The head of UX at ChooseEnergy.com, Michael Owens, discussed with the world's best designers how to choose the best designer from all the candidates. We publish key aspects of the discussion.
Find good designer difficult. Very difficult. Although almost every company needs them, there are no established ways to evaluate candidates. Many managers themselves have extensive design experience, but the same cannot be said about their managerial skills.
Recently, Remind's lead designer Lindsay Mindler asked in a post how to build a team. She received excellent advice, including from very experienced design managers. She was told who exactly should be hired and where to find such specialists. The discussion was excellent, but left one question unresolved:
“We found a bunch of designers applying for the position. How can we choose the right one now?”
Jonathan, my friend, and I are part of a dim sum (Chinese snack food) group run by John Maeda of KPCB. Over time, our Sunday meetings of design team leaders began to move from Chinese restaurants to Slack. Of course, a virtual conversation cannot replace a personal meeting, but this way you can involve many more specialists in the discussion. Once a week we host discussions about careers in design. Each meeting is led by a new pair of professionals. A month ago, it was me and Jonathan Lieberman, the chief designer of Operator.com, who were interested in discussing the methodology for hiring specialists in our field.
Hiring Criteria
The assessment of a candidate designer is based on a number of criteria. They seem to fall into two main categories: criteria for everyone in general and criteria specifically for managers.
Communication skills for everyone
We kept coming back to presentation skills, but MyFitnessPal Design Director Dave Young reminded us that “presentation skills are important, but can sometimes be misleading.”
This is important because it is an indicator of how a person communicates, but memorized speech should not be confused with live communication. To find out whether the candidate is capable of improvisation, he can be interrupted with questions. The ability to present the results of one’s activities well is important for collaboration within the organization.
Erica Hall, founder of Mule Design:
“You need to look at how the candidate presents the work, how he poses the problem, how he sees his role in the project. This allows you to evaluate not only the quality of the solution and design skills, but also personal qualities - whether a person will fit well into an interdisciplinary team or whether he sees himself as a lone wolf narrow specialization».
Quote from Peter Chow, Vice President of Inkling.com:
“It can also be helpful to watch the candidate present the design to a group of spectators and pay attention to the progress story.”
For everyone - problem solving skills
These skills were mentioned even more frequently. Jeffrey Wien, now in charge of product development at Adobe, once wrote that “good design is problem solving.” Most design team leaders are fully aware of this, as the participants’ responses showed.
Bob Baxley, chief designer at Pinterest, offers an interesting trick. To see how a candidate breaks down a solution into its components and examines the conditions, all it takes is one question:
“I am ready to give you one of two superpowers. It will stay with you for the rest of your life, and no one else in the world will have it. The ability to fly or invisibility - which will you choose?
Enthusiasm for everyone
When assessing a candidate's key design skills, be sure to make sure they really, really want the job. The effectiveness of a specialist is his interest plus professional skills.
Jonathan Lieberman:
“I don’t want to hire a person who came for a salary. I would like the candidate to be interested in solving the problems we are working on. If there is no enthusiasm, a person will not give his best. And it will have a bad effect on the whole team.”
Responsibility for everyone
One of the qualities that can be very difficult to assess in an interview is the ability to take responsibility, including when working in a team. It is worth paying attention to how the candidate describes his personal contribution to the projects in which he took part.
Lindsay Mindler:
“It is useful to interrupt the presentation from time to time with questions that require thoughtful and detailed answers. This will allow you to understand whether the candidate is skipping some details simply because they seem obvious to him, or is avoiding talking about some part of the project that he does not understand enough.”
Bob Baxley:
“Often, the client is blamed for a poorly chosen decision, without being able to explain his point of view and the reasons that led to this result.”
When it comes to an experienced designer, it happens that there is no doubt about his professional skills, and recommendations become an important evaluation criterion. They allow you to get other points of view on the applicant's work, in addition to his own.
Apple designer Johnny Manzari:
“When it comes to a candidate for a senior specialist position, there is usually no reason to doubt the required skills, so test items are not required. Then we immediately move on to the portfolio and recommendations.
When weighing recommendations, it can be useful to ask the recommender about his relationship with the candidate, shared experience work, and also ask how he evaluates the prospect of working with this employee in the future.”
For managers - a guide
When hiring a design team manager, it is important to hire someone who will be able to lead and provide ongoing contact with development or production. Every team needs a leader, and if yours is large enough to require a manager, it makes sense to take the time to evaluate the candidate's leadership skills.
