Career Services in Coda! [Katie Rivard]

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Career Services in Coda! [Katie Rivard]

Interview Preparation

Lesson: Interview Questions

15 minute read

While it’s impossible to know the exact questions that will be asked during an interview, there are a number of recurring themes. In this lesson, we’ll review some of them so that you can prepare in advance, and practice communicating your answers clearly and confidently.

Review these common interview questions, and begin writing down your responses in a Google Doc. Try them out during a few mock interviews with your Career Coach so you can gain feedback about ways to strengthen your delivery, adapt your answers (depending on the role & the company's needs), and which of your strengths you are highlighting at the time.

Screening Questions

Before most face-to-face interviews—which may be conducted in person or via video—a recruiter or Human Resources manager will probably ask some basic questions to get more insight into who you are, how you complete work, and your current level of design knowledge.

Your answers will help them to assess whether you communicate clearly, demonstrate knowledge about the field, and seem to be on the same page as their company. It’ll help you to have your initial introduction (or “elevator pitch”) thoroughly prepared.

Here are the kinds of question you’re likely to encounter during the screening process:

Tell me about yourself.

What tools do you use?

What is your process and approach to UX Design?

How did you get into UX Design? What’s your interest in the field?

What do you know about the company and the services/products we sell?

Why do you want to work here? Why do you want to leave your current job?

Your past experience leading up to you applying for this job?

Can you describe some of skills you bring to the table?

If you design something and a developer told you “we can’t do that”, what would you do?

What design books, communities, conferences etc. do you admire?

Where do you go for inspiration?

How do you keep on top of current design trends?

These questions are generally simple to answer, but still give them the time and attention they deserve. Focus on delivering answers which provide evidence of your knowledge and fundamental competence. If you receive screening questions via email (sometimes called an “email screen”), make sure to respond at appropriate length (neither a single sentence, nor an essay!), and to check for spelling errors and typos before sending your answers back.

Technical UX Questions

Most screening interviews won’t go into your design knowledge in depth, although occasionally such questions will come up. However, you’ll need to be prepared regardless, in case you advance to the next round! In the second interview phase of most interview processes, the questions get more technical and focus on your detailed knowledge and understanding of issues in UX design.

Here are some more examples of questions to expect:

Can you explain what “User Experience Design” is to someone, using non-technical terminology?

Describe your design process, and the methods you use.

What are some apps or websites that you love?

Who are your design heroes? What are your favorite apps for UX? Explain why.

Describe a recent project that you found particularly challenging, and how you approached the problem.

Can you speak to the difference between information architecture, interaction design, usability, and user research? When is it relevant to focus on one of these areas rather than another?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a UX designer?

Provide some examples of your experience dealing with user research and usability testing.

What are some of the biggest trends in the UX Design industry right now?

What is your approach to making websites and platforms accessible to all user groups, including users with visual, hearing, and motor disabilities?

When a client says, “I don’t like this design”, what would you do?

What’s the difference between UX design and UI design?

What does the term “design thinking” mean to you?

What does it mean to be a great product designer?

If tasked to perform a UX evaluation of a product, what would your process look like to accomplish this? Can you tell me about a project you did this for and what the outcome of the evaluation was?

Be sure to prepare yourself for each of these questions. Again, write down a list of possible answers to review with your Career Coach.

UX Process Questions

These questions are asked to elicit information about how you approach design problems. By this stage of the hiring process, the hiring manager probably already has a good idea of the final results you can execute from studying your portfolio. What they need to know now is how you got there, and how well you can explain the process you followed.

Give some thought to how you would answer each of these questions:

How do you get into the mindset of a user and anticipate their needs and actions?

Describe a basic UX design process. Would that process be different depending on the type of project, for instance responsive website versus mobile app?

What are the basic philosophies or principles that inform your designs?

Have you incorporated usability into the design and testing process?

How do you balance business needs and technical restrictions with good design?

When an engineer says, “Hey, I don’t like this design”, what do you do?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of following a web style guide?

Can you explain the process behind each (or a specific) design piece in your portfolio? What research or testing did you do to validate your design decision?

What is your approach to making websites and platforms accessible to all user groups, including users with visual, hearing, and motor disabilities?

Why do you think research is important?

What is your experience with qualitative research methods? (e.g. ethnography, focus groups/group discussions, 1-on-1 interviewing, contextual inquiry, observational research, etc.)

What is your research process?

How do you choose which method(s) you’re going to use for particular projects?

Which UX design techniques and approaches do you think are the most useful or effective?

What is the value of doing contextual research over facility-based research (e.g., focus groups, interviews)?

How do you approach qualitative data analysis?

What tools do you typically use for analysis? (e.g., affinity mapping, etc.)

At what point in the design process should user experience come into play?

Talk about a time when you had to change your plan or approach.

What is your experience working in Agile environments?

Have you ever used a Lean approach in your research?

How would you sell the value of UX research to a VP of Product versus a VP of Engineering?

Culture Fit & Working Style Questions

One important, and often overlooked, aspect of the hiring process is ensuring a candidate fits into the company with little-to-no friction. Interviewers will ask a series of questions pertaining to your working style to determine if you're a good culture fit to join the team. Below is a list of questions likely to come up:

Why do you want to work here?

Why should I hire you?

Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?

Tell me about an assignment that was too difficult. How did you handle the situation?

How do you advocate for usability in your organization?

What would be the most difficult type of client to work with? How would you deal with this?

How do you approach working with designers? Developers? Project managers? Stakeholders? Clients?

What do you do when a stakeholder disagrees with the results of your research?

What is your experience working with people who are unfamiliar with user-centered design?

What is your ideal workday as a UX designer?

Where do you see yourself in 5–10 years?

What are you looking for when it comes to a workplace?

How do you feel about working for a small agency versus a large corporation?

What’s your biggest pet peeve when engaging on a UX project?

Have you given feedback on someone else’s designs before? What about receiving feedback?

Remember that answering these questions well means showing both confidence in your responses, and a sense of candor and humility. With these questions there’s a risk of coming off as ego-hungry, so make sure your answers stay balanced.

Curveballs

Although they’re often called curveballs, these questions are really just about how you’d handle certain tricky situations—either hypothetically, or by talking about an example from the past. Most of the time, the questions will still stay relevant to UX design, but they may also be more open and general.

Tell me about a UX project that you’ve worked on that didn’t go as well as you’d hoped.

Can you describe a time when the requirements changed in the middle of a project, and how you handled that?

Have you ever faced a situation in which your feedback/recommendation was not taken? How did you handle the situation?

Give me an instance where you delivered something exceptional, something that made you really proud of the result.

Walk me through a recent project you’ve worked on.

What is your greatest weakness?

* * *

Be sure to review these lists of questions and document your answers. Review them with your Career Coach for feedback, and be prepared to deliver them confidently and concisely in your interviews.

If you experience different questions in the interview process, feel free to share them with us by

filling out this form⁠

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