How to prepare for a UX interview

Getting a job in user experience design can be tricky, and in 2024, it’s especially challenging due to the competitive job market. Wherever you look, layoffs are happening for many different reasons — like having different business needs or restructuring — and even the most talented UX designers have felt the impact.

Meanwhile, in the past few years, companies have grown out of nowhere that offer UX design certificate courses and promise to get candidates job-ready within three to six months. Many YouTubers have even made videos with titles like, “How to be a UX designer in 3 months.”

However, the reality is very far from the truth. I’m proud of not ever making videos or courses like that, as I never want to sell an unattainable dream. If you keep an eye on social media, people keep telling us about their struggles and how difficult it is to secure a full-time UX position right now.

We all know you need an excellent resume that passes the ATS bots and a killer portfolio to get invited to a screening interview and subsequent hiring manager and panel interviews. Preparation is key! You need to showcase your skill set and professional experience effectively to stand out, especially when applying for more entry-level or junior roles.

As someone who has made over 20 hiring decisions in the past, I’d like to give you a guide that will help you navigate UX interview prep. In this guide, I’ll provide strategies to ensure that you leave a positive and lasting impression so you can get that job.

Study the company, job description, and market

Familiarize yourself with the company and role you’re interviewing for, as well as refreshing your knowledge of general market information. Knowing what boxes the company is looking to check will help you align yourself with their expectations, while awareness of the market shows you know how to appeal to users across demographics.

This will also help you shape your responses to both general and specific questions during the interview, like why you’re interested in the company, what you would change about the company’s product line, or even what your favorite product is, how you would improve it, and why.

These types of questions help interviewers gauge your product sense, critical thinking, and ability to identify user pain points. It can also be your opportunity to show your understanding of the company’s product line and its target market, your design thinking skills, and your ability to provide constructive feedback.

Again, preparation is key! Before the interview, research the company and its product thoroughly, focusing on the following areas: product features and functionality, target audience and market, user reviews, and industry trends.

What interviewers want to know:

• Your understanding of the product and its market
• Your criteria for evaluating a product and assessing its strengths and weaknesses
• Your problem-solving approach and ability to provide constructive criticism
• Your ability to identify and address user pain points, translating user needs into actionable ideas

How to answer:

• Start with appreciation — Start your answer by acknowledging the strengths of the product and what you find valuable about it
• Identify areas for improvement — Shift your focus to potential areas for improvement. You need to frame your feedback in a constructive manner and focus on how it could benefit users
• Research, research, research — Understand the product’s features, target market, and competitors. If possible, support your suggestions with data or relevant industry trends. This could involve user feedback, market research, or competitor analysis
• Choose a unique product to highlight — Stand out by selecting a less common product or app
• Provide clear reasons — Explain why you like the product and what makes it great. You can highlight specific features you enjoy and how the features meet your needs
• Suggest improvements by focusing on user needs — Identify user pain points and propose solutions

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Superficial answers — Don’t offer generic critiques! The best thing is to provide a detailed and thoughtful analysis demonstrating your understanding of user needs
• Ignoring user needs — Focus on how your improvements would benefit users, not just technical aspects
• Overly critical — Balance criticism with positive feedback and always maintain a respectful tone
• Lack of research — Show that you put effort into understanding the product by avoiding generic suggestions

Craft and practice your story

Yes, hiring managers scan your resume. No, we don’t read it from top to bottom. I like to start by asking the candidate to tell me about themself and why they chose UX design. This is usually my first question to put the candidate at ease; think about it as small talk.

This is your opportunity to set the stage for the entire interview by presenting a personal, engaging narrative about your professional journey and passion for UX design. Practice your answer to great length, and remember to keep the job description in mind!

What interviewers want to know:

• A quick snapshot of your professional background
• Highlights of your UX journey
• Your communication & storytelling skills
• Your passion for UX design

What you should prepare:

• A personal story about what led you to UX design — Mention key milestones and what attracted you to the field. It’s fun to include the hero’s journey in your story; think about your “call to adventure.” It’s always fun to hear a personal motivation or an unusual pivot in someone’s journey to UX
• Showcase your relevance — Highlight your professional strengths and how they align with the skills sought in UX design and as a UX practitioner

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Reciting your resume — Make your story exciting and personal, not a dry rundown of your resume that the interviewer has already seen
• Lack of passion — Convey genuine enthusiasm for UX design & industry, and be upbeat
• Overly personal details — Keep the focus on your professional journey. If they hire you, you’ll have the opportunity to share more personal anecdotes

Make sure you keep your story engaging, sparking interest without going too in-depth. Aim for a concise answer in under three minutes.