Head of UX Development at Google Stefan Klocek:
“Look how he works. If this is a manager, pay attention to how he manages the creation of a design: what questions does he ask, what does he focus on, does he know the business or only knows how to lead others?
Assessment methods
So, the candidate evaluation criteria have been established. What are the mechanisms? During the discussion, we identified three main methods: portfolio analysis, panel interviews (when the applicant is interviewed by several specialists at once) and test tasks.
Portfolio assessment
When examining a portfolio, it is important to understand that a designer's abilities are not entirely characterized by results. But by seeing these results and hearing the story of how they were achieved, the employer can get an idea of how the candidate sees problems, how he organizes his work process, and what can be expected from him.
Stefan Klocek:
“We need to figure out: what was the role of the candidate in specific work, what justified this or that decision, what had to be sacrificed, what the project taught, what would the designer have done differently over time?”
Almost everyone believes that a designer needs a portfolio, even if he is not involved in the visual side of the project. Those who hold a different opinion, as a rule, did not say so directly. Rather, they pointed out the shortcomings of certain types of portfolios. For example, many designers deal with various kinds of interactivity, and then a portfolio consisting of screenshots is obviously not enough. It is best to ask the candidate to show live, working projects.
Erica Hall:
“When it comes to creating interactive products and services, a regular portfolio is almost meaningless. It’s like giving an Oscar for individual frames from a film.”
IN lately high-level portfolios began to shift towards analysis practical examples, and not just a collection of works. As a rule, in this case, it talks about the process, ways to solve the problem and what difficulties were encountered.
Panel interview
This is usually a key stage of hiring, and often the decision is made based on its results. Organizing such an interview properly is quite difficult, and this is the most important task for the HR manager.
The composition of the panel also needs to be selected wisely. Some design managers advocate their own dashboard for each position for which a specialist is being sought, others are supporters universal approach. Remember that consistency is important in this matter. Change the composition of the panel from candidate to candidate - bad idea.
Jonathan Lieberman:
“I put together the same panel for every open position. I need everyone who evaluates a candidate to be thoughtful and consistent. For designers who do not participate in the panel (and our team has grown to 10 people), there is a “bench” - they lead the candidate to lunch. This way, they also meet him and feel like they are part of the process, even though they are not directly present at the interview.”
In Choose Energy I have put together several panels for different types vacancies. Some members of our team belong to several panels, others only to one. It is important to ensure that people directly involved in the assessment of a candidate can make a tangible contribution to this assessment. Collaboration is not only about creating a product, but also about the hiring process.
However, be careful not to overdo it during the panel interview. Stefan Klocek noted that very often, when you go through several successive interviews, “you are asked the same questions or are driven through your portfolio over and over again.”
Others cite candidate fatigue in subsequent interviews. In general, everyone agrees that 30 minutes for one interview is too short, and an hour is too long. My final in-person interview panel lasts four hours, broken up into four 45-minute interviews.
So, what does a hiring manager discuss with a candidate during an interview? This set differs slightly from company to company, but it can be boiled down to four important aspects:
- Career prospects
Most often during interviews they ask about long-term career goals and goals for the specific position for which the candidate is applying.
Bob Baxley:
“Let's imagine that three years later we're back in this room and you say you're leaving. You quit your job, come home, and write a 3-5 bullet point list of your experiences at the job for your LinkedIn profile—what you did and what you learned. What kind of list will this be?
Dave Young:
“What would you like to see on your fitness tracker profile in two years?”
Jonathan Lieberman:
“What are the top three lessons you will learn from working at Company X?”
It is difficult to tell from an interview whether a candidate works well with other people. Something can be learned from descriptions of previous experiences working together and resolving conflicts. Many people arrange sessions with several applicants during a panel interview - just in order to learn more about these qualities of the candidate.
Bob Baxley:
“At a previous job, we would choose an interesting site or application that none of us had ever dealt with before, and together with the candidate we would discuss and criticize this project. This good way understand cultural characteristics, interaction chemistry and group dynamics without endless tests.”
- Design Thinking
It can be helpful to ask questions about difficult aspects of design. This way you can evaluate the candidate’s approach to the problem - especially if the question concerns the tasks that he will have to solve in this position. Some interviewers like to give candidates small tasks during an interview to evaluate their design thinking and at the same time understand how a person works in a stressful situation.
