UX designers are in demand — more and more people are entering the field every day. This causes companies that are trying to attract, interview, and hire UX designers a number of challenges: 1. How do you keep from scaring off great UX candidates before the interview even occurs? 2. What does your company actually do to evaluate the the candidates that you’re bringing in? 3. How do you demonstrate the same thoughtfulness via the interview process that you hope your UX candidates will bring in their design solutions? With many new potential UX designers coming in straight out of school, or changing careers and coming from another field, it becomes very important for us to accurately evaluate and hire candidates. This requires that someone familiar with the industry  vet experience, review portfolios, and interview. By spending time and effort to come up with a documented hiring process, you don’t fall into a process accidentally and are able to craft an experience that gives a better outcome to everyone.

1. Crafting a UX Challenge
UX Candidates
for Evaluating

2. Chelsea
Soprano
Experience Architect
projekt202
Josh
Christoper
Experience Director
projekt202

3. Like many internal processes, the way companies interview
candidates is often not created with intention.
Start with some:
“This is just how we’ve
always done it.”
+ +
Interviewing
Throw in a bit of:
“HR says we need to
be doing this.”
Sprinkle on some:
“Let’s try something
new and trendy.”

4. Craft the Experience
It’s worth the effort to
Organizations that invest in a strong candidate
experience improve their quality of hires by 70%.
2017 Statistical Reference Guide for Recruiters

5. Looking Deeper Into
Interview Process
Our Previous

6. PHONE INTERVIEW
Candidate
Recruiter
Interviewers
1
Candidate applies
1 1
Receives
application
and does initial
vetting
Practitioner
portfolio
review
APPLICATION
2
INITIAL SCREENING
Portfolio is
posted
internally for
review
3
Candidate is
contacted to
schedule
phone
interview
42
Phone interview
In-person
interview is
scheduled
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
60 min.
Office tour,
introductions, interview
questions, 2-3 people
review portfolio
53 4 6 5 2
THE OFFER
7 6
Offer extended
Hired
Frustrations
• Recruiters
unsure about
what to look for
in a portfolio
• Recruiters frustrated by how
‘picky’ practitioners are
about candidates
• First contact to candidate
and it could have been a
lengthly wait.
• Overlap in questions
the candidate
originally was asked.
• No consistency in
questioning
• Time feels too short
• Poor tracking of info
• Portfolio is rehearsed
and unclear often of
involvement of
candidate
• Portfolio is thin but
see potential in
candidate
• Candidate has
accepted another offer
(time, money, level)
• Trouble remembering
specifics about the
candidate

7. PHONE INTERVIEW
Candidate
Recruiter
Interviewers
1
Candidate applies
1 1
Receives
application
and does initial
vetting
Practitioner
portfolio
review
APPLICATION
2
INITIAL SCREENING
Portfolio is
posted
internally for
review
3
Candidate is
contacted to
schedule
phone
interview
42
Phone interview
In-person
interview is
scheduled
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
60 min.
Office tour,
introductions, interview
questions, 2-3 people
review portfolio
53 4 6 5 2
THE OFFER
7 6
Offer extended
Hired
Frustrations
• Recruiters
unsure about
what to look for
in a portfolio
• Recruiters frustrated by how
‘picky’ practitioners are
about candidates
• First contact to candidate
and it could have been a
lengthly wait.
• Overlap in questions
the candidate
originally was asked.
• No consistency in
questioning
• Time feels too short
• Poor tracking of info
• Portfolio is rehearsed
and unclear often of
involvement of
candidate
• Portfolio is thin but
see potential in
candidate
• Candidate has
accepted another offer
(time, money, level)
• Trouble remembering
specifics about the
candidate

8. Designers should be
able to speak to what’s
in their portfolio in
detail. In fact, it should
be a body of work that
they have been
critiqued by others
multiple times.
They’re
rehearsed
Candidate’s
role in the work
Constraints
happen
UI kits are
prevalent
Portfolio Reviews
Issues with just having
Projects in portfolios
could have many
different designers
involved, what did the
candidate do? Was it a
team effort, could they
replicate the work at a
similar pace?
Did they find an a free
asset or utilize a robust
system tool like Google
Material to assemble
their design? It’s fine if
so, but can they
articulate good UI
decisions or were they
inherited?
We really couldn’t know
all the constraints that
person had to work
within. We often struggle
to find designers that
consistently have the
opportunity to get user
involvement in their
process.

