Recruiting Process and Interview Guides

Considering that there's no activity a Design organization does that's more important than recruiting and hiring, it's shameful how few of them treat this activity with the respect and rigor it deserves. There's a misconception that approaching recruiting with such rigor will cause the process to drag on to long. In fact, it's the opposite: by having clear standards in place, hiring decisions are made more quickly and with greater confidence.

Feel free to adopt as much (or as little) of what follows in your own organization. Throughout you'll see "[Company]", where you would just place the name of your company.

Managing the time it takes to recruit

Hiring Managers’ Role

For each req, the Hiring Manager acts as the architect of the recruiting process, ensuring recruiters and team members understand the role being filled, the qualifications for a candidate, and their responsibilities throughout the process.

Every step of the way, the Hiring Manager engages with their Recruiter to understand status, and their team to make sure they are considering candidates appropriately.​​

Recruiting and Hiring is a Team Sport

Because of the amount of time it takes, Hiring Managers must get their team involved in recruiting and hiring. Team members should be tapping into their networks, reviewing profiles and portfolios, and active in interviewing.

Sourcing and Initial (Informal) Outreach

Sourcing and screening is a collaboration between Hiring Managers, the Recruiting team, and the Hiring Manager’s team.

The Hiring Manager communicates the req to their team, encouraging them to think about who would be suitable for the role, and reminding them of [Company]’s referral bonus.

The Recruiter should be an active sourcer. It may take the Hiring Manager a while to train up a Recruiter in what to look for—companies, roles/titles, descriptions of work, portfolio quality. 

The Hiring Manager should also plan to spend 1-2 hours a week trawling their network, whether through LinkedIn, community Slacks, Dribbble, or other sources. 

As part of the Sourcing process, someone from [Company] will reach out to gauge interest. This could be anyone—Recruiter, Hiring Manager, team member. It will likely be a message or email, alerting that person of the job opportunity, and asking if they would be interested in knowing more, or if they knew someone who would be.

If the prospect is interested in learning more, there are two choices. Some might be ready to formally apply. If so, they should do so, and a Recruiter will follow up with them for the Introduction. 

Others may warrant an informal discussion, particularly if they know whomever reached out. In that case, the Hiring Manager or team member has a “coffee talk,” with the prospect, telling them about the role, what it’s like at [Company], etc., and, hopefully, engage their interest. This is not meant to be a ‘review’ conversation. If the prospect is interested, then they are encouraged to apply and connected with the Recruiter.

Reviewing Inbound Applicants

It’s important that jobs are posted, that job descriptions are well-crafted, and that they are sent out to all expected job sites (LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc.). 

Often, Hiring Managers are dismissive of inbound applicants, because, frankly, most are sorely unqualified. Recruiters should review every applicant, and send any that appear promising to the Hiring Manager. 

Coffee Chats

Some candidates (particularly those found through outbound or other active sourcing measures) warrant a discussion before engaging in the formal aspects of recruiting. “Coffee chats” (which do not need to happen over coffee) are the beginning of a recruiting relationship with a candidate. 

These chats are typically 30 minutes, and are for candidates who are curious, but are not yet ready to formally apply for the role. Typically conducted by the Hiring Manager (though it could also be a trusted member of the team, especially if this person has a prior connection to the prospective candidate), the point is to gauge mutual interest (and, if the candidate appears strong, to sell them on the potential for working at [Company]). 

Coming out of the Coffee Chat, there should be a firm sense of whether the candidate is interested in applying for the role. 

Even though informal, it’s important for the interviewer to capture their notes from the discussion, to aid further recruiting efforts.

Recruiting Introduction

15 minutes to understand candidates' motivational factors, give them some more information about [Company], what to expect, as well as check on things like work authorization. Screen candidate for general fit/interest in line with the role description/needs.

The Recruiter should be setting themselves up as the candidate’s advocate throughout the process. They are the ‘single point of contact,’ for any questions, and will be their guide as they proceed.

Also, this conversation should be kept short (no more than 15 minutes). This is not a screening conversation. We are not expecting Recruiters to make any decisions. The goal is to connect the candidate with the Recruiter and to make sure the HR basics (comp, location, authorization) are addressed. 

Discussion

Recruiter introduces themselves, provides an overview of the role in question, including location requirements. 