Peter Chow:
“The task is a proposal to come up with new product from scratch, on the board. The task has nothing to do with the work of our company. I give them a description of the consumer/customer and play their role if questions arise. It is convenient to use the same task with different candidates - a basis for comparison appears. I asked all of our interviewers to come up with their own questions - for the same purpose. I try to make it an enjoyable exercise, I like to see people engaged in the task.”
Head of UX Development at CloudPhysics Uday Gajendar:
“Here, too, it is important to interrupt the work with questions, including those that require rather detailed answers. When discussing results, I often discard natural limitations and difficult situations to see how a person reacts and adapts in real time, which is very important in a startup.”
Test tasks
As mentioned, many participants like to give design challenges during panel interviews, but it's worth noting that the concept of test challenges itself has become a hotly debated topic.
Dave Young:
“It’s interesting to watch people dig into the problem, figure out the constraints, the business objectives, the success criteria, the context, the user scenarios, and begin to understand the user.”
Jonathan Lieberman:
“This is good material on which not only the interviewer can evaluate the candidate, but also the candidate - the team in which he will work.”
On the other hand, some believe that such tests may be harmful or inappropriate corporate culture their companies.
Stefan Klocek:
“Given the current state of the market, a talented specialist with a good portfolio may be deterred by the need to do test task».
Erica Hall:
“We never use design tests. This does not fit with the style of our work, in which the solution of a problem is preceded by deep research.”
Mike Davidson:
“One man told me how he received automatic mailing with the wording “Please complete our test task. If the result satisfies us, we will review your portfolio." This sounds offensive. It also happens that you are asked to work on own product companies. In general, tests are not required, but if they are needed to select a candidate, give preference to those that do not apply to your product. However, we don’t use them on Twitter.”
- Is it necessary to give a test task?
It is worth remembering that the candidate’s opinion of your company depends on the decision you make. Some employers think that this is good, because it eliminates insufficiently motivated candidates, others think that this way they can miss out on an excellent specialist. As I noted during the discussion, although there are candidates who really want to get into your company, most often, other things being equal, they will take the path of least resistance.
BetterWorks Designer Randall Hom:
“It’s a way of asking, ‘Do you really want to work here?’”
Fitbit designer Analia Ibargoen:
“I once really liked a vacancy, and I was afraid that if I didn’t do the test task, I would seem not interested enough, but at some point I doubted their working methods, and I didn’t have time, so I decided not to do it at all "
- What should the test task be?
If you still think that a test task is necessary, you need to decide what it will be. There are a lot of good creativity assignments online, but very few that test design skills such as design skills. The work of a designer can include a very wide range of tasks. So first you need to decide what kind of technical specifications you need.
Some believe that technical specifications should be as close as possible to real work, and even create tasks based on their own cases.
Uday Gajendar:
“We choose one of our own cases because we are looking for a person to solve real problems, and not some fantasies and problems of other markets. In addition, it is also useful for the candidate to understand what he is facing, so why mislead him.”
Jonathan Lieberman:
“I like it when a test assignment continues something you've already been working on. This allows the candidate to step away from his ideas and come to the best solution, and also gives him the opportunity to “recover” if he gets nervous in the process.”
However, not everyone agrees with this. Some designers believe that a test assignment associated with the hiring company can be construed as "free work" and, even if the candidate is not hired, his ideas, wittingly or unwittingly, may be used by the interviewer. To eliminate this aspect, many (including me) adhere to the rule that the test task should not be related to the candidate's future work.
Lindsay Mindler:
“We give the candidate a board, a marker, and a problem that is unrelated to our objectives and yet has more than one solution.”
Bob Baxley:
“At a previous job, we would have collaboration sessions where we would pick an interesting site or app that neither of us had worked with.”
Johnny Manzari:
“When compiling test tasks, we follow two rules. First, it must be small and clearly defined so that it can be done in a few hours. Secondly, it should not be related to our intellectual property“I don’t want people to think that we are trying to get the result of their work for free.”
- What does the test task check?
The answer will depend on the vacancy for which it is intended. Hiring a specialist for visual design, you can outline the contours of an imaginary product and ask to make a sketch. When it comes to interaction design, it might be worth coming up with an online store with a known poor conversion rate and asking them to improve it. Information designer - provide tables with data and formulate theses that need to be accompanied by a visual presentation.
