Ace Your Packaging Designer Interview: Top Questions and Answers to Prepare

Toptal sourced essential questions that the best product designers can answer. Driven from our community, we encourage experts to submit questions and offer feedback.

What analytics tools and key performance indicators (KPIs) do you use to evaluate product designs?

Great product designers try to make experiences that work for specific groups of people. They use research and analytics data to come up with a list of hypotheses and insights that can be put into action. Getting quantitative data on how people use a website or app is one of the most important tools a product designer has for judging a product’s success. Whereas user research typically focuses on qualitative data, analytics focuses on quantitative data.

Ask if they have a lot of experience with quantitative product evaluation methods that collect large amounts of data from users to find problems with the product. Also, ask what kinds of industry-standard analytics tools they use for testing products.

A good product analysis will give you a list of changes and improvements that you can make to the product. Once you do these things, you’ll be able to tell that the user experience is better. Product designers figure out which ones will have the biggest effect on conversion rates and then use that information to make wireframes and designs that developers can use. These may be conversion rate improvements and higher user engagement and retention.

There are many analytics tools and methods available that capture user behavior, e. g. , eye-tracking, click-tracking heatmaps, and time-to-task-completion indicators. There’s something called “UI tagging” that keeps track of certain parts of a product and shows how people use it.

It’s best not to focus on the tool (Mixpanel, Pendo, Google Analytics, Optimizely, Adobe Target, etc. ). Listen for the why, the methods they used, and what measurements they took. How did they pick a success metric? What key performance indicators (KPIs) did they look at? Did they use the “objectives and key results” (OKR) method? For example, how many people became paying customers, went through the onboarding process, clicked on a signup button, or switched on one-click ordering?

Is UX design product design? What’s the difference?

Product design is not the same as UX design; it encompasses UX design. Product designers do what UX designers do and more. UX designers look for patterns in how people use digital products, think about all the different ways an app could meet a user’s needs, and then try to make the experience of using a digital product the best it can be.

Product design is the whole process. As the saying goes, “the whole is considered more than the sum of its parts.” This way of thinking should be carried out throughout the entire customer lifecycle and at all points where a customer interacts with a product.

Product designers are the caretakers of the foundation upon which the business depends. In the end, what will kill a business is when what the brand says doesn’t match up with what the product does. Product designers need to know what the marketing team does and why they do it. They need to work closely with them.

When trying to solve design problems, UX designers are mostly interested in how a product works and looks, which together make up “the experience.” “Product design is more than that; it takes into account human moments in context and all of a product’s ecosystem.”

A product designer helps identify, investigate, and validate a problem, then researches, designs, tests, and ships the solution.

It’s important for a good product designer to be able to explain the differences, especially how UX design is just one part of the product design process and one of many fields that fall under the product design umbrella. Some of these are figuring out the problem and making sure it’s real, making a plan for user research, planning the product’s information architecture and content strategy, interaction design, visual design, UI design, UX design, and usability testing. Product designers also use analytics to get information about current users or to check out how well a product works and make changes to the design. 3 .

Please describe how you test your product designs, what methodologies you use, and how you evaluate product usability.

The main goal of product testing is to learn more about and connect with the people who will be using a product. One of the most important parts of a designer’s job is user testing, which is part of a philosophy called “user-centered design.” A good product designer should talk about the different kinds of user tests they use, such as behavioral and attitudinal tests, as well as qualitative and quantitative tests. For best results, each type of test should have a set number of participants.

Attitudinal and behavioral testing is “what people say” vs. “what people do. ” Many times, the two are different. Qualitative and quantitative testing is described as “direct observation” vs. “indirect measurement. According to the definition, quantitative testing data always gives a number, amount, or range, while qualitative testing data talks about qualities.

They may also talk about moderated user testing and unmoderated remote user testing. Moderated testing is when the tester (usually the product designer) is there to help guide the participant and watch how they use the product. People take an unmoderated user test where they are given a test with a list of tasks and the computer walks them through it, records the session, and collects the data.

Then, there is a product usability evaluation method called a “heuristic evaluation. “A heuristic evaluation finds a product’s common usability problems so that they can be fixed. This makes the user happier and more satisfied, and it also increases the overall chances of a digital product’s success.”

