My Learnings on Hiring From Both Sides

I've been on both sides of the table — as a nervous candidate sweating through a whiteboard challenge and as a hiring manager trying to figure out if someone can actually do the job.

Here is a breakdown of the typical process, the questions you'll face, and a framework for tackling them.

The Process

Most tech companies follow a structure similar to this 5-round gauntlet. Knowing what to expect in each round helps you prepare the right material.

The Deep-Dive Question Bank

Stories to prepare

Tip: The best way to present your skills is to tell a story from your career, one that shows how you handle a situation similar to what you been asked about.

• A failure story
• Disagreement story with a manager
• Disagreement story with a team member
• Disagreement with XFN (Cross Functional peer - Dev, PM, Etc.)
• Short time prioritization framework
• Not meeting deadline
• A story about a time you took initiative on a project
• Tell me a time you didn't agree on a strategy?
• What’s your favorite project where you played a leadership role?
• Give me an example of a time you got negative feedback.
• What are your design principles?

Background & Context

• Tell me about yourself. (Keep it to 2 mins. Connect your past experience to why you're a fit for this role.)
• Why are you interested in [Company Name]? (Don't say "good salary." Talk about their product challenges or mission.)
• How did you get into design?
• What kind of designer are you? (Generalist? Visual-heavy? Systems thinker? Know your superpower.)

Navigating ambiguity

Tip: Keep an open mind, understand the big picture, and work hard to communicate your decisions.

• How do you Identify internal and external stakeholders?
• How do you balance requests with your team needs?
• What do you cope in ambiguous situation?
• How do you handle disagreement?
• How do you create Informed tradeoffs - Give an example
• How do you handle projects that are ambiguous or lack direction?

Execution = Delivering results

Make sure you talk about: Define clear goals, Develop a plan, Delegate tasks, Manage progress, Maintain focus. Make sure that you understand there are 2 important parts of pushing a product out. Managing expectations and avoiding total team burnout.

• How do you find a balance between process and results?
• How do stay adaptable to leave space for creativity?
• How do you create Measurable results - Give examples
• How do you plan a project, collect data and various limitations?
• How you lead pushing back on decisions you feel are wrong?
• How do you do the right thing for the business?
• How do you get things done in an organization?
• How do you make ideas come to life and evangelize ideas across the organization?
• Describe a challenging project that didn't go well?
• What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?
• Tell us about a project you failed at
  • Why did you fail?
  • What would you do differently?
  • What else have you learned from that?

Product Sense

Key areas to emphasize: Focus on people's problems first - The customer problem, the technology trend or solution that will address that problem, and a convincing discussion around feasibility including technical, cost, and consumer adoption.

• How do you find ways to listen to your customers and potential customers?
• How do you run competitors research?
• What Industry trends and insights are you looking for when building a product?
• What’s a technology trend that you’re excited about?

Leadership - Working with teams

• Show how you valued the perspective of team members
• How do you motivate your team?
• How do you bring a team together?
• What makes a team successful?
• What kind of teams do you like to work with?
• How do you build teams?
• How do you act when one of your team members is under-performing?
• How do you assess your reports? Explain your Performance review process
• How do you care about your team?
• Who is the hardest person you ever worked with? What made the relationship difficult?
  • How did you address that situation?
  • If we speak with them up today, what would they say about your time together?
• What's in your management toolbox?
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• What are the treats of a good leader, in your opinion?
• How do you deal with stress?
• What kind of manager are you?
• How would you deal with a difficult employee?
• What’s your mentorship process?
• How do you see building out the team in the next 1 year, 3 years, etc.
• How would you evangelize UX to other departments?

The Whiteboard Challenge (Remote Edition)

You might be asked to do an app critique or a whiteboard exercise. These tasks want to see your thought process, the way you take on a project, the way to tackle challenges, and your ability to articulate your decisions. They don't try to find the best solution, but more the way you think.

In the era of Zoom interviews, this is often a FigJam file or just a shared screen.

Best practice

• Explain your thought process
• Ask for clarification if we don't understand
• How did you improve as a leader over time?
• How you started at design, how did your approach changed?
• How do you pick a certain solution?
• What's the most complex UX task you overtaken?