Let the task format correspond to the daily responsibilities of the position for which the vacancy is open, but it is also worth at the same time trying to understand the boundaries of what is possible for the candidate. This shouldn't be an easy task. It is better to make sure that time for it is running out and after several planning errors it is impossible to complete the task on time. Both a completely unfinished task and one completed much ahead of schedule can tell a lot about the applicant; It is also worth paying attention to which part of the problem the designer chose to solve in limited time.
- What should be the evaluation criteria?
The design manager will have to hire more than once, and even to select one person, you need to look through many candidates. The advice from many managers was to use standard criteria for everyone so that applicants can be adequately compared.
Peter Chow:
“The same task for all candidates allows us to compare their train of thought and approach to the problem. I've found it helpful to ask everyone the same questions and see how the answers differ. Sometimes, over time, I analyze how well designers cope with challenges, and usually it turns out that I was able to assess their abilities quite accurately.”
Jonathan Lieberman:
“Standardized assessment criteria are extremely important because they help establish a common point of reference.”
The need for standard criteria was pointed out by many of the panellists. This approach allows you to compare candidates and also helps predict their performance in the workplace. You can give applicants a test task or just ask questions, but let them be the same questions, let the process be the same for all candidates - in this case it will be easier to make an informed decision.
Kern Type, the kerning game
What it checks: the makings of a type designer
Interface designer Mark McKay created a game that we wouldn't recommend for overly irritable people. The task is to align the interletter space, getting as close as possible to the original. Later, you can compare your version with the ideal one and calculate how accurately you completed the task on a 100-point scale.
Real or Photoshop
What it checks: ability to distinguish processed photographs
For Photoshop's 25th anniversary, Adobe offered to look at 25 photos and determine whether they were processed in the program or not. Thus, the creators of the test demonstrated how much Photoshop influenced our perception of the world, attitude towards creativity and authenticity.
How Well Do You Know Your Logos
What it checks: knowledge of logos
Time magazine's interactive test tests not only your trained eye, but also your drawing ability. The player needs to reproduce 10 as closely as possible famous logos, among which are Apple, McDonalds, Chanel and Toyota.
KOLOR
What it checks: sense of color
If you do not have vision problems, then you will probably distinguish green from red. But can you find the right green among 10 virtually identical shades of green? As the creator of the KOLOR test, Jorge Moreno, found out, this is much more complicated than it seems at first glance.
Pixactly
What it checks: sense of space
Nearly surpassing Kern Type in complexity, Pixactly tests how well you match the given pixel parameters with the real space on the screen - 30 pixels may be three times smaller than it initially seemed.
The Bezier Game
What it checks: mastery of Photoshop
The Bezier Game tests your mastery of the Pen Tool (The Pen Tool) in Photoshop and offers to select a given shape, having a limited number of points in stock. Simplicity is deceptive: from level to level the figures become much more complex. A Rare Example of a Test That Brings Almost Immediate Benefit (and which can, for example, be recommended as a work assignment).
Shoot The Serif
What it checks: attention to fonts
The simplest test in the collection turns out to be insidious. It seems that even people who are far from working with fonts are able to distinguish a font with and without serifs - but when there are more letters and fonts are less familiar, it is very easy to make a mistake.
Interviewing a job applicant is not an easy job. And often a lot of stress for the person being interviewed. During the interview, a variety of questions are asked, often unexpected for job seekers. And if you can prepare in advance for some general questions, then it’s definitely worth doing. Several years ago, conversations about user experience began among designers and marketers, and around the same time arose new profession– UX designer. For recruiters, this profession is still a mystery, since it is not always possible to formulate the right questions for the person who will be designing the user experience. UX does not have specific outlines, it is difficult to put it in the form of a portfolio, which is why problems arise during interviews. However, there are seven basic questions that help you understand whether a person is suitable for the position of a UX designer or not.
What is UX design? Can you talk about how user experience design is created?
This is a general question that is best asked at the very beginning of the interview. It helps to find out whether the candidate has an idea of what UX is and how it should be created. You need to understand that the answers to this question can be very different. The interviewer may completely disagree with the applicant's point of view, but in the case of UX, this does not mean that he is right.
What answer would satisfy a recruiter? Although this is a general question, it is better not to give general answers to it. A job applicant needs to find a specific definition that will show in which area of UX he is a specialist. If a person who really understands UX design comes to an interview, it will not be difficult for him to explain the principles of creating user experience using the simplest examples. If a designer starts throwing around jargon, it makes sense to interrupt him and ask him to talk about UX in a way that even a ten-year-old child can understand.