Heuristic analysis is a way to judge a digital product. It involves one or more experts comparing the product’s design to a set of predefined design rules, or “heuristics,” and pointing out where the product doesn’t follow those rules.

There is a certain set of heuristics that includes empirical rules of thumb, best practices, standards, and conventions that have been seen to work for a long time. Sticking to these heuristic standards results in product designs that work more effectively.

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Describe a recent product design project you were particularly challenged by and how you approached the problem.

This question should help you understand more about a product designer’s process. Which parts of the problem did they find difficult and why? What steps did they take to find a solution? There is no right or wrong way to solve a problem, but you need a clear plan to get there.

For instance, did they collect more user-generated data on an existing product to help them figure out a problem? This could mean using analytics to gather data, or it could mean testing the design on a certain group of people in the best way possible. This could mean putting wireframes or interactive prototypes through tests with real people to see if hypotheses are true or false, or it could mean sending a survey to a larger group of people to learn more about product-market fit.

Did they use remote moderated user testing or some other type of remote research methodology to find out what users thought and come up with better design solutions?

To learn more about the business goals, their customers, and what the product is trying to solve, did they talk to C-level executives and marketing teams?

A product designer might start A/B or multivariate testing and let the data guide them until they hit a problem. They would then keep iterating until they got a good result. Product designers love to solve problems, so a good candidate should be excited to talk about how they solve problems. 5 .

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

One attribute of a great product designer is the ability to evaluate their work objectively. It doesn’t matter what stage of their career they are in; every product designer wants to find a way to solve their problems.

Listen for answers that not only describe the challenges they may face but how they overcome them. Also, pay attention to words and phrases like OKRs (objectives and key results) and KPIs (key performance indicators). Product designers have to deal with these when they have to figure out how well their designs are doing at the business level.

Some people may not understand why they are going through the product design process; it may seem too expensive and take too long. How do they get around these problems? How do they make sure that their work fits in with the company’s brand, marketing, and goals?

For instance, it can be hard to persuade a company that they need more in-depth user research before they design a product or that they need to do proper usability testing during the product design lifecycle. How do they advocate for those mentioned above in making their case?.

Another challenge may be conducting user research in innovative ways. This can be especially hard for designers who work from home and don’t have direct access to their clients.

Gathering, analyzing, and translating both qualitative and quantitative user data into “actionable insights” may pose another challenge. Good product designers, on the other hand, know how to focus on the most important parts and find the biggest return on investment.

Listen for answers that include overcoming challenges of working with others with different agendas. Working with people from other fields, like C-level executives, marketing teams, sales teams, growth teams, product managers, engineers, and visual designers, will always be hard for a product designer.

Follow-up questions on this topic:

• Can you tell me about a time when one of these problems came up in a project you worked on before and how you solved it?
• What were the outcomes of this approach?

6 .

Describe your product design process and what methods you follow.

Product design is continuously evolving and searching for new ways to solve problems. Product designers with a lot of experience have probably been improving the way they do their work, which will be different for each designer. Most of the time, good product designers have a set of steps (or “toolkits”) they use to solve problems and work on projects. Most likely, it will be a list of steps they take to make products more interesting and solve problems users are having. You should listen for a clear process and goal that fits with brand promises and business needs. You should also listen for a deep curiosity and a constant desire to learn, as well as the exact steps they take to solve user problems.

A focus on people should be a main idea in the design process; you could talk about “design thinking,” which starts with fully understanding both user and business goals. In general, this is often an iterative design process that is constantly evolving. Some of the main ideas or methods used in this process are competitive audits, interviews with stakeholders, user personas, empathy maps, user research, content audits, minimum viable product (MVP) and Lean UX, information architecture, mood boards, storyboards, use case scenarios and user flows, customer journeys, wireframes, mockups, prototypes, and usability testing. They might also talk about user testing (moderated or unmoderated, in-person or remote), A/B testing, eye tracking, click-tracking heatmaps, and other types of quantitative analytics.

Aside from these, you should also look for product design methodologies that help match the design of the product with the company’s brand promise, marketing goals, and business goals.

By using these product design methods and getting feedback from users, all of the above techniques can help you make a product that people will love. 7 .