Questions to ask:

• Why are you interested in this role?
• What questions do you have about [Company]?
• What are your expectations for your next role?
• What are your compensation expectations?
• Are you able to work in New York City? Would you be willing to relocate?
• What is the status of your work authorization in the United States 

To pass along to the hiring manager

In addition to the answers to the above questions, the Recruiter should also pass along their impression of the candidate:

• Degree of passion and interest
• Communication skills

Also, if compensation expectations are greater than our salary band allows for, don’t necessarily reject the candidate. If they appear strong, proceed with Screen 1, and then figure out if the candidate (or the role) ought to be re-leveled.

Screen 1: Hiring Manager Phone/Zoom Screen

30 minute call or Zoom with the Hiring Manager, this is more of a deep dive into the role itself and for the Hiring Manager to learn more about the candidate. If possible, the Hiring Manager should have a 15 minute buffer following this in case the conversation runs long (in a good way). 

Discussion

Hiring Manager introduces themselves, provides information about their team, and more about the specific role. 

Questions to ask:

• What is your current role and responsibilities?
• Tell me about a recent project that you feel particularly good about…

Possible follow-up questions:

• What was your role on the project?
• Who did you work with? Within design? Cross-functionally?
• How has the product performed? What would you do differently if you were to do it again? 
• How are you situated in your organization? 
  • (Unpack: reporting relationships, cross-functional team relationships, any direction, leading, mentoring of others)
• How would you describe your career trajectory? 
  • (unpack, someone on an IC path; management path; if there are lateral moves or ones that appear to ‘go backwards,’ find out the reasons for it)
• What are your expectations for your next role?
• What questions do you have about [Company], the role, or for me? 

Assessment / Review

Coming out of this discussion, the Hiring Manager figures out if the candidate should continue. 

• Level / experience fit
  • Does the candidate’s experience, and expectation of level, match what we are looking for?
  • The answer to the “recent project” and “how are you situated” questions should indicate their level. The keys are:
    • Direction.
      Have they been managing people who do the work? For how long? How do they talk about their management approach/style?
    • Relationships
      Who their Product Management and Engineering peers are is a clue to their level.
    • Complexity
      Do they talk about their work at a feature level, product level, product-line or multi product level? 
• Resilience, creative problem solving, collaboration, etc.
  • Their story of the recent experience should also help unpack Collaboration/Facilitation, Resilience, and Creative Problem Solving 
    • How did they bring others into their work? 
    • How active were they in planning the work? 
    • How do they talk about relationships with PM and Eng? 
    • How do they talk about the specific design work they do?
  • Through this, we should understand if:
    • they are capable team players
    • they are proactive or reactive
    • they take charge or demonstrate victim stances
    • they exhibit self-awareness
    • they acknowledge shortcomings and have ideas for improvement

If the Hiring Manager deems the candidate worth continuing in the process, then on to Screen 2: Technical Assessment.

Screen 2: Technical Assessment 

30-45 minute Zoom with a Senior IC Designer (Lead / Staff level). Ideally the Designer is in the Hiring Manager’s team, but if there is no one available or qualified within the Hiring Manager’s team, the assessment can be conducted by someone from a different product group. 

The format is a casual discussion on the body of your work, the candidate does not need to be prepared for a presentation, and it’s an opportunity to showcase the candidate’s breadth of skills and work as a designer.

Candidate Instructions

You will meet with one designer for a (30 or 45)-minute portfolio review. They will ask you to walk through a couple of projects that you feel best represent your strengths and skills. You don’t need to prepare a formal presentation, just be ready to show your work. We want to hear about your specific role, and the process you engaged in. In other words, show us the story of the design unfolding.

Along with a demonstration of your craft skills (visual design, interaction design, copywriting, etc.), we seek to understand your mindset and how you approach tackling design challenges, including:

• Incorporating empathy and user understanding
• Awareness of broader business context for the work
• Your relationship to other team members
• How you persuade others of the soundness of your decisions

Interviewer Instructions

The Interviewer begins by introducing themselves, their role and responsibilities. They then turn it over to the candidate to share their work. 