There needs to be some structure in the answers to the question of creating a user experience. Here's what a UX designer should talk about when attending an interview:
- User audience research
- Ease of use of the product
- Information architecture
- User Interface Design
- Interactive Design
- Experience Strategy
Useful advice. The applicant needs to focus on a definition of UX that is rooted in empathy and an understanding of how important design is to people. A significant part of a UX designer’s work involves collecting and analyzing feedback, so this is worth emphasizing.
What is your design process? Describe the design methods you use
What will this question help you find out? First of all, how experienced the applicant is. If he already has successful UX cases, he will be happy to talk about them.
A designer who wants to talk about his design process should start by describing typical approaches and describe how well those approaches have worked in his past projects. In UX, as in other types of design, there are basic principles and the applicant should be aware of them. The story about design methods should be consistent: the idea, the possibilities, the process, successes and mistakes in the work, and, finally, the completion of the project. The story must be accompanied by specific examples, any action of the designer must have a visible effect, so these answers are very important for the interviewer.
Useful advice. It will be very helpful for a UX designer if he touches on such aspects of the work as:
- Audience research. Methods that were used and why it was decided to use them
- User portrait. What was the process of defining the "character". How many categories of potential users were identified during the research process?
- User flows and route map
- Prototyping and prototyping tools
- Metrics and analytics
Describe your approach to working with other designers? How do you interact with developers and managers?
This question allows the interviewer to understand whether the applicant will be able to accept the cultural code that exists in the company. Design is a team effort and a UX designer must know how to most effectively convey his ideas to other specialists who are working on the project with him.
For the UX designer himself, this question is one of the most difficult. The fact is that each team member looks at the project from his own point of view and the designer needs to be able to find the right approach to each specialist. It would be best to talk about the ability to understand the motives of each team member's actions. Developers, product managers and designers will bring their own expertise to the project. original ideas and if the applicant shows that he is able to listen to them all, the chances that he will get the job will increase significantly.
How to determine what functionality a product needs?
What does the interviewer need to find out? He needs to understand how creatively the designer thinks, whether he can make the right decision if he has several options at his disposal. This is very difficult question, since in this case everything depends on the context. If we are talking about software, then we can talk about how a minimum viable product is created.
In case the product already exists, the recruiter should focus on the basic principles of promotion. Before moving on to discussing specific functionality, you need to know how business goals and user needs are combined.
Useful advice. The UX designer in this part of the interview must show that he has a good understanding of what the user audience is and what goals users pursue. You should also go into detail about the functions and describe how important this or that functionality is and what user problems it solves. At the same time, we must not forget that any product is created for a specific purpose, most often to make a profit, so when talking about the value for users, we must not forget about business goals.
Tell us about a project you are most proud of
By asking this question, the interviewer can find out what the strengths and weaknesses applicant for a vacancy. This part of the interview is quite easy, it allows you to take a short break and talk about pleasant things. However, answering this question will tell the interviewer a lot about the UX designer. Talking about your most best projects, he will demonstrate how creative he is and how he interacts with other team members.
Useful advice. It’s better for a UX designer talking about his successes not to get carried away, since the interviewer asked this seemingly simple question for a reason. The point is that he can get a lot of valuable information without asking anything directly. So it’s better to describe successful cases truthfully and not exaggerate your own contribution to the project. Since the question does not mention UX, during the story you can touch on various points that are somehow related to creating a positive user experience.
Tell us about projects that had UX problems
This is not the most pleasant question for a person attending an interview and the interviewer needs to ask it as tactfully as possible. The question is very important because it allows you to understand whether the designer is able to critically evaluate his work. Most applicants will be evasive, but that's okay.
Useful advice. If a UX designer wants to get a job, he should never be told that he has never had a failed project. Errors and problems accompany any work and you need to take it calmly. What matters most is how the designer deals with challenges. An ideal answer for the interviewer would be one that provides an honest example of a bad case, telling why something went wrong and what was done to correct the mistake.
What trends do you think will dominate UX design?
This question allows you to understand how well the designer understands the development of UX. There is no doubt that new trends will constantly appear in this area and the designer must be prepared for future challenges. What answers should you expect? At a minimum, the designer should talk about new prototyping tools that will help simplify the work of developers and other team members. The applicant can also mention simplifying the design and increasing its accessibility for all categories of users.