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Come up with example responsibilities and projects to discuss

There are many hats we wear throughout the product development process as UXDs, and everyone wants to know how much impact we can have throughout those responsibilities. It’s tough because UX practitioners often work on low-visibility items that are important, but don’t necessarily have a grandiose impact.

Understanding and articulating what you’ve accomplished in your previous roles is important to getting hired. You might get asked questions such as, what have been your responsibilities as a UX designer? What’s the most impactful UX project you’ve worked on?

What interviewers want to know:

• Your understanding of UX responsibilities
• Experience in developing and maintaining a user-centric vision
• Alignment with the company’s expectations, KPIs, OKRs

Focus on the following aspects for each main responsibility.

User research and understanding:

• Conduct user research, which can include running surveys, user interviews, and usability testing sessions to identify user needs, behaviors, and pain points
• Analyze the gathered user research data to identify themes (you can use thematic analysis and affinity mapping) and opportunities for improvement. You don’t need to go super deep; simple Excel skills and thematic analysis will do just fine
• Develop journey maps to empathize with target users

Information architecture (IA) and interaction design (IxD):

• Define the overall structure and organization of content within a product
• Design user flows and sitemaps to ensure a smooth and intuitive user experience
• Wireframe and prototype the interface
• Conduct usability testing to evaluate the effectiveness of your design

Wireframing & prototyping, and usability testing:

• Create low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes for user testing and feedback
• Conduct more usability testing to gather user feedback on the design and functionality and identify areas for improvement
• Analyze user testing data to iterate and refine the design

Visual design (if it’s a UI designer’s responsibility):

• Collaborate with visual designers to create an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly UI
• Make sure the UI components are consistent with branding guidelines and accessibility standards (a design system helps make the interface consistent)
• Consider user preferences and mental models when designing the UI

Collaboration and communication:

• Collaborate with product managers, engineers, developers, and other stakeholders throughout the design process
• Effectively communicate design decisions and rationale to stakeholders
• Present design concepts and prototypes to gather feedback and buy-in

How to answer:

• Do your research — You need to understand the company’s definition of UX design. As I mentioned above, study the job description to have a good sense of what the company expects from a UX designer
• Use examples — Always tie your responsibility to a story by sharing a specific project, e.g., where you defined and executed a UX vision
• Show enthusiasm — Be passionate about the design process and the impact design makes on the product and for the company
• Select a specific project — Choose a project (could be a development of a feature or redesign of a feature) with a clear impact on users or the business
• Detail your contribution — Explain your role, the problem the project faced, why it was necessary, what you did & what the team did, and the outcomes
• Show measurable results — Always use metrics to demonstrate success

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Vague answers — To get the job, you need to provide concrete examples and specific details. Storytelling is key!
• Misunderstanding the role — Align your answer with the company’s expectations. For instance, if the job spec doesn’t mention visual design, don’t talk about your UI skills in detail and how wonderful the app looks.
• Choosing a minor role — Select projects where you played a significant role. If you were not leading the space or had multiple UX designers with you, and they did the bulk of the work, it’s probably not the right project to talk about.
• Lacking clear impact — Everyone loves data! Define what impact means in your context and relate it to the company’s OKRs and KPIs.

A UX designer’s specific responsibilities can vary depending on the company, project, and team structure, so it’s best to align your answers to what the company expects from a UX designer. Study the job description to understand how and what they expect from you. You can also learn a lot by checking out other UX designers working for the same company on LinkedIn.

One last thing to win the interviewers over is to express how you stay current. Tell them how you stay up-to-date on the latest UX trends, tools, and methodologies, continuously learn and develop new skills to improve yourself, and advocate for customer-centricity and user-centered design principles.

Think about your achievements and failures

Questions about your greatest achievements and your biggest failures help interviewers assess your ability to learn and grow from your experiences, whether good or bad. Self-reflection is important here, but you should also prepare to explain how you handle positive and negative feedback, as being receptive to feedback is a huge part of being a skillful UX practitioner.