A Simple Framework for Whiteboarding

Don't jump to drawing boxes. Follow this flow:

1. Context Setting (5-10 mins)

Ask questions to frame the problem.

• Business Needs: What is the goal? (e.g., Increase signups? Engagement?)
• Users: Who are we building for? (Target audience, demographics)
• Constraints: Budget? Technical limitations? Timeline?

2. Problem Framing

• User Needs: What are they trying to do?
• Pain Points: What's stopping them now?
• Assumption Check: "I'm assuming we're mobile-first, does that sound right?"

3. Journey Map / Flow

• Map out the happy path step-by-step.
• Identify key moments where design can add value.

4. Sketching / Wireframing (15-20 mins)

• Now you can draw.
• key interactions only.
• Talk through your decisions out loud. "I'm placing the CTA here because..."

5. Critique & Closing

• "If I had more time, I'd explore..."
• "This flow might be risky because..."

Practice Prompts

• Pick a mobile app for interaction what would you change
• Tell me of an impactful product you made
• How would you design for everyone? this Q wants you to focus on inclusive and A11y solutions
• Tell us about your experience designing for disability
• A task might be to design an ATM experience, an app for helping you pick a plant for home, an elevator for a 1000 floors building, create your own doll factory, and many more. There are tons of Medium posts on how people approach those, so do your research.

Portfolio Review Tips

From the hiring side, I can tell you: Portfolios are often overrated. They show past work under past constraints. But since you need one, here's how to make it stronger:

• Process > Pixels: Don't just show the shiny final UI. Show the messy sketches, the failed iterations, and the data that drove the changes.
• Storytelling: Your case study is a story. It needs a beginning (problem), middle (struggle/process), and end (impact).
• Visuals matter: Even if you're a UX researcher, poor typography or layout in your presentation decks hurts your credibility.

Sharpening Your Visuals

If visual design is a weak spot, daily practice helps.

• Daily UI
• UI Coach
• Color Review (Accessibility)

Navigating the Interview: 5 Steps to Success

The email you’ve been waiting for has landed in your inbox: You’ve been invited to a job interview. Are you feeling excited or nervous? Determined or unsure? You might have a series of conversations lined up with a range of different companies, or you may be investing all your energy into pursuing one business you love. For this Guide, we’ll focus on the familiar dilemma of how to stay true to yourself during the interview process — while feeling confident in your current and future abilities and bringing energy and enthusiasm to the table. According to Alex Ostrowski, Founder and Creative Director at Lovers, “Nothing beats being yourself in a job interview.” In addition, we talked to folk at DNCO, Koto, Ragged Edge and Reed Words to hear their thoughts on how to present that tricky balance of professionalism and personality during an interview. Their insights and encouragement have informed the following five steps to help you prepare for, navigate, and shape the interview process — and, whatever the end result, get closer to doing the work you care about.

1. Research, Rehearse & Remember

Preparation is the foundation of a positive interview experience. If you do your homework, you can (temporarily) relax in the knowledge that you’ve already been generous with your time and paid attention to the concerns of your interviewer. Don’t be lazy about preparation. A quick scan of your potential employer’s website isn’t going to cut it. Closely read case studies of their past projects and seek out media coverage, talks or podcasts they’ve been involved with, opinion pieces published by their employees. Remember: this groundwork is as much for your own benefit as it is for impressing your interviewer. As Samuel Pollen, Creative Director of the Manchester arm of Reed Words, suggests: “Research the company. Research the person. Be curious about your industry, and be prepared to explain why you think the things you do.”

Peggy Nyamekye is a writer at Ragged Edge and has some valuable advice from her own experiences of interviews. She says, “Rehearse it. Get comfortable speaking about yourself and your work out loud… Practise with friends or family, or a good mirror will do. Have a routine for interview day. In terms of feeling confident, remember they want you. It may feel like they have all the power but you do too. Prepare questions in advance, it’ll remind you they need to win you over just as much as you do. You've got to believe in your work because no one will do it for you.”