During the share-out

By and large, the candidate will drive this, based on the project stories they have to tell. The Hiring Manager should have made clear the specific skills that are desirable for this role (e.g., what kind of technical depth they expect). To make sure you’re getting the most out of the time you have with the candidate, keep the following questions in mind, and use them to maintain focus:

• What was your role? Who else was on the team and what was your relationship to them?
• Who were the stakeholders for this work? What was your role in engaging with them? What about executives? How did you communicate your work to them?
• What were the goals of the project? How did you deliver on the goals? How did you deem the success of your work? (Don't lead the candidate towards any specific types of answers, but look to see if they talk about the work in a business context, including specific measures of success, or if they talk about it more generally)
• How was user research used to inform the designs? How were you involved in conducting that research?
• What design standards and guidelines did you work within? 
• What role did content strategy and copywriting play, and how involved were you with that? 
• To what level of fidelity did you/your team deliver these designs? Were static comps made, or dynamic prototypes? How were these designs built? (Again, we're not wanting to lead here, but we are curious about the candidate's technical savvy, including whether they deliver production-ready front-end development.)
• How was the design process and approach for the work established? Were they any obstacles or hiccups in the process? How did you overcome them?

When the candidate has finished their stories, if there is any remaining time, ask them if they have any questions for you. When the allotted time is up, thank them for their time.  

The Assessment

Immediately after the session, the Designer should complete their assessment of the candidate, using the Skills Assessment Tool [to be linked]. 

The Decision to Continue

Coming out of the assessment, the Designer should talk to the Hiring Manager about whether  the candidate is suitable to move on in this role, may be better suited for a different role, or we should stop the process with them. 

This is a crucial point in the process, because if we bring the candidate Onsite this means taking up many people’s time. The Hiring Manager should feel that the candidate has a 50+% chance of getting through the Onsite.

Onsite Interview (Presentation + 1:1s)

The onsite interview consists of a Panel Presentation and 4 1:1 interviews. 

Overall Time: 3-4 hours (this can be broken up over back to back days if need be)

Preparation for Hiring Manager

Working with the Recruiter, the Hiring Manager identifies 4 people to take part in the Panel Presentation and 1:1 Interviews. 

The four participants provide a range of inquiry in the process:

• 1 interview with a Design Manager to discuss Planning, Focus, Teamwork, and Collaboration
  • If there is no one in the same role, then get as close as possible
• 1 interview with a Sr/Staff Designer to discuss Design Leadership / Quality
  • This person digs into the candidate’s design process, skills, and creative problem solving in light of the Panel Presentation
• 1 interview with a Product Manager to discuss Product thinking/strategy, and cross-functional collaboration
  • Ideally from the Product Group under question
  • Should be a potential “peer” or one level senior to the role
  • This person digs into facilitative leadership, collaboration practices, and how the candidate brings non-designers into their work
• 1 interview with an Engineer to discuss Technical Acumen, Communication, and Collaboration  
  • Ideally from the Product Group under question 
  • Should be a potential “peer” or one level senior to the role
  • This person digs into technical comfort and appreciation; how they work with engineers and developers

We should be conscious that the panel represent a diverse cross-section of our team.

Pre-brief

Real-time discussion

If this is a new Panel and/or a new Role, the Hiring Manager convenes the Panel for a 30 minute session to discuss the process below, the role, and any aspects of the role that may be non-standard (e.g., a focus on particular skills).

This discussion only needs to happen once per Panel and Role. If the Panel interviews a number of candidates over a couple week span, they only need to conduct this discussion before the first one. 

Email

Whether or not there was a Real-time discussion, the Hiring Manager sends an email to the Panel a day in advance. The email outlines the process below, with who is filling what role, and what is expected of them. 

Candidate Preparation

Before the on-site, the Recruiter prepares the candidate for the day. Through a phone call and follow-up email, they provide instructions for the Panel Presentation, and identify all the people they’ll be speaking with, their roles, and their focus areas for the 1:1s. 

What We Tell Candidates about the Panel Presentation:

You will have a 30-minute time slot to present your portfolio to people who will interview you throughout the day. 

Begin with a brief introduction, sharing a little about your background and how you think about and approach design.

Then proceed with 2 case studies that best demonstrate your design work. 

Along with a demonstration of your and your team’s craft skills (visual design, interaction design, UX writing, user research, etc.), we seek to understand your mindset and how you approach tackling design challenges, including addressing questions such as:

• What was your role? Who else was on the team and what was your relationship to them?
• What were the goals of the project? How did you deem the success of your work? 
• What resources did you use to inform design directions? How did you know you were making good design decisions?
• What design standards and guidelines did you work within? 
• What role did content strategy and copywriting play, and how involved were you with that? 
• To what level of fidelity did you deliver these designs? Were static comps made, or dynamic prototypes? How were these designs built? 
• How was the design process and approach for the work established? Were they any obstacles or hiccups in the process? How did you overcome them?
• Who were the stakeholders for this work? What was your role in engaging with them? 

