Decoding the Interview - Spotify Design

De-coding the Interview

Strategy, Storytelling, Visual Design

Talk track to help students better understand the road after graduation and begin the interview process with the companies they strive to be a part of.

Rejection is inevitable. Sorry for the doom, but it’s real. According to my TA or Talent Acquisition leadership team at Spotify, the hiring manager sees only 1 in every 50-60 applications for UX or design roles. From there, only 1 of every 12 is shared more broadly with the hiring team. And then, if you get to the on-site interview, you will be up against 2-4 other candidates.

But you have a choice to look at this rejection differently. Every failure is a lesson that will inform the next time around and its essential to find ways to extract the lessons every time it happens. I have some suggestions for that coming up.

Zooming out a bit, here’s what the end-to-end process looks like. From the fantastic learnings you’ll take from college, you’ll likely showcase your work in a portfolio to attract a company to the skills you offer.So let’s assume they find you, or you applied and they take note, generally the first interaction with a company is through a sourcer. Sourcers are the folks who report to Recruiters or recruiting managers. Sourcers find the people who ladder up to the recruiter’s strategy. Recruiter’s, above the sourcers, meet with folks like me to set up that strategy. They’re the ones who learn what my team needs and often support multiple teams so that their recruiting strategies can help more than just one team. So anyway, on these initial calls with the Sourcer, they’re trying to get a good sense of what valuable additions you’ll bring to the team culture. We’re also trying to understand what skills you’ve attained through your various roles or schooling. Larger companies might have Sourcers and recruiters focusing on university hiring, but many do not.

Sometimes, that’s it. The process will stop with the sourcer feeling like you weren't’ a good fit. ANd you might not even hear back from the recruiting team after a call and while it’s shitty, it’s not uncommon. But its good to understand why so give it a week after these calls and follow up. You can email and say, “hey, it’s been a while and I haven’t heard from you. And I'd love to get some feedback on whether I’m moving forward in the process.” And here’s a good tip: Send them a simple set of prompts, maybe 2-3 questions that signal what you think you could have done better.

Now, assuming the sourcer was excited about you for the role, they will send your details and portfolio to the hiring manager for them to review. Now let’s assume that hiring manager loves what she saw, is impressed with your background, the sourcer would then schedule a call with them and the candidate. From there, if/when rejection happens, ask for that feedback in an easy-to-answer way. Learn and iterate.

But let’s assume that conversation went well, then you might be sent a minor homework assignment. Something we call a technical task or design task. Something designed by the hiring team to see how you execute. Usually, these are not massive projects, more like something that takes a few hours of your time. But when you apply for more senior roles, they do get complicated.

If the Design Task wows the team, you’ll go to an onsite interview, and if they love you, congrats! You got the job. But remember, find ways to get feedback at every step of this process to improve for the next one. Even if you’re 1 in 10,000 and land that job after your first interview, you won’t work there forever, and you’ll go through this process again to find your next job.

This write-up focuses on two parts of the process. First, how to attract a company with your portfolio, how to crush the on-site interview, and what to expect in the design challenge.

Attracting the company has much to do with your portfolio.

How you present your work is a handshake to the professional design and UX world. It is very much about showing great creative work. And it’s also an opportunity to share a compelling story about yourself and demonstrate your approach to solving customer challenges. The portfolio is the what, the why, and the how.

Regarding the “what” or showing your work: Out of school and early in your career, organize your portfolio in a specific way so that it resonates strongly with the few meticulously selected companies you want to start your path with. Even with the best swagger, more general or generic portfolios rarely get designers to an offer state out of school. Instead, narrowing your work to strike a chord with the people at the company you’re aiming for is a great way to stand out.

Later in your career, you can dump all of your projects on a screen because you can.

