Hiring your company’s first (product) designer
I believe it will be safe to assume that the company is in early stages? of what could be an agency/business that develops product for other companies or, your own product idea for a startup.
The method for reviewing portfolios and picking the product designer may vary based on the vision you have for the company and the decisions you’re making for the company related to culture, growth, future, or immediate need. Knowing your own position will help in finding the right product designer who may support not just with designing the product but each step of the way while designing your business. Once you have a really good hold of the stand of your company and its vision, the questions will ask themselves and the portfolio judgement will happen through a blink. I don’t think one can rely on a fixed set of portfolio review resources or fixed questions to find if the designer was a right fit. The final call will more or less be through an experience of having worked with them, with an inclination towards someone who you’d enjoy working with. Having said this, here are a few things I believe I would evaluate to help with reviewing portfolios and preparing for in-person interviews while hiring my first product designer:
Whether I want to induct someone to lay foundation for design sensibilities and capabilities right from the formative years.
This would require someone who can convince, negotiate, who knows the value of design and cares enough to convey this to everyone around, in the best way too. This person knows not just the skills of product design but also knows about laying the foundation for design culture to germinate. He/She is passionate about the craft of design and its impact on other areas of the company such as Tech, Marketing, Finance, or even HR. Their portfolio or introduction touches these aspects. The way this designer talks and the vision s/he oozes even through the first interaction will define them as the one.
Do I have clear expectations from design or I’m figuring that out.
If I’m still figuring, I would require a designer who is willing to experiment and can handle straight and curve balls alike. And asking them about their experience of a similar situation from the past(even if it’s in a different context) would be helpful. They have to be dynamic and willing to change based on what the journey calls for. It’s good to be clear about this proposition from the start and hear what they have to say about it. Do they have a beginning thought or are they stumped to hear about the crystal expectations.
In case the expectation is clear, I only need to know what kind of skills would be required to achieve that. I’ll need to weigh the portfolio for its current strength and the improvements coming future would bring.
Do I give a high importance to building a relation or will I be more focused on getting the work done.
Ex. would I like them to be a part of my inner circle who I could spend time with at a bar after work? Or would I only meet them at office and talk about the goals. Will I be able to share my frustrations and elations with them? It’s true that this kind of relationship forms over time but for someone this might not be a part of what they want from of a work relationship. I could ask them questions to judge their opinions about life and how they like to create their social circles or what their working style is. I could ask them how closely they see their life and work integrated. The more closely they can see the two integrated, the better relationship can be formed with them. On other hand, I could be the person who is more upbeat about what can be achieved together and the how our skillsets complement each other, instead of also investing to build a life together. I will make a choice accordingly.
Am I okay with natural organic growth or do I need faster growth and results.
This is not really a viable questions since the obvious choice is faster growth and results. However, what needs to weighed here is — what I want from the business and what it costs the company and myself. A designer who could promise much faster growth may come at a higher cost, culture and control to the company. Their portfolio will showcase similar success stories, or learning from the failure which could turn things around for their next project. Their take from the company will be very different from the talent that I can bet on for future.
Am I looking for someone to partner with my vision, or deliver me out of my most immediate design requirements.
This pointer in a way overlaps with many pointers covered above and yet it gives a definition and clarity to look at design candidates none of the above ones do. To look for someone who I can share my vision with and let them run with it requires me to give them the freedom and a channel for accountability to lay foundation for design, to be able to find a way even on the path of least clarity and definition of goals, to be able to build a relation beyond transactional act of work and to be able to form an understanding about the pace of our growth that it will affect us alike. This can only happen through a most genuine form of conversation with that designer, one who gives a sign that s/he understands vision and everything else that they have to stand together for. There has to be an open talk about this passing of baton. On the other hand, you may know at the back of your hand what this product designer’s first day at work will look like. To get the most pressing need out of the way that none of your team members can skilfully navigate out of. Whether it is creating an MVP, or to ship the first set of feature by the end of the week. In this case you’ll know what to test them for.
If it so happened that you come across a person who can buy your vision and you resonate with how they can contribute to your work — there’s the best match which will go long way and goals will set themselves. You will both work together to figure out how the growth comes about whether it is in the next 3 mo, or a year, or 5 years down the line. I say this also so that you don’t miss someone great just trying to find a person who would fit to a fixed metric that you used to interview them.
The best match will be realised only once you’ve had a chance to work with them, so give them a real problem, which could be something you’d like to have solved for your company now and let them come back with solution offerings. And I’m sure the way they stand in front of you and present it to you, you’ll be able to tell who your first product designer will be.
Hiring a first of the product designer can be daunting and I believe the best knowledge of where we stand can help us set our own measurement to who would be the best fit.
P.S. Product in title is in brackets because the same would mostly be true to hiring a first designer in general. Right?