We recognize that 30 minutes isn’t much time to show your work. That’s part of the point. We want to see how you focus, and use storytelling, to handle this constraint.

Panel Presentation

The Panel Presentation is 30 minutes. Everyone conducting interviews should attend the Panel Presentation. Additionally, other members of the Design team may attend the Panel Presentation, particularly those who have expressed interest in interviewing, but haven’t done it yet. 

The Hiring Manager (or the senior-most designer present) will be the host for the Presentation. They welcome the candidate, and let them know when it is time for them to present. 

Candidates drive the presentation. Feel free to ask clarifying questions, but be mindful of the presentation and the limited time the candidate has. The follow-on 1:1s are for digging in to deeper questions.

After the Panel Presentation, the designers in the Panel should complete the Skills Assessment. 

1:1 Interviews

Interview questions should be behavioral questions—rooted in actual experience, not in hypothetical extrapolations. 

For each role, there are more questions than can be asked in a 45 minute session. The idea is for the Hiring Manager and the Interviewer to identify which are most relevant, and to provide some suggestions depending on where the conversation goes with the candidate.

The key to a successful distributed hiring interview process is making sure each interviewer addresses distinct competencies.   

Interview 1. Themes: Planning, Focus, Teamwork, Collaboration

The interviewer should be a Design Manager, someone who is organized and structured in their work.

This person digs into how the candidate structures and conducts their work, and makes sure they maintain prioritization and focus on what matters. In addition, they delve into relationships and collaboration aspects of the work shown in the Panel Presentation.

Panel Presentation follow-up: Planning, Relationships, and Collaboration

This is the time to dig into questions about planning, relationships, and collaboration practices for the projects shown in the Panel Presentation. Depending on what wasn’t already addressed in the Presentation, consider questions such as:

What was your role? Who else was on the team and what was your relationship to them?

What were the goals of the project? How did you deem the success of your work?

How was the design process and approach for the work established? Were they any obstacles or hiccups in the process? How did you overcome them?

How did you go about establishing relationships at the outset of some work? 

Who were the stakeholders for this work? What was your role in engaging with them? 

Taking the Long View

In the projects that you shared with us, how did you align that work toward a shared longer-term vision?

Planning

Share with me how you estimated and scoped design work, both for work you were doing, and work you were overseeing, and made sure it was delivered in a timely fashion.

What have you considered trying differently in your process?

Relationship Building

Share with me how you’ve navigated organizations and built relationships in order to realize positive outcomes?

Resilience

Share with me an experience where you struggled collaborating with non-designers, and how you overcame it. 

Share with me a time when circumstances changed midway (new leadership on the team; key team member left; new executive direction), and how you addressed it? 

Prioritization / focus

Tell me about how you’ve helped design teams that you oversee and lead maintain a focus on what matters.

Project and Task Management

Walk me through your process when working in an agile/scrum environment. What rituals and practices do you take part in? What have you done when something unexpected arose?

2. Design Leadership / Quality

This Interviewer digs into the candidate’s design process, skills, and creative problem solving in light of the Panel Presentation. The candidate may also refer to other work they did to address these questions.

Panel Presentation follow-up: Design Craft and Practice

This is the time to dig into questions about the craft skills and practices shown in the Panel Presentation. Depending on what wasn’t already addressed in the Presentation, consider questions such as:

In the work you showed us, what resources did you use to inform design directions? How did you know you were making good design decisions?

What design standards and guidelines did you work within? 

What role did content strategy and copywriting play, and how involved were you with that? 

To what level of fidelity did you deliver these designs? Were static comps made, or dynamic prototypes? How were these designs built? 

Who were the stakeholders for this work? What was your role in engaging with them? 

Design Thinking

How did you incorporate an understanding of users into your process? 

How did you learn your design approach and process?

How did you explore possible solutions to the design problem?  

Communication and collaboration with other designers

In the project work that you showed, how did the work evolve through interaction with other designers? What activities did you engage in to support collaboration among designers? 

Innovation

Describe a time when you developed an unexpected solution to a problem that proved to perform better than a more typical or standard solution.

3. Product Thinking and Strategy, Cross-Functional Collaboration

The Interviewer should be a Product Manager, ideally a “peer” to this role, or one level up. 

This person digs into facilitative leadership, collaboration practices, and how the candidate brings non-designers into their work.

Product Thinking and Strategy

How did you ensure that your design work remains connected with product strategy and business goals?

Share with me an experience where you partnered with other functions (such as product managers) to align customer and business goals. 

