Mastering Product Design Interviews
Assessing your product design skills
Use this framework to evaluate your strengths and growth areas
The beauty of product design is that it’s a role that requires a combination of multifaceted skills (craft, collaboration) and the right mindset.
It might seem overwhelming at first to realize how much there is to learn but the good news is that no one is expected to master everything. Even if someone hypothetically did — they wouldn’t have the time to get it all done.
This natural constraint is a good thing as it allows you to focus on mastering a couple of skills that are in-demand and that are meaningful to you. As a designer you have to think about ways to creatively combine your skills to synthesize, identify the right problems and solve them efficiently.
Skills self assessment
It’s easy to progress at a skill in the beginning but it gets harder to get to an advanced level and even harder still to become an expert. That’s ok. Not all skills are important all the time and your needs and industry focus will change.
What’s important is to be explicit about what you know, where you want to go and what’s important to you. This mapping of skills (as objective as it can be) is the first step of getting there by being honest with yourself and where you stand now and where you want to be.
There’s more to being a great designer than having a collection of skills of course. In short, an “expert” designer at an individual contributor level is someone who can identify the right problem, solve it efficiently and deliver high quality work which leads to an outsize impact for the organization.
It’s important to prioritize which skills are important to you. As you’re going through the lists below and thinking of specific skills (e.g. typography) think about the following,
- How important is this skill to me?
- Where do I want it to be?
- What skills do I want to develop next in my career journey?
- What skills play to my strengths and interests?
- What combination of skills will help me stand out as a designer and make an impact?
If this skill is meaningful, take a best guess at a self-assessing yourself (better yet — ask somebody who’s great at it),
- Novice (1)—you’ve read some books or articles on this skill but haven’t had the opportunity to practice it yet.
- Beginner (2) — You’ve done some work, you’ve collaborated with others or under somebody’s guidance on this skill, altogether you spent less than 100 hours practicing.
- Intermediate (3)—You’ve applied this skill at work and been able to come up with shortcuts and quick ways of accomplishing the task.
- Advanced (4)—You’ve experienced this skill in multiple contexts and have mentored and taught others, you gave them actionable feedback and helped steer them towards developing their own workflows.
- Expert (5)—you are a well known authority on this topic. You have either taught university courses on this skill, you’ve written books or you’ve organized and keynoted conferences talking about this topic.
Model for skill evaluation
Different models exist out there to map design skills. It’s a rough science and more of an art. IDEO for example, popularized the T-shaped designer — someone who has deep expertise in one or two areas (e.g. Interaction Design and Research) but has broad knowledge of other areas (e.g. Service Design).
Other companies (especially mature organizations) value deep specialization (more of an I than a T) while smaller orgs (like startups) prefer generalists. No matter what company though, organizations value three main things when it comes to design,
- Craft — what we typically think of design, getting the work done
- Collaboration—getting work done with others
- Mindset—your thinking and reflection behind the work
We’ll dive into each of these deeply, starting with craft first,
Wanna learn more?
Learn all about UX and Product Design skills in my latest book—Land Your Dream Design Job published by Holloway, a premier destination for the hottest books in ech.
Land Your Dream Design Job is a comprehensive book about landing a product design role in a startup, agency, or tech company. It covers the entire design interview process from beginning to end, and will arm you with techniques and strategies to navigate the (at times) turbulent waters of job searching with confidence. This book will help guide you to a role that plays to your strengths while providing enough support for professional growth.
You’ll learn:
- What skills are expected of designers
- How to demonstrate those skills throughout the job search process
- How to identify your next opportunity
- How to target your job search process to stand out
- How to build a stand-out portfolio and tailor it to your dream opportunity
- The ins and outs out of various design interview types from portfolio presentations, whiteboard challenges, app critiques, to take home design exercises and many others.
You’ll also find in-depth advice on how to apply beyond the job boards, and how to conduct due diligence, negotiate compensation, and accelerate onboarding to your new role.
