Thank you for making mastering product design interviews happen
A shout out and thanks to all the readers, the commenters, editors and contributors!
When I first started my career in design, I was ok at the work but terrible at interviewing. Although it didn’t stop me from applying to jobs, it didn’t get me very far either. Years later, when I ended up in the job market — I knew I had to do better. Instead of jumping at the first opportunity available I slowed down — where did I want to end up? Will this next job move help me get closer to my career goals?
After two months of interviewing I had a difficult decision to make. Where do I go? After a flurry of activity I ended up with three amazing offers with great companies, strong teams, and interesting problem spaces. I hope you too will have a similar choice to make and that’s why I wrote this interview guide.
A few months later I ended up on the other side of the table — interviewing multiple designers, sometimes up to three a week. It was painful to see good candidates struggle. Maybe they were great designers but the portfolio left many questions unanswered or they got crushed by the whiteboard. Or they got lost in the app critique.
It didn’t have to be this way.
From a candidate’s perspective it might seem like the interviewer is an adversary—an opponent to overcome. But that’s not the case at all. Think of them cheering for you. Because the good ones are—they want to see you succeed in the interview, they want you to come in and solve the problems they’ve been dealing with.
As interviewers we also want to learn something new—show us how you vanquished those gnarly design challenges in your job. The stronger the signal you can give us the better. This is why recruiters establish the criteria upfront and field candidate questions about the interview process.
But sometimes that’s not enough.
That’s why I wrote this design interview guide. I want to “give away” the answers so that you’re aware of what to expect in each phase of the interview. Good candidates shouldn’t be turned away due to technicalities.
A big thank you
When I sat down to write the series, quite frankly I didn’t see it growing to 30 articles. At roughly 8 minutes each that’s about 4 hours reading, enough to fill a book. Of course I couldn’t have done this series without you — the readers, editors, writers and everyone who helped out.
Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback along the way. I’m especially indebted to my friends and industry colleagues who I’ve hounded for weeks. You were generous with your time helping me improve my writing. There was a certain point where I was writing so much that even they couldn’t keep up with my articles.
A special big thank you to Angela Liu who provided detailed feedback over the course of the series.
A big shout out and a heartfelt thank you to the folks at UX Collective — Caio Braga and Fabricio Teixeira. Not only did the series find a new home on a dedicated page but I also appreciated the kind remark about the series from Fabricio. Those words made my month. Thank you Fabricio!
The adventure continues
Today many great resources exist for designers to level up their craft. Yet few resources exist on how to manage one’s design career. How do you manage the journey of the work itself? There are so many aspects — from ramping up on your job, to navigating projects and relationships, to ramping down and starting a new adventure with your career vision in mind.
In the next chapter, we’ll take a closer look of how to not only get better at interviews but also develop your meta design skills — how to practice better, how to become a stronger design contributor and more.
In the meantime I’m working to expand design interviewing resources further. If you’re interested in new and updated content—follow me here.
Thank you to everyone who contributed, you made this series so much better!
Here’s to the New Year and new adventures!
