Why People Sucked at Product Designer Interview
People who didn’t bring laptop or tablet to show their work. People who jumped straight to show the hi-fi design, without any brief about the challenge and problems they’re trying to solve, not to mention any collaboration with other stakeholders or user validation process. People who didn’t admit their mistakes. People who talked by themselves, instead of having a conversation. People who kept throwing design keywords without showing anything. Some people might get nervous, I got it (some shared that they had browsed my LinkedIn profile before the interview, and it made them nervous). But in any case, that’s not an excuse to not have a structured approach to your design, and to presenting your design in an engaging and easy-to-understand way. Only a few designed with business metrics in mind. Most of them used the terms like industry standard, best practice, and similar words. Using only those industry standard and best practice to come up with the design, to me, means they’re lazy to find out what the actual user needs/pain points and the business goals are, and just blindly copy others. Like Jack Ma says, “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.” Also people who didn’t try to read anything about our product/company, or even worse: didn’t try the product. If we got hundreds of applications for the same role, I wonder what’s their plan to differentiate themselves from others? Just trying the luck? Fortunately it’s always shown during the interview, the determination and passion to get the job. If they’re not passionate about the job, why would we hire them? One more important thing: self confidence. This has nothing to do whether they’re extrovert or introvert (I myself is a total introvert, who prefers a cup of coffee and my kindle over after-office-hour networking session). If they’re doing it right, product design, it’s a tough job. No matter how knowledgeable or skilful they are, if they can’t convey the message well, it’s difficult to imagine how they’re gonna survive. And lastly, personality matters. I don’t like people who kiss a**, you only need to be nice.
What do you think? Share your experience as interviewee or interviewer, so others can learn.
