Three secret questions for UX job interviews
Truth serums revealing applicants’ true colors, which every interviewer should know
Question: What would you wish for in your future work setting?
This question should come in place when an applicant is too well prepared. From time to time, candidates know all the questions raised in interviews and the answers they should give. Sometimes, applicants are less easily characterized, especially their personalities. They show their best side, what is good behavior, but what also hides a bit of the rough edges every person has.
This question is very open, and the answer gives insights about the importance or relevance of some topics for the applicant. The candidate can focus the answer on very different and individual topics. None of those answers would be wrong, but they all tell what a person’s interests, wishes, or desires are when going to work.
Some possible answer topics are:
Team setup, relationships, and hierarchies
Projects, topics, and tasks
Supervisors, leadership, and personal development
Inter-disciplinarity, collaboration, and knowledge transfer
Scopes, freedom, and responsibilities
If the question is raised, applicants should think aloud about what makes them happy in their current job or what empowers and motivates them. There is no wrong nor complete answer; intuitively, a person will give some suitableindications about their personality and work style.
Question: Think about your latest projects and remember a deliverable you created and found awesome. Tell us about it.
This question should be raised when it’s unclear how a candidate’s hands-on design skills are. The question goes back to some examples where people were hired. Afterward, it was found that they were missing some essential skills not evident in the interviews. It is not necessarily meant as a mistake or fault of applicants. It’s more of a misunderstanding due to a shortage of time. Some people are very good at talking about the process, describing how things work, recalling projects, or describing the user-centered UX mindset. Sometimes, the interviewers attribute this person with skills or experiences they do not have.
First, the question goes down to work results or deliverables the person created by themselves. Sometimes outcomes of a team are mentioned, then it should be asked what exact part this applicant has crafted. Second, the person is asked to talk about one outcome that was or is, in their eyes, outstanding, which shows what the person can produce and how they talk about it. Third, both indicate an applicant’s skills, mindsets, and experiences. Many different answers can be given, and most reveal some truths.
Some possible answers include:
A researcher selects one finding which was surprising and explains why.
A researcher tells about a method they used and highlights the advantages of this material in an example execution.
A usability engineer or UX designer explains a concept they created and how it enlightened a specific audience.
A usability engineer or UX designer talks about a specific method they like and explains this method’s impact in an example.
A UI designer explains a screen design or asset they created and describes why this was outstanding or impacted audiences.
The effect of this question is that instead of putting many materials in the portfolio, what is a more or less neutral way? First, the person must remember, reflect, and select one thing they created. The selection reveals a lot about a person’s interests and character. Second, the person must get into marketing and promote their work by describing what made it outstanding. Also, this shows which aspect they focus on, whether it was successful in their self-perception, highlighted by stakeholders or users, or even successful in the market.
Question: Please remember a conflict in one of your projects and tell us about it.
The question should be asked if a person is in the interview very sleek or has an outstanding ability to talk. The character of a team member is vital in good times but is crucial in bad times. Conflicts or crises are part of working life but happen hopefully not so often and are also tried to be avoided. If a conflict is persistent or a crisis is too big, people must interact to solve them.
Different answers are possible, some examples could be:
An applicant describes a conflict where they have been the victim, explaining what happened to them or how they got out
An applicant describes a conflict they caused, describing how this was solved and how a learning maybe led to personal development
An applicant describes a conflict between two other parties or persons and shows how they could add to the resolution
The type or cause of the answer could be about content, about methods or knowledge, about relationships or responsibilities, about social behavior, or personal aspects
One thing was revealed by this question in most cases. How was the person part of a conflict: harmonic, supportive, feisty, avoiding, de-escalating, powerful, etc.? This tells a lot about the applicant, their character, and personality — definitively helpful for deciding the candidate’s social and company fit.
Of course, these are not the only questions to ask, but especially those three have proven to be successful by revealing some impactful insights about applicants.
This article is a part of a series of three. All have the joint topic “Hiring in a UX team — insights from a User Experience department in a medium-sized data science software company.” The three parts include:
A Job Interview Process for UX
Three Secret Questions for UX Job Interviews
The texts might give hints and orientation for applicants, not only for this company. And the texts might serve as a knowledge exchange with other UX teams in other companies. The team described here, especially the leaders, are keen to improve by exchanging. In the last two years, they looked at about 100 to 150 applications per year and performed about three to four interviews per month. From this experience, the articles were developed.