Useful advice. If a UX designer can speak convincingly about trends in interface design, as well as developments in areas such as augmented and virtual reality, he will demonstrate that he really thinks about the future of UX.
Instead of a conclusion
It may seem unusual that this list does not include the ubiquitous question “Why should we hire you”? The point is that a UX designer may not have the answer. This is a new profession in which there are still no exact criteria for assessing a specialist. A designer can tell a lot of interesting things about himself, but he can only understand how valuable he is as a team member once he starts working on the project.
Recently, as an exercise, I took part in the Affinity Mapping study. - Approx. ed.) with the participation of volunteers. His goal is to create a survival guide for the HCI master's program at Georgia Tech. While classifying the guiding principles of career development, I came across a question from a respondent:
“What do companies want in UX designer candidates?”
As soon as I saw it, I felt like I was asking exactly the same question my first semester when I was applying for UX design internships. I tried to find articles on the topic, read discussions on UX forums, and talk to design professionals, but these efforts clarified little to nothing. While I was studying hard, I didn’t have time to dig deeper into this issue. And then I never found out what qualities a candidate should demonstrate during an interview for the corresponding position.
Finally now, in my second year of graduate school, I have overcome this stage of uncertainty. Own experience Interviews with several companies allowed me to take a definite position on this issue. I realized that each company that interviewed me had different expectations and different criteria for evaluating candidates. There are many factors that come into play during an interview: the team that is interviewing you, the potential project you will be working on, your skills, the company culture, position, experience, the skills of the person interviewing you, and so on. All these factors set the evaluation criterion. In this article I will share what I have learned from my interview experience at Google companies, Apple and Salesforce.
The information I share is solely based on my experience and my point of view. Of course, candidates' experiences may vary.
Google - Interaction Designer
Google has been ranked as the best company to work for by Fortune for the sixth year in a row. Over the past year alone, the company has grown many times. In addition, Google has a regular practice of hiring UX/Interaction Design interns for a variety of projects: from Daydream (VR platform) to Project Sunroof(saving potential analysis solar energy). I passed the interview and found out what Google values the following characteristics:
#1 Curiosity and desire to learn new things
Stay up to date with what's happening in the design world
UX design is a young and dynamic field that is constantly seeking to redefine itself. Design teams from established companies and designers working alone constantly contribute to the design community by experimenting and standardizing new patterns. I think it's incumbent upon young designers to make every effort to keep up with the recent boom in our industry. From my experience, the knowledge gained in school is research oriented and limited to courses. I find it very helpful to set aside time each week specifically to explore the world of design today.
My personal selection of useful resources:
Work with designers/developers from a wide variety of backgrounds
UX design is a field where you will find people with a wide range of knowledge from related disciplines and beyond. Take for example the program in which I study - we have students from the departments of computer science, data science, psychology, marketing, industrial design, literary media, animation, graphic design and more. Being able to work in a team and listen to others is an ability that becomes a key differentiator for a successful UX designer. I am happy that the university provides the opportunity to work together with talented students from a wide variety of fields - this is not to be missed. The more you work with people with backgrounds different from yours, the more perspectives open to you, and this path only leads to one result - you become better at UX design.
How to achieve this?
- Enroll in cross-curricular courses with other majors. They are especially good if they involve a collaborative project that lasts an entire semester. This will give you the opportunity to work closely with masters and graduate students of a different profile, who have a completely different perspective on the project.
- Take part in hackathons! I understand that most participants come with a specific team that they have already worked with and trust. However, I would suggest trying the unknown at least once! Create a team right at the event, with people you've never met before. In this process, you will learn to trust strangers, communicate effectively, and work together to solve a problem. Seriously, try it once and then share your impressions in the comments.
- What latest design trend do you find appealing?
- Why do you think it is popular?
- How does it affect the user experience?
- If you had a chance to tweak this trend to make it even better, what would you do?
- How do you keep up with the latest design news and trends? What do you learn in the process and how do you apply new knowledge to your practice and approach?
- While working on [your portfolio project], what new tools did you learn to achieve better results? How is this tool different from others in our industry?
#2 Learn to do a critical design review
Why is this important?
Criticism can be comfortable
Google places great emphasis on facilitating effective collaboration. Google's Aristotle project took two years of research to understand how an ideal team works. The main key to its creation is psychological safety. Team members should feel comfortable voicing their opinions. It's worth accepting criticism as an integral part of a productive design process. I like this tweet from Adam Connor:
“Criticism is the basis of collaboration... Criticism is not a design skill. Criticism is the most important life skill,” -
Adam Connor, designer at MadPow.