Panel Presentation Follow-up: Cross-functional collaboration and communication

This is the time to dig into questions about cross-functional collaboration and relationship practices for the projects shown in the Panel Presentation. Depending on what wasn’t already addressed in the Presentation, consider questions such as:

With whom did you work outside of design on this project? 

How did you invite non-designers into your design process?

How did you balance between business needs, user needs, and technical feasibility?

How did you explain your rationale, your decision-making, to non-designers? 

Cross-functional collaboration

Walk me through your best experience working with product managers. 

Communication and decision-making

Share with me a time where there was disagreement about the best way to move forward, and how did you help overcome that? 

Walk me through an experience you had taking input from a variety of stakeholders, and where that input might not be aligned, and still be able to keep things moving forward?

How have you persuaded team members, executives, and other stakeholders of the rightness of your design decisions?  

Domain expertise [for more specialized roles]

Certain roles benefit from a level of domain experience, such as a candidate for Senior or Lead Designer in Developer Experience having worked on developer tools before. For those roles, ask: 

Walk me through an experience you had working on [a specific domain]? What was different about it than other types of design you’ve done? How did you develop your domain knowledge?

4. Technical Acumen, Collaboration with Technical People

Probably conducted by a member of the Engineering team, this interview addresses technical comfort and appreciation; how they work with engineers and developers.

Panel Presentation Follow-up: Cross-functional collaboration and communication

This is the time to dig into questions about technical constraints, challenges, and solutions, as well as collaboration with engineers, for the projects shown in the Panel Presentation. Depending on what wasn’t already addressed in the Presentation, consider questions such as:

How did you work with engineers in the projects you showed?

How did technical matters shape the approach? What platforms or frameworks were you using? How did you address technical constraints that you may not have been aware of at the outset?

Cross-functional collaboration

Walk me through your best experience working with engineers and data people.

Technical Acumen

[Questions to be developed with Engineering partners relevant to the specific technical realities of a product group.]

Interviewer Assessments and Debrief

Interviewer Assessments

After their time with the candidate, each Interviewer should write up their thoughts, and send it to the Hiring Manager and Recruiter:

• Hiring assessment: Strong Yes, Yes,  No Decision, No, Definitely Not 
• In the focus areas you addressed:
  • Rate the competencies
  • Provide notes to explain the ratings
• Any other thoughts

If everyone agrees that the candidate is a “No hire,” then you can probably end the process right here. If this is a new role, and you are still early in interviewing candidates, you will still want to Debrief in order to get a better understanding of interviewer’s expectations, and to figure out why the recruiting Screens before the onsite sent an unqualified candidate through.  

Debrief

Before the Debrief, everyone reviews what others have written. 

The Debrief itself is a 30 minute discussion among all Interviewers. The Hiring Manager facilitates a discussion:

• Ask clarifying questions as needed
• If Interviewers have strongly differing views, try to get at those differences and see if alignment can be found
• Try to achieve consensus on a hiring decision (Hire / no hire)
• If consensus cannot be achieved, the Hiring Manager has the final say

The Debrief may reveal areas of uncertainty or ignorance about the candidate. Often, those areas are best addressed through Reference Checks. [I feel reference checks are the most useful, yet underused, method in the recruiting process.]

Reference Checks

Reference checks are great because there’s no better judge of what it’s like to work with somebody than someone who has worked with that person. 

There are two kinds of reference checks:

• Backchannel
• Proposed by the candidate

Reference checks are used to fill out or fill in what you know about the candidate. Choose whom you want to check in with based on the questions you still need answers to (e.g., if you’re wondering about their leadership, talk to someone whom they have led; if you’re wondering about their cross-functional collaboration, talk to a non-designer they’ve worked with). 

Backchannel reference checks

Backchannel reference checks are when the Hiring Manager or other interviewer asks a connection mutual to them and the candidate about working with that person. You have to be careful about how backchannels are used—if the candidate hasn’t announced their intention to leave their current job, engaging a backchannel reference check could inadvertently reveal information that the candidate wants to keep private. 

The benefit of backchannel checks is that they are likely freer of bias.

Proposed reference checks

Candidates will usually be able to provide 2-3 references. As the candidate is the one putting these forth, there’s already a bias towards favorability. 

This is why it’s important to ask “behavioral” questions of the reference. Don’t ask, “What was it like working with [Name]?” Ask specific questions rooted in experiences. The idea is to get the Reference to simply tell a story of a prior experience, which should limit their editorializing.