2. Be Authentic & Share Your Personality

A good interview is one where both the interviewer and you, the candidate, are happy to be there. As Alice Walker, Head of Verbal Strategy at Koto, puts it: “I’d always much rather someone come across as informal and genuine rather than overly polished, but I appreciate that can feel like a risk when you’re the candidate going into the interview. For me, the best interviews are the ones that just feel like a great conversation, where people are willing to express an opinion and show curiosity. Giving a clear point of view on something, or being happy to admit where you don’t know the answer, might feel scary or controversial in the moment, but it’s much more useful than bland or generic pre-prepared statements. And if you come across as relaxed (within reason) it can communicate a level of self-assuredness that being overly formal can’t.”

Similarly, Jenny Whetstone, Managing Director at DNCO, states, “Being yourself and giving honest answers is so important. I’d rather have a frank conversation that felt meaningful, open and free from pretence. As long as you turn up committed to the conversation, interested and armed with examples of your experience, the rest of the interview should be about the authentic you and what you as an individual can bring to the role.” With the right attitude, interviews can be a powerful opportunity for personal growth and professional development, even without the offer of a job. Whetstone adds: “I love meeting new people and want to feel the time spent has been worthwhile for both of us and that we’ve both learnt something rather than just going through the motions, regardless of outcome.”

Pollen stresses the importance of revealing your unique personality through the language you use and the content of your conversation: “If I’m interviewing you, your CV and portfolio will have already told me about your skillset and experience. Yes, I’ll dig deeper into those things. But I mainly want to get a better sense of what and how you think.” For him, this emphasises the need to “be yourself” — “because people hire people”. He continues, “Don’t try to suppress your natural enthusiasm, your weird turns of phrase. Doubtless, some people won’t like them. But being yourself is a much more direct route to a job you enjoy than trying to be someone else.”

3. Prepare Nuanced, Conversation-Expanding Questions For Your Interviewer

Most interviewers won’t only ask about you — they’ll also ask you what you think about their company. It’s a common question: What could we do better? What would you do differently? This is a great chance for you to voice your opinion with both diplomacy and confidence. Small, pragmatic suggestions can demonstrate your close attention to detail, while bold provocations will indicate the scale of your creative vision. Think about how the current projects of the business might connect with or evolve into other areas of practice or expertise. For instance, are they publishing? — So what about events? Are they working with property developers — How about collaborating with architects? This coincides with a big picture attitude Pollen alludes to here: “What trends are you noticing? Which work do you like or dislike, and why? It doesn’t really matter if I agree with your opinions. I want to see that you are curious and thoughtful about the work – and the world – around you.”

Don’t be afraid to grill your interviewer in return. As Whetstone points out, “Interviews cut both ways… the more you put in, the more questions you ask and the more open you are, the more colour the employer will give in terms of company culture, expectation and the reality of the role.” So use your imagination to prepare some nuanced and conversation-expanding questions.

4. Consider How To Introduce Yourself At A Job Interview – Introduce The Future You

Authenticity is the key to creating a comfortable and productive atmosphere in which an early sense of trust can be established between you and your interviewer. At Lovers, Ostrowski encourages applicants to be open about their strengths and areas for improvement: “There’s nothing wrong with saying which areas of a job you may find new or challenging, especially if you say you know you’ll be able to pick those things up with the right support and time to grow and develop within the role. If you point these things out alongside what you’re already super-great at, it gives a really balanced, honest picture of you as a candidate.” He goes on to remind us that “The people hiring you are looking to feel confident in what you could be capable of next, not just what you’ve done before… so help them notice that, point it out.” He suggests being “really clear and honest about what you’ve done in your previous roles, where you’ve added value” as evidence for your future development.

At Koto, Walker sees candidates’ plans for the future as a helpful indicator not only of ambition, but personality too: “I always like to ask where do you see yourself in five years’ time? because it’s quite a hard one to fake, or it’s very easy to see when someone’s presenting an inauthentic answer. From a candidate’s point of view, this is a great question to show ambition and drive, balanced with a snapshot of your own personal interests and values. Yes, it’s about work, but it’s also how work shows up alongside the rest of the things you care about.”