Please provide some examples of your experience dealing with HCD (human-centered design).

First and foremost, human-centered design is all about understanding your users. A good product designer will help make products that work well for a lot of different people, on a lot of different devices, and in a lot of different ways.

A skilled product designer should be able to explain in more detail how they think about and do user research, which is what human-centered design is all about. When they do user research, what “lenses” do they use? These “lenses” could be focus groups, surveys, diary studies, field studies, and contextual observations.

When they talk about past projects, they should explain how they set research goals and made a research plan, as well as how they handled the organizational side of things, how they found representative users, what kinds of research questions they asked, and how they analyzed the results. While there are different ways to do user research, the designer should be able to clearly explain the method, the sample size needed to get a useful result, and how the data will be interpreted.

Look for a product designer who knows how to do accurate measurements by choosing the fewest subjects necessary to fully understand the research and who knows what they are testing and trying to figure out.

Testing product designs is also a vital aspect of human-centered design. For usability testing, the designer should discuss the methodologies they used. Did they do structured, one-on-one interviews with users while they tried to do certain tasks with prototypes of the product? Ask them how they’d describe a successful test, i.e. e. , what key revelations were gathered and how the data was distilled into practical, actionable insights. Were the usability tests moderated or unmoderated? (Examples of unmoderated tests include eye-tracking, click-tracking heatmaps, online card sorting games, and more.) ) 8 .

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

Every great product designer has at least a dozen books by famous designers on their shelf. They also have favorite app designs that they like because of how well they work with users.

It’s possible to learn a lot about a designer’s daily approach to product design by hearing about their favorite designers and apps. It will show how they use “design thinking” and how high they set the bar for quality. It will also say a lot about what kind of product designer they are.

It is more important to listen for the why than to believe the names or which design expert it is. Still, here are some names to remember: Don Norman (famous for his design books, especially The Design of Everyday Things), Steve Krug, Alan Cooper, and Dieter Rams (German industrial designer at Braun).

The above also applies to their favorite apps. It’s important to understand why they like these apps—pay close attention to what it is about the way they were made. For example, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Shazam, Uber, Instagram, Snapseed, and Netflix. 9 .

Walk me through a product design example where you set out to solve a business problem.

A good product designer would show through a case study that they know they’re not just making an interface, website, or app; they’re also making a way for a business to solve a problem. First, they would talk about the discovery/problem definition phase, during which they did a lot of research to find out where the problem came from.

Next, with business goals in mind, they would have looked into users from the target demographic to find common themes, unmet user needs, and areas where the business may not have done a good job of serving that demographic. They would show how well they could look at the company’s goals, the use case scenarios, and figure out how to best align them to find a solution.

Lastly, they would have used wireframes, prototypes, and other tools from their product design kit to look into possible product design solutions. They would have been able to prove their ideas and hypotheses about how to get big business benefits from the best product design through user testing. 10 .

What are some of the biggest trends in the product design field?

Listen for passion and knowledge. A good product designer will be interested in this question, and the answer will help you figure out what they’re focusing on right now.

Find out how the product designer stays up to date with the field. For example, they might listen to design podcasts, read design blogs and books, go to design conferences, webinars, and online training courses to keep learning, and more.

A product designer who thinks ahead will be an invaluable asset to your company. Some people may talk about new ways to use screens or how designing for accessibility interests them. They might talk about new prototyping tools that save time for developers and designers by turning designs into code, or they might talk about a new trend and how great it is to be on the cutting edge of technology. Whatever the answer, passion should shine through. Most of all, it’s not about technology; it’s about solving problems for people in new and efficient ways.

Ultimately, it’s not about “design fads. “A good product designer doesn’t follow trends; instead, they make products that last and work well for customers.”

Follow-up questions on this topic:

• What do you think the next big trend in product design will be?
• What about product design gets you most excited this year?

11 .

How do you make sure that websites and platforms can be used by everyone, even those who are blind, deaf, or have motor disabilities?

Product designers worry a lot about accessibility, especially since screens are getting smaller and we use and read digital content everywhere. Designing digital products that can be used anywhere is paramount to a product’s success. When end users have specific needs in terms of sensory limitations, the design should make it easier for them to interact and be even more understanding.