An increasing number of teams around the world are making critical sessions a standard practice in the design process. It is invaluable to be able to criticize other people's projects and to digest and accept criticism addressed to you. It's worth practicing.
Questions to prepare for the interview:
- Were there any challenges you faced as a team while working on [your portfolio project]? What was the difficulty? What did you and your team members do in this situation? How was the situation resolved?
- Imagine you work at Google. One of the employees came and told you to change the color of the button to yellow. What will you do in this situation?
- What do you do to get feedback and get outside opinions on your projects? How do you analyze feedback? How do you take into account the feedback received?
More: Google UX Internship Application Process
- Google has a strict submission deadline. I would recommend applying early - this gives recruiters more time to get to know your profile and move on to the next stage.
- If your portfolio is selected, you'll be included in a pool of applicants from which teams at Google looking to hire interns can choose.
- Next, you wait for a letter inviting you to an interview. The number of interview rounds depends on the team.
Apple - UX designer
Needless to say, Apple is very selective when it comes to hiring design interns. You're unlikely to find intern positions on the site, but that doesn't mean Apple isn't looking for them. From my own experience I can say that best way Log in to the hiring system - attend Apple campus events and submit your resume in person. It is through such events that an orderly recruitment process is carried out. Below I have described the aspects that the Apple team noted as the most important in my interview:
#1 Critical Thinking
The Apple team wanted to know everything from why I chose a design to the opacity percentage of a particular button. In the Research Methods course, I acquired the firm belief that:
Good design is based on good insights
How should I prepare?
- Document your project process. Record what the choice of a particular research method was based on, what the results were group discussions and what the results of the data analysis were, what ideas you came up with, and why you prioritized it the way you did.
- Tell your friends who work at the project about the project related fields: UX designers, developers, product managers. Ask them to be brutal and give honest feedback on how you describe your project. Ask them if they understand the problem you were facing and if your solution seems appropriate to them, if the logic of each of your steps is accessible. Their honest response and possible criticism will help you prepare for the unexpected.
Questions for preparation:
- Why did you conduct this particular study? What did you learn from him? Why did you decide to include this particular user base in the study?
- How did you get from the prototypes to the final design? Why did you use this particular design tool? How does it differ from others in the industry and why did you choose it?
- Were your hypotheses confirmed? What did you learn during the course of this song and after its release?
#2 Design Research
Designers at Apple have quite a lot of responsibility because they have complete control over their project. Despite having weekly statuses with other designers, you will still have to make most design decisions on your own. Therefore, during the interview, it is important to find out how much time and effort you devote to the problem, project and research before settling on a specific solution. Be sure to tell us about the research conducted during the project. This will show that you are thorough in finding a solution. Documenting the process will help a lot here.
Questions for preparation:
- Are you exploring non-technology solutions?
- What workflows have you learned to successfully meet the challenges of your project?
- How did you search and explore approaches and design options for a specific component on the page?
Additionally: Apple Internship Application Process.
- Attend an Apple campus recruiting event (even if it's not for your group) and talk to someone for the position you're interested in. Tell them you're very interested in the UX Design Intern position, offer to show them one of your portfolio projects, and of course, leave your resume.
- If any team is interested in you, you will receive an email from the recruiter with further instructions.
- You'll likely have two rounds of interviews with designers where you'll discuss your portfolio and design challenges in detail.
Salesforce - UX Designer
In 2017, Salesforce was ranked #4 on Fortune's "Best Places to Work for Millennials" and #8 overall. I interned there this summer on the Customer Experience Tools team as a UX designer and received an amazing new experience and knowledge. This is what they wanted from me during the interview:
#1 Self-motivation will help you gain broad knowledge about design
Salesforce's UX team has played a huge role in improving the user experience of the company's B2B products. It's amazing how cool this design team is in its segment (enterprise). I'm a big fan of the Lightning Design System. This tool really brings convenience, aesthetics to enterprise products and makes them accessible. Salesforce UX certainly still has a number of aspects of the product where designers haven't had a chance to get their hands dirty. But they are constantly working on the product, expanding it, and it is for this reason that they look for designers who are happy to take the initiative in different projects. Designers who have broad skills in designing for web systems, mobile applications, data visualizations, etc., will be an organic addition to the company. There really is an opportunity to do different types of projects and it makes you flexible and teaches you a lot. I've been impressed by the company culture at Salesforce and I really feel like I belong Ohana(every Salesforce employee is a member of a family that is connected to others). I've met with many design teams this summer, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness and mentorship I've encountered here.