Now, when you tell your story, whether in the short form on the cover or home page of your portfolio, in your case studies, or in an “about me” section, the way to be engaging is to be honest. Just like in life, there are highs and lows in our work. Not talking about them is disingenuous. Don’t hide the things you need to learn along the way. That shows us eagerness and a growth mindset. Share the arguments and rejections you experienced; it shows us your self-awareness and ability to learn from failing. Sincerity and candor win in business, and that’s precisely the environment you’re trying to get into.

Now, with your case studies, where you’re demonstrating how you solve customer challenges, you should always start with the basics: clarify the project name, provide an overview with goals and the timeline, and explain your role in the project and the other roles you collaborated with.

And as you go deeper, in your storytelling, be sure to get ahead of common questions by proactively answering, "Why did you/the business decide to solve this challenge?", "How did the team align and make decisions along the way?" and "How did you communicate and behave along the way?"

Those were all standard things you’ve probably already heard… so I also want to give you some highly subjective pro tips.

First, Most medium to large-sized companies have standard commercialization processes, design systems, and a documented design process. Walking through a project in a way that

It might be good to move away from the standard of listing your case studies on one page with an image and an overview to something where you show the title, on-hover show some details, and finally, on-click, take people to the details. This contradicts the philosophy that minimal clicks are always best because the mental model of a manager reviewing your portfolio isn’t to get through it as quickly as possible; it’s to go deep on the ideas and projects that resonate with them. A progressive reveal of your work might be a better way to meet that mental model.

Speaking of mental models, when a manager is reviewing portfolios, you have to remember they’re often doing so hurriedly or fragmentedly, usually in between meetings or other tasks. Therefore, your portfolio's structure should aim to capture their attention immediately and allow for deeper exploration without overwhelming them. This approach respects their time constraints while showcasing your ability to think deeply about user experience, even in presenting your work.

Another pro tip is to emphasize the impact of your designs. Beyond aesthetics, managers are looking for tangible results. Include metrics, user feedback, or other evidence demonstrating your designs' effectiveness. This proves your competence and shows that you understand the business side of design.

Lastly, be prepared to discuss your design decisions critically. Managers will be interested in how you handle feedback, adapt to challenges, and make decisions. Articulating the reasoning behind your choices, what you learned, and how you would improve upon the project in the future is just as important as the design work itself. This showcases your growth mindset and ability to iterate on feedback, which is invaluable in a collaborative and fast-paced work environment.

More things to consider:

Narrative and Storytelling: Enhance your suggestion about moving beyond the standard one-page case study by emphasizing the power of storytelling. Encourage candidates to weave a compelling narrative around each project, highlighting their problem-solving process, creativity, and impact. Stories are memorable and can make a portfolio stand out to a reviewer.

Interactive Elements: While the advice on creating an interactive, progressively revealing portfolio is excellent, caution should be added regarding the balance between interactivity and accessibility. Ensure the portfolio is easily navigable, even for those with accessibility needs. This demonstrates a candidate's consideration for inclusivity in design.

Personal Branding: Encourage designers to infuse their unique personality and design philosophy into their portfolio. This personal touch can help managers see the skills and the person behind the work, which is crucial for team fit and culture match.

Diverse Project Types: To demonstrate versatility, suggest diversifying the types of projects showcased. This can include different mediums (digital, print, etc.), different stages of the design process (research, prototyping, final product), and different scales of projects. This variety shows adaptability and a broad skill set.

Feedback and Iteration: Building on your last point about discussing design decisions critically, encourage candidates to showcase iterations of their work based on feedback. This could include before-and-after comparisons highlighting how feedback was integrated and how the project evolved. This demonstrates a candidate's ability to collaborate and their commitment to excellence.

User-Centered Design (UCD) Process: Emphasize the importance of showcasing a solid understanding of the UCD process in their portfolio. This can be done by detailing how user research, usability testing, and user feedback were incorporated into the design process. It shows a deep commitment to creating user-friendly designs that meet actual needs.

Digital Presence: In today’s digital-first world, it’s beneficial for candidates to also think about their online presence beyond the portfolio. This includes professional social media profiles, design blogs, or contributions to design communities. A robust digital presence can complement a portfolio and provide additional depth to a candidate’s professional image.

