a mission feels right.

No more pushy mass inbox messages, outreach authenticly. Remember that you find a co-worker that will spend the majority of your awaken time with before finding who will do the job, filling the job offer.

Focus on giving value. I’ve seen the rapid adoption of podcasts to create relations over meaningful discussions. No matter how outreach often and with a good heart.

Show me your sketch file; I will tell you who you are.

Interviews should be a design project of its own, too.

Portfolio reviews to design exercises, there’s much to think about. Being intentional and mindful about the process should be a pre-requisite.

Asking for a portfolio is something that can is standard in our industry, but it’s time-consuming and stressful for the candidate while we don’t add that much value. I’ve seen well-crafted portfolios that don’t say that much about the candidate abilities: soft and hard skill-wise.

Focus on what is available in your candidate’s hand, and can say much of his profile. Review the final product to discuss the overall strategy, design principles, the tests to check the design process, and, ultimately, my favorite: working files.

This is where the gold mine of information is.

Working files tells a lot about the thought process, the organization, and the capacity of collaboration. Go for it.

A designer design. You shouldn’t let something around your reach in the hands of the status quo.

Attracting people to your mission shouldn’t be easy; you have to put intent, time, and attention to set up everything. Start early, start with what you can do, one stone at the time to build the foundation of a great team.