Questions for preparation:
- What is your backstory and why did you choose to design?
- What did you work on during your design internships? What have you learned?
- What areas of design have you studied? How exactly did you research them? Tell us about projects in these areas?
- Tell us about one project from your portfolio and what conclusions and knowledge did you come to as a result?
Optional: Design Internship Application Process.
Interview with a Senior Designer on the CX Tools UX team - the conversation focuses on general knowledge about design and the details of your portfolio. CX Tools Team Manager Interview - This is where the focus is on finding out your skills to place you on a specific team and clarify your role within it.
Conclusion
I talked about the criteria for evaluating candidates during interviews at Google, Apple and Salesforce. I think they can be extended to many other companies. But again, UX is an ever-changing field, and the needs of the discipline itself and companies may change over time. So best advice- have a confident base, monitor what is happening and adapt.
Thank you for your attention and good luck!
If you're looking for a job as a designer, at some point during the interview, or even before the interview begins, the magic words "test assignment" may be uttered. Personally, this seems very strange to me. I can understand when it comes to a person with absolutely empty resume, but if you have some experience, a portfolio, the employer looked at it, invited you, you came and spend your time answering all the questions of interest, then the person on the other side of the table has comprehensive information to make a decision whether you are suitable for the job or not. Do you have enough experience or not? Why you need to take some other “exams” for professional suitability on top of everything else is not clear.
Someone will say that the employer is taking a risk and wants to hedge his bets. But for this he has, among other things, probation. What is the risk if within 3 months (or even more) you can be thrown out of work without explanation?
Another nonsense is that the task is usually final, after a thorough study of the resume and an interview with the candidate. At the same time, I have never encountered a situation where, after completing a task, for example, the probationary period is removed or shortened. Or a higher salary is offered for excellent performance.
It seems to me that this question most often arises in 2 cases:
- The person from the other end of the table is not very smart. Not only is he unable to ask the right questions and make a decision based on all the information received, he does not respect your time, he considers you a priori some kind of freeloading student who is apparently trying to deceive him and suck all the juice out of the wonderful “dream company”.
- They are just trying to use you. Under the guise of a test task, they give you a completely real job, but they don’t plan to hire you at all. Moreover, this can be either a certain “style” of work of the company as a whole, or simply the ingenuity of an individual employee. It is especially easy to snag tasks when you are a representative of a company with a well-known name.
- If you have almost no experience and an empty portfolio, you are new to this field, and the employer’s doubts are quite understandable, but the test task itself is quite abstract, will not require more than 8 hours of your time with lunches and smoke breaks, and is definitely not related to desire to use you for free.
- The test task is paid. After all, it's essentially the same job. Therefore, you may well say that, ok, I will estimate the labor costs, divide the salary that I am asking for by 160 (working hours per month with a 40-hour week), multiply one by the other, and issue an invoice. If you are willing to pay for it, I will take on the task. After all, any work must be paid, and you value your time. Let employers value him too, because this is exactly what you are trying to negotiate - you have experience and personal time, the employer has tasks and money.
- The task is simply incredibly interesting and unique, and you have a lot of free unpaid time.
Now clinical cases from personal practice. If you come across something like this, it will definitely not lead to anything good.
- There is no charge for the test task. For many, this will be a revelation now, but in general, this is work that takes time and distracts me from my main activities, therefore it must be paid.
- The assignment is sent on several sheets (my record is 7 A4 sheets) in small print, consisting of items with extremely vague wording.
- It is proposed to complete the test task online, on Skype, sitting in front of the bright eyes of the employer.
- The test task has nothing to do with future work - for example, they sent me a mountain of tasks for usability specialists for the position of a designer.
- “You are DEFINITELY suitable for us, BUT we will only hire you after a test task.” (Well, take it, since I’m up to it, and give me any tasks, not necessarily tests.)
- The test task is aimed at solving a specific problem of the company. I did this once, after sitting over the solution and thinking it through well, in the end the result was quickly implemented on the company’s website one-on-one.
- There was also a case when a good test task was sent with a bunch of corrections, almost in red pen, with a request to work more and send the final result.
- There is a strict ban on using the results in your portfolio.
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