What interviewers want to know:

• Your achievements and how they reflect your contributions to the team and company
• Your ability to own and learn from your mistakes or failures
• Your resilience and growth – how you bounce back and improve after setbacks
• Your attitude towards feedback and ability to incorporate feedback effectively

How to answer:

• Choose relevant examples — You need to select stories that align with the job’s requirements and highlight your relevant skills. For example, you could describe how positive feedback helped reinforce successful design decisions or how you analyzed negative feedback objectively and used it to improve your design approach
• Be honest and reflective — Discuss your achievements and failures openly. Explain what you learned from these experiences and how you applied those lessons to improve. Make sure your stories always have a positive spin
• Highlight growth — Illustrate how overcoming failures has made you a better UX designer, as well as how feedback contributes. Explain how you see feedback as a valuable learning opportunity that helps refine your design skills and improve user experiences
• Showcase your problem-solving skills — Describe how you tackled challenges and the solutions you implemented
• Demonstrate resilience and eagerness — We all have challenging work-stories! Ensure you highlight your perseverance and how you maintained a positive attitude through difficult times. Demonstrate your openness to and proactiveness in gathering, receiving, and acting on feedback, including asking clarifying questions and avoiding defensiveness

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Using team achievements — Teamwork is essential, but focus on your individual contribution and role in the success
• Minimizing failures — Avoid downplaying significant failures. Instead, focus on what you learned and how it helped you grow
• Generalizing examples — You should provide specific details to make your stories compelling and memorable
• Blaming others — Take responsibility for your actions rather than shifting blame
• Defensiveness — Avoid getting defensive or making excuses when receiving negative feedback. Show your ability to take criticism constructively and use it to evolve your designs.
• Only positive feedback — Don’t solely focus on positive feedback. Acknowledge that when delivered constructively, negative feedback is crucial in creating a better user experience

Practice walking through a hypothetical design strategy

At some point during a UX interview, you’ll likely be asked to analyze a specific product — either you’ll pick a product, or they’ll pick one of their products for you to dissect — and walk through your design strategy for improving it. This question tests your strategic thinking and understanding of UX principles.

If you’ve done your research on the company and the products and services they offer, you should be well prepared for this aspect of the interview.

What interviewers want to know:

• Your ability to create and execute a design strategy
• Your understanding of user needs and business goals

How to answer:

• Be clear and concise — Explain your strategy in simple terms, avoiding jargon
• Explain the why — Discuss the problems you aimed to solve and the impact of your strategy. Always frame your design choices within the context of user needs and how & why they might benefit from your proposed solution
• Show enthusiasm — Be passionate about your approach and the outcomes
• Metrics and success — Talk about potential metrics you would use to measure the success of your design solutions

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Vague strategies — Provide specific, actionable strategies
• Overcomplicating your answer — Keep it straightforward and easy to follow

Know how to talk about time and deadline management

Effective time management is important in UX design, where juggling multiple tasks and deadlines is always a challenge. Likewise, questions about how you commit to deadlines will further help your interviewers assess your leadership and project management skills, as well as your ability to set and achieve realistic goals.

What interviewers want to know:

• Your prioritization and time management skills
• Your ability to handle competing demands and stay on top of all of your tasks
• Your approach to setting and meeting deadlines
• Your leadership style (remember, not only those in management positions lead!)

How to answer:

• Discuss tools and methods — Go beyond generic responses like “to-do lists” and instead mention specific tools you use to organize your workflows, such as project management software (e.g., Asana, Trello, Jira, Monday), time-tracking apps, or calendar scheduling tools
• Provide examples — Explain how these tools and methods help you succeed and how you use them to prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and track progress
• Emphasize flexibility — Acknowledge that unforeseen circumstances can arise, and they always do. You want the interviewers to see your ability to adapt your approach when priorities shift or deadlines change
• Involve the team — Discuss how you collaborate with your team (PM, engineers, content designers, researchers) to set realistic deadlines.You need to highlight the importance of team input in setting achievable timelines
• Show assertiveness — If you can, provide examples where you balanced stakeholder expectations and team capabilities. Here, you can explain how you navigated conflicts and ensured the deadlines were met without compromising on quality
• Emphasize collaboration — If possible, highlight how you negotiated and motivated the team

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Rigid methods — Don’t come across as inflexible
• Basic examples — