Product Design Interview Survival Guide

Hey guys! I know it’s been a while. That being said, I believe I have gained some insight into the Product/UX/UI Design interview process that may be valuable if you are beginning your job search process, and what you can expect. Let’s go!

Key Players

So, who can you expect to talk to, and what are they looking for? What will they want to talk about?

1. Third-Party Recruiter (maybe)- Sometimes a third party recruiter will contact you about a job they are working on. These interviews are very basic. They have briefly gone over your resume, but this screener chat will be to learn more about your background. Their goal is usually to determine whether or not you are a potential fit for the company before actually submitting you for the job. They may also ask for references if they do decide to submit you.
2. Internal Recruiter/HR (probably)- The first round, more often than not, is a 20–30 minute phone call or Zoom interview with the HR person. They will ask about your prior experience, but most of the questions are behavioral. They want to see if you are a culture fit. Of course you’ll get the classic “tell me about yourself.” question first, followed by questions like “tell me about a time you were successful on a team.”, or “how would your colleagues describe you?”. Be honest about what you know, but of course you will want to tailor your answers to the job description. Do your homework on the company, what their mission is, what they care about, and how they work. Don’t go to a solo designer interview and talk about how your main priority is collaborating with other designers. You get the picture, right? Like I said, this call is usually pretty short and easy to get through as long as both parties feel that your missions are in alignment. Remember to ask thoughtful questions at the end of the call.
3. Hiring manager (always)- Sometimes, especially with smaller companies or start-ups, we skip the HR/Recruiter portion of the program altogether. Other times you’ve made it past HR (yay) and have sailed right on through to the hiring manager. This person could be the UX manager, lead, or even the CEO. Whatever the situation is, this is your moment. This person will ask both behavioral and technical questions. They’ll have you go over your relevant experience and ask you questions about your design process. My number one piece of advice here is to come prepared and do your research on this person. Look at their LinkedIn. Do they have a blog? Read it! Find commonalities between the two of you and bring it up. Tell them about something they’ve done that interests you. I know this interview is nerve wracking, but people want to work with you partially because your personality helps them be able to picture you with the company. Try to keep it conversational. Another thing I’ve found is that I tend to hate silence, so when a question is asked of me, things just come out of my mouth. It’s ok to think about your answer before blurting something out. Ok- that one might just be me. Lastly, sometimes you will be asked to present a case study. Always, always ask what you should have prepared before coming to this interview. I have found that they are more than happy to let you know what is going to be expected. Again, ask thoughtful questions to wrap up the call. Maybe ask about how the team collaborates, what attributes someone should have to be successful in this role, etc.
4. Design challenge- If you were not asked to present one of your case studies in the previous round, this is when a design challenge is usually given if you are selected to move forward. This can vary, though. Sometimes in lieu of the challenge you will have another interview with the hiring manager and some Design Team members to present a case study for this round. I know design challenges are a bit of a point of contention in our community, but I’m not here to dig deeper into that. It’s not a hill I want to die on. I will say that my preference is to have a meeting already scheduled to present my challenge before actually doing it. Often times the hiring manager will give you a prompt and a time frame to complete your challenge. Always turn it in early! Just trust me on that. My preferred medium for presenting my findings- Google slides. Feedback from the team should be welcomed and appreciated. Consider it a design critique. Side note here- there is a lot that goes in to a design challenge. I will probably write a whole separate blog post about how I tackle them. PS- I have never been asked to do a live whiteboarding session. This is probably because it is difficult to do virtually.
5. Meet the team- So, you’ve made it through your case study or design challenge presentation! YAAASSS! What’s next? Well, it depends. If you didn’t meet the design team already, you might be asked to set up meetings with them. You could meet people who aren’t designers, I’ve talked to Developers and even Marketing at this point as well. Devs will want to know how you prefer to communicate with their team, and how you hand designs off. Other teams will want to know how you work and get an understanding of what collaboration would look like with you. No matter who is involved at this stage, it should absolutely be conversational. They most likely are not going to be asking intense technical questions, but you never know. Make sure you have questions to ask them, as well. How does that Developer prefer to communicate with Designers? What attracted you to this company and what do you love about working here? etc.
6. Big Boss- It is at this point that you will probably talk to somebody in charge. CEO, CTO, CDO… Lord or Lady of Design... ya know. If you’ve made it this far just be yourself, you’ve already nailed the hard questions. Tap into your inner sales person and sell yourself as the best person for the job. Once again make sure you research this person so you have something interesting to talk about. They may even be selling you on why you should join the company. Try your best to think of this as a conversation- like I said, you’ve made it this far. Keep in mind that you most likely won’t be having money talks, but it could happen. That’s a subject for another day.
7. OFFER- Congratulations, you made it! Think about it for a minute before picking up the phone. Now is the time you’ll have to talk about money, (ugh), so consider what you’ll do if the offer is below what you were expecting or are comfortable with. Talk to somebody who’s done this before and get some tips on how to negotiate. If all goes well, YOU DID IT! You can officially unsubscribe from all those job notifications you are following, and stop crying yourself to sleep every night. I’m just kidding, I hope you’re not doing that.

I want to point out that this is all just my personal experience, and that there have even been times where the interview process was just talking to one or two people if the company was small (I have a thing for start-ups). However, this process seems to be pretty common. Remember to follow up every single interview with a Thank You note, and don’t get your heart broken if you don’t make it to the finish line. There are so many of us right there with you during this extremely challenging time. Keep your head up, you got this, and you’re worthy of landing the job of your dreams. It will come.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you got something out of this. I love connecting with other designers and people in the tech industry! Please feel free to connect with me or reach out and say hi.

Emma Coulthard - UI/UX Designer - Blockshop, Inc. | LinkedIn