We were able to accomplish this by becoming organized during the selection process and very specific in what we were looking for.

For the product designer role in particular, we identified characteristics and traits of the most successful product designers currently on the team and used those to build a framework for future hires. We identified 10 main attributes of a successful product designer; candidates were rated in each category on a four star scale. Each interview session had a focus on a high level category: Product, Design & Interaction, or Implementation.

This template is for a generic product designer role and can be used in a variety of circumstances. However, I’d recommend adding in a few specific questions relevant to your startup to ensure the candidate did their homework prior to the interview.

Product

The best product designers are empathetic, obsessive, and pragmatic when working with a team to build products.

Empathetic — Able to strongly comprehend the goals of users. Can understand the motivations, abilities, and triggers that get them to complete tasks.

• Discuss the personas for a product you’ve worked on. What were their wants and needs? What were their motivations?
• How did you identify the top personas for something you work on? How did the personas change over time?
• Describe the behavioral model (motivation, ability, trigger) for a persona for a product you’ve worked on. What hypotheses did you have to improve the motivation or ability of a user using your products? What were the results?
• How would you establish the personas for our product?

Obsessive — Wants to know every nitty gritty detail about how a product works. Craves intimate knowledge of the entire system and how every relevant party interacts with that system. Is curious and explores other products.

• Discuss a product you love in detail. What are the strongest pieces of the product and why? What are the weakest areas? What would you improve?
• Discuss a product you’ve worked on in detail. What was the situation of the product when you started? What changed over time? What was something that was counterintuitive on the product that surprised you and would surprise outsiders on how the product was used?
• Describe the data model for a product you’ve worked on in the past.

Pragmatic — Handles problems during development with poise. Can modify features to reduce engineering complexity while still achieving benefits to users.

• Describe a time where a product had to change due to technical constraints. How did you determine what changed?
• What are the best characteristics for a developer to have in order to work well with you?
• Describe a time in which you had difficulty working with another team member. How did you resolve the issue?

Design / Interaction

The best design is consistent, elegant, data-driven, and visually-inclined.

Consistent — Applies best practices whenever appropriate and does not try to reinvent the wheel.

• What design framework have you used in the past (either internal or open source)? What modifications did you make to the framework?
• Go through a product they have worked on in the past. Note common UI elements and talk about them. Note unique UI elements and talk about them.

Elegant — Crafts experiences that make the complex and confusing the simple and understandable.

• Find a complicated interaction in a less-than-stellar product. Work together on the whiteboard to try and simplify it and improve it.
• Go through a flow on a product the interviewee has built in the past. Ask about their design decisions.
• Go through the first time user experience of your current product. Ask them how they would improve it.

Data-Driven — Uses data to inform design decisions.

• Describe the top metrics you tracked for for a product you’ve worked on. Why were these the most important metrics?
• How did the design of your last product change based on data?
• Describe an A/B test you ran on a product. Why was it run? What was the result?
• What user behaviors should our product be tracking?

Visually-Inclined — Crafts experiences that align directly with the goals of the Creative team through both aesthetics and voice.

• What are the best design brands in your opinion? Why are they your favorite?
• Show me your proudest visual work. What makes it your favorite portfolio piece?

Implementation

The best product designers can get things accomplished. They are proactive, resourceful, and accomplished.

Proactive — Initiate changes rather than reacting to events.

• At your last job, what impact did you make outside of your core day-to-day responsibilities?
• Walk me through a time you had to fight a fire or resolve an issue quickly. How did you resolve the issue? What did you do to prevent it from happening ever again?

Resourceful — Has the technical abilities to deliver a product successfully or the resourcefulness to get the developer everything they need to ship a killer product.

• What is your technical background?
• What is something you wish you knew more about from a technical perspective?
• In your last position, how did you track what a developer was working on? How did you help that developer?

Accomplished — Takes products over the finish line. Does not rest until the best possible implementation of the product is delivered.

• Walk me through the time you led a project from start to finish. How did you measure success? How did the project turn out? Why?
• How have you communicated product releases in the past with both internal and external stakeholders? Is this important to you? Why?

This template helped us find excellent product designers and I hope it helps you too.

Shout outs to the design team at Quirky that built this framework: Ryan Scherf, Raj Sidhu, Anthony Tadina, Grace Varga, and Steven Walker.