Preparing for a product design interview
I have been interviewed hundreds of times for projects and jobs throughout my career. One thing that always helped me stand out and get the project or a job was the preparation before the interview.
Welcome to an 🔥explorers-only🔥 edition of the weekly newsletter by Alex’s Camp at the intersection of the design’s interplay with product, business, and technology. Each week I give honest advice and answer readers’ questions on growing a business, advancing a career, and practical tips to help you amplify positive impact.
Prep can help you nail common questions, find a way to answer unexpected questions, and simply sets your brain into interviewing mindset. Even if you spend a few hours, this will give you a big leg up.
From my experience, the preparation process can be divided into two parts:
Research
Practice
Today, I’m sharing some of my personal advice and my favorite resources to help you make the preparation process more manageable. If there’s anything you’d like to add, feel free to leave a comment below 👇
Disclaimer: This guide will assist you in preparing for an interview, but it will not assist you in doing the actual job.
Research
Before preparing for the interview and finding answers to the common questions, I study the company, its product(s), and interviewing process.
Research the company
Visiting a company's website or LinkedIn can help you find the basic information:
What are their mission, vision, and core values? See if you resonate with those.
What did they launch recently? What are the kinds of projects they're doing? See if you find this kind of project exciting and challenging enough.
Who are their competitors? Look at some of its competitors' best practices that this company doesn't use yet.
Where do you think it's going in the next 3-5 years? See if it aligns with your long-term strategy.
Even better if you can find or know someone from the company to give you an honest insight.
"What you become is far more important than what you get." - Jim Rohn.
Use the product(s)
Create an opinion of what could be improved, but don't get into it immediately. This is common mistake designers make when interviewing. They review a product and point out a few areas of improvement. If you're interviewing for a Junior position, it's okay.
Senior designers don't do that for one simple reason — they don't know the context of previous decisions yet. In design, context plays a critical role when it comes to analyzing design decisions.
So, create an opinion about the product, find an area you think could be improved, but hold your opinion until you get more context during the interview and ask questions instead of suggesting changes.
See, the best designers are hungry for questions. Use the opinion you created to build your questions and ask why things are the way they are.
This puts you in the position of power and shows your expertise in making data- and user-informed decisions.
Review common interviewing questions
Analyze the specific skillset the company is looking for and review the most common interview questions for designers. Here are a few resources to help you:
https://www.toptal.com/designers/product-design/interview-questions
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/product-design-interview-questions
Senior product designer interview questions (and how to answer them)
Practice
Nothing prepares you for an interview like actually going to an interview. Stop reading about it, watching videos, and buying courses. Instead, start applying to jobs and practice with real people.
Find a designer who can do an interview with you
There are plenty of design communities with mentors ready to help you with your interview process.
If you are looking for free mentorship sessions, I'd recommend going to ADPList (I help designers for free, but I'm usually booked for a few months upfront).
If you're ready to start and don't want to wait, here are a few places you can find the best mentors:
I also provide paid consulting to help you with interviewing process, review your resume or give feedback on your work. Contact me for more information.
Get an interview coach
If you can't find any mentors or friends ready to help, you can apply to work with an interview coach.
I Got An Offer has a bunch of options to choose from.
I hope this guide helps you better prepare for your next interview. If there’s anything you’d like to add, feel free to leave a comment below and share with others 👇
Sincerely,
Alex 🤙