Skip to content
Lantum Design Team
Lantum Design Team
More
Share
Explore
Lantum Design Team

icon picker
On Hiring Designers

If you're thinking about applying for a role at Lantum, then this will give you a guide on what we look for when we hire new designers
⁠
Desktop - 1.png
⁠
⁠
Our hiring process

Interviewing for new jobs can be stressful. It’s often seen as a dark art; knowing how to say the right things, selling yourself, and trying to anticipate what the hiring manager is really asking you with that question. All the successful candidates we’ve hired have been ones where it felt like a natural fit for the candidate and us. They were relaxed, told us what we wanted to know, and showed the best of themselves.
So we pulled together this outline of what hiring looks like at Lantum for Product Designers. You might think this is giving away all our secrets. It isn’t. In our experience, setting clear expectations upfront means candidates know if the job is right for them, and have a fairer shot at getting it.
We’ve all been in interviews where it’s felt like us and the hiring manager have been talking at cross purposes. Having been on the other-side of that table for the best part of 4 years now, it’s just as bad being the hiring manager.
Here we will give you an open, transparent look at how hire great design talent. It’ll tell you what we perceive as good design and what we look for in candidates. It’ll also let you know if Lantum doesn’t sound like the right place for you (and that’s cool).

Applying to the role

As with nearly all hiring processes, we start with your application. This will be your CV, perhaps a cover letter and a few examples of your work (more on that later).
These applications are reviewed by the hiring manager and our talent team. When it comes to CV’s, we’re looking for a few things:
Do you have the appropriate experience? We’re not bullish on ‘x years working...’ but knowing you’ve performed in similar roles before helps us know you could potentially handle the role
Can you handle the complexity? Ideally you’ve worked at a ‘product-driven’ SaaS company or relevant agency role. If not, then what experience do you have that is comparable.
You list your outcomes of each role. What impact did you drive? What achievements are you particularly proud of?
Growth. We can see that you’ve progressed throughout your career and you want to come to Lantum and continue that tradition.
Sending examples of your work isn’t mandatory. However, it will improve your chances of progressing. We don’t make this mandatory because we know that whilst you’re working it’s hard to keep on top of a portfolio. However, it is the best indicator of where your skills are right now.
When we ask for portfolios upfront, these don’t have to fancy decks. It could be a selection of links to things you’ve worked on recently. Or consider preparing a short write-up or video running through some work you’re currently doing. The goal here isn’t to judge your worth as a designer, it’s to benchmark your skills and see if you have enough to worth taking to the next stage.

The project review

This conversation happens with the hiring manager. It focuses on your design experience and how you approach product design. We’ll ask you to fill us in on your design experience, and then walk us through a recent project you feel shows the skills relevant to role (more on that below).
As you explain your project, we’ll ask questions to dig deeper into your problem solving methods, how you consider user and business goals, as well as your ability of craft.
We advocate going through a project you worked on recently as it’s the best indicator of your current design ability.

What we look for in design work

We have a public-facing progression framework which shows you how we measure good design at Lantum. This acts as a good guide but we’re not expecting you to ace everything.
When looking at design work, we’re looking for specific skills that apply to this role. This makes it hard to write a generic ‘this is what we look for’. However, there is one thing we value in every designer we hire and that is your ability to ‘create elegant solutions to clearly defined problems’. We see this as the basics of product design, and we value you doing the basics really well.
Ideally, we’re looking for work that shows you clearly solving a user-specific problem. You’ll outline how you understood the problem and the users affected, identified the best solution, and then executed that solution. Ultimately we’re evaluating how well your solution solves the problem outlined, the quality of output, and the ultimate impact on the business/team.
This means, whilst we may admire your deep work on accessibility, exquisite visual design, or comprehensive design system projects – we’ll be looking at your core problem solving, craft, and ability to make an impact over everything else first.

Whiteboarding challenge

The final stage of our interview process is a white-boarding challenge. We do this to round off the process because it tells us where you are right now. Everything we’ve seen up until this point is what you’ve done, but we still have little idea of how you work in the moment.
In this interview, you’ll have 1.5hrs to work with a mixed team of a product manager, engineer, and designer to solve a real problem. This is a problem based on something similar we’ve already solved at Lantum. We do this because a) there is no economic value in your solving this problem so we’re not asking you to work for free and b) we have all the context and knowledge you’ll need to solve the problem without external input or research.
A lot of designer struggle at this stage. They act like we’ve hired them as a consultant to facilitate a real workshop. They spend most of their time outlining their process or they focus too much of a real, implementable solution.
In this challenge, we’re not expecting to go build what you create. It’s to see how you think and adapt to unfamiliar problem spaces, whilst working with a mixed team. This is a scenario you’ll encounter on a day-to-day basis building products at Lantum. We want to see how you approach things, your ideas, and how you think we solve this problem. This tells us what you’re like to work with.
We’ll round off the interview process with any final questions you have and gather some feedback on what you thought about the process (this helps us iterate and improve).





Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.