🌟 UX Job Interviews Playbook
When talking about job interviews for a UX position, we often discuss how to leave an incredible impression and how to negotiate the right salary. But it’s only one part of the story. The other part is to be prepared, to ask questions and to listen carefully.
Below, I’ve put together a few useful resources on UX job interviews — from job boards to Notion templates and practical guides. I hope you or your colleagues will find it helpful.
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The Product Designer’s (Job) Interview Playbook (PDF)
The Product Designer’s (Job) Interview Playbook (PDF) is a practical little guide for designers through each interview phase, with helpful tips and strategies on things to keep in mind, talking points, questions to ask, red flags to watch out for and how to tell a compelling story about yourself and your work. Kindly put together by Meghan Logan .
From my side, I can only wholeheartedly recommend to not only speak about your design process. Tell stories about the impact that your design work has produced. Frame your design work as enabler of business goals and user needs. And include insights about the impact you’ve produced — on business goals, processes, team culture, planning, estimates, testing.
Also, be very clear about the position that you are applying for. In many companies, titles do matter. There are vast differences in responsibilities and salaries between various levels for designers, so if you see yourself as a senior, review if it actually reflects itself in the position.
Useful Questions To Ask In UX Job Interviews
When in the interview, it’s not only the company interviewing you — it’s also you interviewing the company and assessing if you'll be happy there. I would highly recommend to choose relevant questions and have them ready. Not only will they show that you care about your role, but also that you understand what’s required to succeed.
In her wonderful article, Nati Asher 🎗️ has suggested many useful questions to ask in a job interview when you are applying as a UX candidate. I’ve taken the liberty to revise some of them, and added a few more questions that might be worth considering for your next job interview.
- What are the biggest challenges the team faces at the moment?
- What are the team’s main strengths and weaknesses?
- What are the traits and skills that will make me successful in this position?
- Where is the company going in the next 5 years?
- What are the achievements I should aim for over the first 90 days?
- What would make you think “I’m so happy we hired X!”?
- Do you have any doubts or concerns regarding my fit to this position?
- Does the team have any budget for education, research etc.?
- What is the process of onboarding in the team?
- Who is in the team and how long are they in that team?
- Who are the main stakeholders I will work with on a day-to-day basis?
- Which options do you have for user research and accessing users or data?
- Are there analytics, recordings or other data sources to review?
- How do you measure the impact of design work in your company?
- To what extent does management understand the ROI of good UX?
- How does UX contribute strategically to the company’s success?
- Who has the final say on design, and who decides what gets shipped?
- What part of the design process does the team spend most time on?
- How many projects do designers work on simultaneously?
- How has the organization overcome challenges with remote work?
- Do we have a design system, and in what state is it currently?
- Why does a company want to hire a UX designer?
- How would you describe the ideal candidate for this position?
- What does a career path look like for this role?
- How will my performance be evaluated in this role?
- How long do projects take to launch? Can you give me some examples?
- What are the most immediate projects that need to be addressed?
- How do you see the design team growing in the future?
- What traits makes someone successful in this team?
- What’s the most challenging part of leading the design team?
- How does the company ensure it’s upholding its values?
Before a job interview, have your questions ready. Not only will they convey a message that you care about the process and the culture, but also that you understand what is required to be successful. And this fine detail might go a long way.
Useful resources:
A Guide To Successful UX Job Interviews (+ Notion template)
Once you've been through dozens of interviews, you might have a few sporadic notes here and there about the experience and what it's been like, but you could also make it a bit more structured — to have all options on the table when you are evaluating them. One helpful tool to manage that is 🐱 Catt Small 👩🏾💻 ’s Guide To Successful UX Job Interviews.
It's a wonderful practical series on how to build a referral pipeline, apply for an opening, screening, prepare for the interview, present your work and manage salary expectations. You can also download a Notion template. Very useful, and very neatly packed in a Notion board.
The Design Interview Kit (Figma)
Once you are heading in that meeting, you will be asked for examples of your work and the impact you've produced. While the first part is always well-discussed, I would love to emphasize how important it is to show the actual outcome of your design work — be it in terms of conversion, customer satisfaction, retention, acquisition costs or anything in-between. Any metrics you could find, even if it's estimates, would help.
