I have been in the trenches of the job market, and have quite literally iterated my way out of it. In March 2023, I joined a fintech startup Branch International as a Senior Product Designer. The hiring process included seven rounds of interviews, a take-home design challenge and a design presentation. In this article, I will provide a design challenge guide for Senior Product Designers and deep dive into my process of solving the design challenge and creating the deck for the final presentation. Whether you're gearing up for the interview process for a senior product designer role, or preparing for your first Product Designer role in tech, this article would be helpful. Let's go!
Learnings from the past
Having tried multiple presentation techniques in the past including PDFs, Google Docs, Notion Docs with embedded Figma Links, Keynotes and blog articles, I can affirm with data that the design solutions presented as interactive Figma decks get the best response compared to the other modes of presentation, by far.
The following deck is perhaps the 10th design challenge submission for a product designer job role in the last five years of my career in tech. The numerous iterations for past successful and failed attempts at creating design presentations can be summarised into five key learnings which I have implemented here.
1. Sound like the locals, make your deck look like the company’s brand. Showcase your sensitivity towards brand design. Use brand fonts and colour themes in your deck.
2. The design solution matters, but the selection of the problem matters more. It is ideal to use an objective methodology or a UX audit framework to critique the current state of affairs and to choose the right problem statement.
3. The presentation matters the most, make it self-served and interactive. Think of the design solution in terms of your final presentation deck. Try to use a 60:40 process-to-product ratio in your slides. Showcase verbal, written and visual communication skills as a package.
4. Showcase curiosity, and ask questions about your design problem. Request research decks like competitive analysis, user personas and brand guidelines. I was provided with these but if not you can always ask.
5. Demonstrate prowess, don’t just talk about it. Prototype and present your slides on a design tool to showcase your hard skills as a designer. It helps you save time and display your prototyping skills without even prototyping your mockups.
The Problem Statement
The open-ended design challenge prompted me to define a problem myself. I had to select a specific section of the Branch app which needed improvement and provide a solution to the same. I conducted a usability audit for the live app using an objective methodology and scoped the problem statement to 'Improve the visibility of System status in the KYC and Loan application process' of the money lending app.
The Design Process
I downloaded and used the Branch app, selected a target area for improvement, and presented my thought process: Usability heuristics audit, foundational research, user experience mapping, the design solution, visual designs, and criteria for success in a 30 to 45-minute team presentation. I was provided with
Research decks including user personas, competitive analysis and competitor app flow
Brand guidelines and design assets
Time: 5 hours
In the solution presented here, I have used NN/g's 10 Usability Heuristics framework for User Interface Design to critique to existing Branch App.
Observe and document your first impressions while using the app and do an affinity mapping to create themes.
Document relevant foundational research data to empathise with the user and understand their needs and pain points.
User experience maps help understand the user's emotions and subjective experiences while using an app and add another layer of empathy and comprehension.
Documenting all design recommendations helps the reader relate to the design input provided in the next steps of Wireframes and Visual designs.
Pinpoint the exact design inputs in the wireframes to help the reader understand the new user flow you are proposing and always annotate your sketches for better comprehension.
Detail only one to two screens to showcase your visual design skills. It helps you save time and focus on the problem and solution.
Define criteria to gauge the success of your solution. You cannot improve what you cannot measure.
The layout presented here has gone through several iterations till reaching this point. It has received the most positive feedback from my peers, stakeholders and leaders in the industry and hence, in my opinion, is a validated template to crack the design challenge for a Senior Product Designer role.
Thanks for reading. You can also check out SafeTrials: A Product Design Case Study on Clinical Trial Management Systems to go through the blog article approach to crack a design challenge I have used in the past.
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