Interviewing and hiring super-power-like creative talent can have it’s own set of challenges. Finding someone who is a creative out-of-the-box design thinker isn’t always obvious from just looking at a resume or a portfolio. Many creative projects shown on portfolios are typically not just the work of the candidate, but also a collaboration the work of a team of creatives. So it’s the interviewer’s job to identify what part they played, and how much added value they personally injected to the final project.
5 Helpful Interview Questions
1. SELF EVOLUTION: With this rapidly changing digital landscape, how do you stay current? How do you sharpen your digital saw and stay on top of digital innovations? What are the top emerging UX design trends that you think are interesting?
ANSWERS: should entail ways the candidate stays current on digital trends including attending Tech Meetups, Conferences, Consuming Forward-Thinking Blogs, and Diligent “Googling-it” activities.
2. OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING: Show on your portfolio where you personally took the initiative by adding value to the final project. Example, when a client asked you to solve “X” but you went the extra mile and said, “How about we also look at doing Y?” Show an example of this on your portfolio.
ANSWERS: the candidate should be able to walk you through an example in their portfolio where they proposed a piece either content, UI pattern, or overall strategy that solved the creative challenge in the way the client had not initially thought of.
3. OUTCOMES: Show on your portfolio an example of what you think is one of your major accomplishment and overall successful creative project? What success metrics were increased and how did you measure that success?
ANSWERS: the answer to this question is key in identify if the Designer is thinking and aware of data driven design. In the current digital space there are MANY ways to measure success via usability testing OR finally usability metrics collected. Essentially digital projects do not just end on launch. There is then the need to measure success and “tweak the dials” to further improve performance and KPIs.
4. COLLABORATION: Talk about how you are able to garner team-based consensus and ultimately final creative approvals? What are some tips and strategies you have found effective in managing and getting consensus from your design team, stakeholders peers (not in your group), and then finally approvals from higher-ups?
ANSWERS: This is always an interesting conversation and shows the candidate’s skills in communication and collaboration. There is no right answer except the willingness to listen to the different team’s feedback and be able to identify which items of feedback need to be addressed.
5. SUPER POWERS: Finally, what is your creative super power. What are you best at?
ANSWERS: This is my most favorite question to ask candidates as you’ll typically get really honest answers. Some answers that are NOT great are, “I am good at it all,” or “I’m really good cooking on a grill,” which I’ve heard over the years. But mostly you’ll get concise answers on what they are really good at creatively. And the goal is to source great creative super power candidates!
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