9. 1. Can they articulate rationale for business decisions made along the way?
2. Where was there tension, and how did they compromise?
3. What was the extent of their involvement over the length of the project?
4. What did they do to empathize and understand the needs of the end user?
5. Did it get made, and what was that process like?
Portfolio reviews will always play a
Huge Role

10. PHONE INTERVIEW
Candidate
Recruiter
Interviewers
1
Candidate applies
1 1
Receives
application
and does initial
vetting
Practitioner
portfolio
review
APPLICATION
2
INITIAL SCREENING
Portfolio is
posted
internally for
review
3
Candidate is
contacted to
schedule
phone
interview
42
Phone interview
In-person
interview is
scheduled
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
60 min.
Office tour,
introductions, interview
questions, 2-3 people
review portfolio
53 4 6 5 2
THE OFFER
7 6
Offer extended
Hired
Frustrations
• Recruiters
unsure about
what to look for
in a portfolio
• Recruiters frustrated by how
‘picky’ practitioners are
about candidates
• First contact to candidate
and it could have been a
lengthly wait.
• Overlap in questions
the candidate
originally was asked.
• No consistency in
questioning
• Time feels too short
• Poor tracking of info
• Portfolio is rehearsed
and unclear often of
involvement of
candidate
• Portfolio is thin but
see potential in
candidate
• Candidate has
accepted another offer
(time, money, level)
• Trouble remembering
specifics about the
candidate

11. Based on the context gathered. There were a handful of other
factors that we needed to accommodate for.
We didn’t want to make
the process significantly
longer by adding more
rounds of interviews.
We have to staff up
rapidly, somewhat
unpredictably, and
sometimes significantly.
Whatever we do, HR
says it MUST BE
consistent for everyone
applying to that role.
Considerations

12. Run it like a
Project
2
Create a
protocol/
prototype
Gather
data/context
1
Test it
3
Iterate
4
Launch
5

13. Are they an excellent
communicator?
Do they have a good understanding of
the UX process? Do they value working
on a team that places an emphasis on
user research?
What do we want to get
From the Interview?
Can they present and
defend their work?

14. “UX Hire”
“We” are looking for a
0
25
50
75
100
Qual. Researcher IA 'Rock Star' Design Front-End Dev Business Acumen Experience

15. Some ways to
UX candidates
Scare Away

16. Bean Bag Chairs
Unicorn Scrappy Rock Star
My client, a Fortune X Company…
Artistic / Artsy
Flexible
Generate Assets
Great Environment
Fast-pacedJedi-Mastery
Guru
Ninja
Some Avoidable
Keywords Self-starter

17. After all, this is the candidate’s experience.
What do we want the
candidate to get out of
the interview?
Do they align with the
way we do things? Do
they like it?
Are they getting what
they need?
Oh Shoot!
What about them?

18. Critique & Feedback
Giving good/safe
Ultimate List of Hiring Stats
94% of interviewees want to receive interview
feedback, but only 41% have received interview
feedback before.

19. Critique & Feedback
Giving good/safe
Ultimate List of Hiring Stats
Candidates are 4x more likely to consider your
company for a future opportunity when you offer them
constructive feedback.

20. And so... we decided to make a
Design Challenge

21. … I presented both my portfolio and the exercise
to a panel of designers/researchers for an hour
and then met with each of them in 1:1 interviews
for the rest of the day, breaking briefly for lunch at
the cafeteria. During lunch, a designer gave me a
brief tour of the campus. Each 1:1 interview
included a design exercise and a set list of
questions (to prevent overlap)…

22. Homework is extremely
vague on time
expectations. Asking a
candidate to solve real
work without a time
constraint is spec. work.
Not Homework
or Client Related
Not 1-Sided Not Pass/FailNot A Surprise
Our Challenge
We cautiously crafted
We want people to learn
just as much about us as
we learn about them
during our challenge/
interview. It is a dialogue
not a test. In our case we
gave them mock
research to inform their
solution.
We want to make sure
people know we will be
doing a challenge during
the interview ahead of
time. Interviewing is
stressful enough without
intentionally adding to
that stress.
It is meant to be an
opportunity to speak
deeper with candidates
about their process and
how they work. Often it
helps us rule in
candidates that have a
thinner portfolio.

23. & Consistency
Thoughts about training
Google explains why "Hiring is the Most Important Thing You Do"
“…we have found from our research that it isn't that some people are better
interviewers than other people. It's really the structure and the process that
makes you a good or a bad interviewer. So if you're somebody who can follow
that structure — you can follow instructions and ask good questions and engage
with candidates — then you can be a great interviewer.”

24. Improve efficiency
when anyone can give
the interview.
Create a more consistent
experience between
candidates.
Reduce bias with
documentation.
Consistency, consistency, with a
Protocol
1 2 3

25. Upfront
Let candidates know

26. All the Details
Give the candidate

27. To Choose From
Give them some options

28. Research
Give them the
Kelly Moran
P202 Principal Experience Researcher
We conducted
contextual
research with 24
users (pairing
managers with
tellers at a 50/50
split)…
“
“”

29. What to
Expect

34. In Summary
Design your candidate
experience with intention.
Keep in mind the purpose of
the interview, for both your
team and the candidate.
Do a whiteboard challenge if
it meets your needs. And do it
ethically.
Be more consistent, it’s better
for everyone. A protocol can
help you out.

35. Go out an make your companies better!
Thanks &
Questions?