Some of the best portfolios I stumbled upon are on the read.cv website, which is my new favorite place to find inspiration. It’s also a place to see great case studies, view job postings, and make connections.

Now, let’s talk about something a lot more stressful. Landing an on-site interview is a big deal, and I hope what I’m about to share will help you all be a little less stressed about that day.

There are four parts to a good design process:

Opener/Screening: This is a get-to-know-you interview portion, generally done by the hiring manager. Here, we’ll discuss the candidate’s career, values, and growth. It's also an opportunity to make the candidate feel comfortable before the day gets heavier. So, I do think of this part as the widest in the process, the most airy, more casual, and least specific part of the day. As you go through the day, things will progressively narrow and feel more stressful.

Past work: This is a case-study walkthrough from your portfolio, usually with 2 or more from the hiring team in the room or on the call

Critique: This portion is essentially a product review, where you’ll evaluate an app, usually of the candidate’s choosing. And finally,

Problem-solving: This in-person exercise allows candidates to apply their design process to a problem. I’m calling this out differently because this is where I believe candidates have the hardest time and feel the most anxiety. After today, it should be easier for all of you.

Next, I’ll share with you what the hiring team is trying to learn in each part and some of the questions you can expect to be asked. These slides will be word-heavy, but that’s because I want to leave them in your hands to refer back to. Don’t worry about screenshotting or trying to copy them down. You’ll have this and my presenter's notes shortly after today’s session.

WIth the opener, let’s start with what the hiring manager is trying to learn.

With past work, here's what we’re trying to understand. And our approach as hiring managers is to:

1) Keep enough time to cover at least one large and one or two smaller projects.

2) We also try to ask the candidate questions to decide which project to discuss, such as “What was your favorite project?” or “What was the toughest project?”

3) We also try to make this an open discussion, not a one-way presentation. So if you feel like you’re doing all the talking, break the flow. You stop and ask what the hiring manager thinks along the way. Make it engaging.

I have to say the following with big words. You will fail the past work portion if you read your case study verbatim. You will also fail this part if your slides or presentation mirror the case study on your portfolio site.

If you’re having a good, open conversation about the project, and there’s healthy space for questions, here’s what they look like.

As managers, we’ll ask detail and pivot questions to take broad concepts and make them specific. And we’ll also ask high-level questions to understand your thought process.

So again, Critique is a product review, where the hiring manager and you will evaluate an app together. What we are trying to evaluate is your:

Visual Design

Interaction Design

Product Thinking

Proactivity & Drive

Again, the critique should be a conversation. So even though these are questions you can expect, don’t expect them in this order. Do your best to answer these beforehand so it doesn’t become a Q&A session with you. When you get one of these, answer it, but then pivot and try to answer the next one through your statements.

Finally, let’s talk about the problem-solving part of your onsite.

So imagine yourself in a room with me, the hiring manager. I hand you a whiteboard marker and say, “We have the job of designing a car dashboard for a self-driving electric car that will launch in Seattle, Washington, next year.” Let’s go.

Now, we choose an exercise that gives us a signal on missing areas after we view your presentation so that it could be anything. If we didn’t see you clearly state how you learn and iterate, we might frame the problem-solving as such. If your strength is clearly in execution, we’ll do an exercise focused on high-level product thinking (car dashboards, ATM, or ticket-buying). If your strength is product thinking, we’ll do an exercise focused on execution and specific practical details (e.g., designing an app).

The worst thing you can do in a design exercise is jump up and try to go through the whole design process and get to a design. The best design exercise portions I’ve run never even got to whiteboard sketching. They focused on customer needs, were full of conversations and writing out all the possible solutions, and usually ended with a solid strategy for how we would solve it. One in particular I loved had a young designer stating, “I have to disagree … but I’ll commit, and we can go forward with your assumption, and we’ll prove it in our user testing.”