5. Learn From The Jobs You Didn't Get

Have you had an offer? A thank you but no thank you? Have you decided as a result of the interview process that your ‘dream’ company wasn’t the right place for you after all? Either way, the end of an interview process is about moving forward. Onto a new chapter in your career, onto new paths of enquiry, new conversations. Hopefully you’ll have learned something new about yourself along the way.

Nyameyke muses, “Often the interviews that don’t go well are the ones you don’t really want. Instantly you can feel a vibe as soon as you enter the room, or Zoom. I’ve learnt you don’t always have to say yes to an interview. It’s flattering of course but it wastes everyone's time and has a knock-on effect on your confidence.”

So what does a successful interview feel like? We asked Nyameyke to reflect: “It was both thorough and decisive. Thorough because I was asked well-rounded questions about my work, my approach, personal interests and ambitions. They really took time getting to know me and I them. Decisive because they didn’t drag out the process but also gave me time and support to make my decision after I received an offer. There was no confusion on either side. It felt natural and I was completely myself. I made them laugh a few times which is always a good sign.”

Pollen points out that the final outcome of an interview is out of your control — a fact we should all take comfort in rather than fear: “In the end, you can’t see into the head of the person on the other side of the desk. Maybe they will kick you out because you cross your legs the wrong way, or say ‘casting nasturtiums’ instead of ‘casting aspersions’. Maybe your name is the same as their ex-husband’s, or their late cat’s. You have no idea. So don’t worry about it.”

The uncomfortable truth from both sides

From the candidate side, I've learned that the best interviews feel like conversations, not interrogations. The companies worth working for are the ones that make you comfortable enough to be honest about your failures.

The overlap? Both sides are looking for the same thing — honesty, curiosity, and evidence that you give a damn.

Keep practising, keep adding to your portfolio, and feel free to reach out if you're stuck somewhere. You'll do great.

A template for tracking your interviews

If you're actively interviewing, document the process. It sounds tedious, but it forces you to make decisions rationally instead of emotionally. Copy this template for every company you're talking to.

Role description

Paste the role description from the listing or company site here.

Exploratory call

These calls usually happen in the first rounds. Their purpose is to find out if you're interested in the position, but also for the hiring side to gauge if your vibe is right and what your current mindset is towards working with the company, team, or product. You might have more than one call — an HR inquiry followed by a hiring manager call.

Questions asked

• Key questions asked in the session

Main insights

• Key insights collected on the role, team, culture, etc.
• General impression

Onsite interview

After both sides decide to proceed, you'll be invited to 1–2 onsite rounds. The format is different for every company — some will have you meet multiple teams, some will run you through back-to-back interviews. Come prepared and on top of your game.

In-person design challenge

• Did it take place?
• Task description
• Key questions asked in the session
• Overall impression of the interview

In-person app critique

• Did it take place?
• Task description
• App provided or chosen
• Key questions asked in the session
• Overall impression of the interview

Take-home design challenge

Some companies give candidates a task to work on in their own time. Make sure you know the scope and can commit to it. Some companies compensate for your time — don't be afraid to ask.

• Did it take place?
• Deliverable format
• Hours expected vs. actual time spent
• Turnaround time
• Paid? How much?
• Key questions asked in the follow-up presentation

Offer stage

Everything went smooth and you reach the stage where you talk terms. Do your homework — define the fundamentals of your ask. Understand the market you're working in, measure your value, and know what you bring to the table. Research places like Blind and Levels.fyi.

Offer breakdown

• Base salary (CTC vs. in-hand)
• RSUs / ESOPs
• Joining bonus
• Yearly bonus / variable pay (%, amount)
• EPF / PF contribution
• Gratuity
• Group mediclaim / health insurance (family coverage?)
• Paid time off / leave policy
• Notice period buyout
• Relocation package (what does it include?)
• Other benefits (meal cards, learning budget, WFH setup allowance, etc.)

Your overall impression

How do you feel about working for this company, with this team, this manager, and these peers, on this product? Do you see yourself growing in that environment? Would they challenge you enough? Is this what you're looking for?

Write it down while it's fresh. You'll thank yourself when you're comparing offers later.