15 Interview Questions for a Sr. UX Designer
Are you hiring a UX Designer?
Do you know what to ask them?
Here are some interview questions to ask when looking for an end-to-end UX designer and what to listen for in their answers.
First things first, align with business goals to best understand what the ideal talent would look like. If a magic wand could produce a new teammate what would those skills be? Ensure the new teammate fits the growth plan for the UX team structure, Product team structure, and business team structure.
What are the most important skills needed on the team immediately, in the near future, and further down the line?
The interview should be a two-way conversation, it’s important to not drill the talent with questions without giving them the chance to conversate and ask questions of their own.
Here are the questions:
Tell me/us about yourself. What has been your journey into UX? Why have you chosen to pursue a career in UX?
What to listen for: Does their journey and career experience make them a right fit for the role?
Every UX designer has a process of some kind. What is your ideal project process?
What to listen for: Clearly articulated design process that illustrates why the specific steps are taken. Does the process center around user needs? Is keeping telemetry after deployment included in the process?
What areas of the end-to-end process are your strengths and weaknesses?
What to listen for: What is your team seeking in these areas.
How do you work with other designers, PM, Developers?
What to listen for: This open-ended question to understand the talents personality and professional communication skills.
UX projects involve many responsibilities, what responsibilities are most valuable to you?
What to listen for: Does the talent also list why they are most valuable? Do the talents' priorities align with a sound design process? This is to further understand how experienced they are with an end-to-end design process and how effective their process is.
What’s your process for deciding which feature to add to a product?
What to listen for: Does the talent consider timelines? Business strategy/ goals? Using existing data? Performing research? Creating prototypes? Consulting PMs, Devs, and other stakeholders?
How do you respond to negative feedback or feedback you disagree with?/ Can you tell me a time where you received negative feedback or feedback you disagreed with?
What to listen for: Does the talent work collaboratively? Are they able to incorporate outside feedback? Do they clearly explain how they overcame the challenge?
Tell me about your most/ least successful UX project.
What to listen for with the most successful project: This is the talent's opportunity to display their strengths. Do they outline their contributions? Do they outline how their contributions made the project a success?
What to listen for with the least successful project: Do they explain what they learned, what they would do differently in the future?
No matter the answer does the talent define what success was and how they measured it? Where the metrics tied to the user?
Tell me about some of your favorite examples of great UX.
What to listen for: This is intended to dig into their knowledge of UX best practices. Do they describe what the problem is, how the solution is user-centric, what elements of the solution are examples of great UX?
What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a UX Designer?
What to listen for: This answer will expose their UX maturity. A jr. tends to dwell on the process and more Sr. designers are overcoming challenges of working with others with different agendas. Listen for the type of challenges and how they overcome these challenges.
Tell me about a design leader you follow.
What to listen for: Ways they are improving their career. Are they aware of trends vs innovations? Do they know where to go for inspiration?
What do you think will be the next big thing in UX?
What to listen for: Is the talent passionate about UX? Do they have their “finger on the pulse”? Are they aware of what’s happing in the world of technology?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What to listen for: Ambition and a clear vision and goal for themselves.
Why us?
What to listen for: Are they excited about your companies mission? Do they describe how they would contribute value to your team and company?
That's it, that all.
Once you’ve hired your new UX Designer you can find a great 30 day onboarding process here.