And as you are preparing for that interview, get ready with the Design Interview Kit (Figma), a helpful practical guide that covers how to craft case studies, solve design challenges, write cover letters, present your portfolio and negotiate your offer. Kindly shared by Oliver Engel.
By the way, Oliver has also shared a Product Design Portfolio Presentation template, with 15 page templates for presentation layouts, and very little branding so you can customize it for your needs.
UX Survival Guide
Another fantastic resource is UX Survival Guide, a helpful hub with guides, checklists, articles, templates, lessons and videos for designers — from junior level to seniors, along with portfolio tips and templates for UX job search by Miranda Slayter .
Recommended by LinkedIn
Miranda has both free and commercial templates, and if you can, please support the efforts by Miranda by looking into her commercial offerings as well.
Don’t Forget About The STAR Method
One overlooked point is how to speak about your work when you are showing your portfolio. Interviewers closer to business are likely to expect you to explain examples of your work using the STAR method (Situation – Task – Action – Result), and might be utterly confused if you delve into all the fine details of your ideation process or the choice of UX methods you’ve used.
- 🗂️ Situation: Set the scene and give necessary details.
- 🦸♀️ Task: Explain your responsibilities in that situation.
- 🪜 Action: Explain what steps you took to address it.
- 🎯 Result: Share the outcomes your actions achieved.
The interview is all about how your skills add value to the problem the company is currently solving. So ask about the current problems and tasks. Interview the person who interviews you, too — but also explain who you are, your focus areas, your passion points and how you and your expertise would fit in a product and in the organization.
Never Tell Your Salary Expectations First
Usually it doesn’t take long until a recruiter or HR manager asks you about your salary expectations or estimated total cost in an interview. Of course, you’d like to make a good first impression, and my first instinct has always been to provide a slightly discounted ballpark figure.
Salary isn’t everything, but it is important. Be very careful and strategic when negotiating your salary. If you are asked about your salary expectations, politely decline that question and ask for an offer first. You first need to assess the complexity of the project and the inner workings and expertise of the team; otherwise, your ballpark figure is just guesswork and often an inaccurate one.
Most importantly, never provide a number right away, and defer it to an email that you’ll be sending later. This gives you a bit of time to think and avoid estimates that you might regret later.
Some HR managers will insist on some ballpark figures early. That’s why it’s critical to do your research upfront. Don’t focus too much on your current salary as it might not account for inflation, gender gap, and other costs. Instead, explore what a reasonable salary for your role is and for your level of experience in your region — with Glassdoor, Teamblind and similar sites. You might even increase it a bit to leave enough room to negotiate later.
Even with these preparations in place, though, always avoid exact numbers and provide a range that feels comfortable for you. In fact, a good way of pricing your work is by asking yourself what salary would make you enthusiastic enough to be heavily invested in the product and deliver your best work.
💠 UX Job Boards
Wrapping Up
A final note on my end: never take a rejection personally. Very often the reasons you are given for rejection are only a small part of a much larger picture — and have almost nothing to do with you. It might be that a job description wasn’t quite accurate, or company is undergoing restructuring, or the finances are too tight after all.
Don’t despair and keep going. Write down your expectations. Job titles matter: be deliberate about them and your level of seniority. Prepare good references. Have your questions ready for that job interview. As Catt Small says, “once you have a foot in the door, you’ve got to kick it wide open”.
You are a bright shining star 🌟 — don’t you ever forget that. 🤞🏼🤞🏾
Useful Resources
- How To Be Prepared For UX Job Interviews, by yours truly
- UX Job Search Strategies and Templates, by yours truly
- How To Ace Your Next Job Interview, by Startup.jobs
- Cracking The UX Job Interview, by Artiom Dashinsky
- The Product Design Interview Process, by Tanner Christensen
- 10 Questions To Ask in a UX Interview, by Ryan Scott
- Six questions to ask after a UX designer job interview.
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Thank you so much for your support, everyone — and happy designing! 🎉🥳 ❤️
Thanks, very valuable
Thanks for the mention! i have the next playbook dropping soon 👀
Very useful tips Thank you so much.
Thanks for sharing, Vitaly, you’re an absolute legend. I often read your posts, and they usually put me at ease and help validate some of the work I do, especially when it comes to gaining stakeholder buy-in
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