Watch out for designers who know about and follow the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines” from the World Wide Web Consortium. ” Have they performed an accessibility analysis on a previous project?.

With a focus on accessibility, user testing becomes especially important and should be comprehensive. An app or website should be easy enough to use so that the user can reach a clear goal or complete a task. Also, creative solutions should be used to make sure that a disabled user can interact with the product. Voiceover commands can help people with motor disabilities navigate websites and apps. Adding captions to a video can help people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Making content easier for blind people to read with screen readers or creating a way for people with vision impairments to use large fonts are some examples. 12 .

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

In that kind of situation, a great product designer exhibits thoughtful restraint. They won’t take criticism personally; instead, they’ll use it as a chance to learn more about why a client might not like a design. Good product designers are objective; they use tried-and-true principles, lessons learned from the past, white papers and studies, best practices, standards, and design conventions that have been studied, tested, and proven. Accordingly, they should be able to back up their designs based on those mentioned above.

Most of the time, what the client wanted and what the product designer was trying to do were not in line with each other. A good product designer would step back and ask smart questions to find out what the client might not like about the design. Does the client say something subjective, like “I don’t like that color”? If so, the designer would ask why and make sure the client knows that design decisions are based on facts, like color theory, and not on subjective opinion.

Also, pay attention to examples of times the product designer stood by design choices made using testing and analytics data (while remaining objective) and how they presented facts and findings to support their case.

Some client feedback may be for compelling business reasons. For example, the client may feel that an oversimplified solution misses valuable opportunities for revenue-generating ad placement. A good product designer would patiently listen to feedback and use it in the next version. They would know that finding the best design is a balance between what the business needs, what is technically possible, and the designer’s own desire to make the best product design. 13 .

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

A good product designer should explain design thinking as a way of thinking that goes beyond the way most designers think about solving problems. It makes the whole design process more human-centered by making the designer really care about how the product will be used. The term “design thinking” is often synonymous with human-centered design (HCD).

Listen for the product designer who describes “design thinking” as a user-centered design process. IDEO’s president and CEO, Tim Brown, says this about design thinking: “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the needs for business success.” ”.

Design thinking is a method for the generation of solutions and a practical, creative resolution of problems. It’s about uncovering insights into the unmet needs of your target audience. It’s a form of solution-based or solution-focused thinking, with the intent of producing a constructive future result. It’s a “people first” approach, which means that products are made with people’s needs, motivations, and behaviors in mind.

The design thinking process can be broken down into five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Each step should have enough time and the right tools to make a final product that really meets the needs and wants of users. 14 .

What does it mean to be a great product designer?

The answer will help you discover what kind of product designer you may be hiring. Even though there is no right or wrong answer, a good product designer should know a lot about how to make products and have a “design mindset.” “Designing products isn’t just about making screens look good; it’s also about finding the best ways to help businesses and end users.”

What does a great product designer mean when they talk about a “design mindset”? A “design mindset” is a complete, holistic, end-to-end product design process, approaches, and methodologies They should be willing to take you step by step through the best way to design a product that they think is essential to good design and leads to solid solutions that work.

Listen for humility backed by confidence. Do they have a trained eye for solutions? Do they love making great user experiences and designing products that people love?

Listen for answers that talk about empathy, such as “walking a mile in a customer’s shoes” (customer journeys) and designing products with people in mind and their needs in mind. Empathizing with people often means engaging in in-depth user research to solve problems. Having a design mindset means being able to understand how others feel and come up with good questions. To come up with good solutions, you need to ask the right questions. And for designers to be able to ask great questions, they need to be able to connect with people and do in-depth research to find relevant information.

A seasoned, experienced product designer balances business goals and technical constraints with creating the best user experience possible. They should make “personas” (models of the main people who will use a product), plan when and how to do surveys, summarize research results, do field visits and interviews, report their research, make wireframes and prototypes, test the usability of the product, and, to make even more improvements, look at quantitative user data after the product is released.

There is more to interviewing than tricky technical questions, so these are intended merely as a guide. Not every good candidate for the job will be able to answer all of them, and answering all of them doesn’t mean they are a good candidate. At the end of the day, hiring remains an art, a science — and a lot of work.

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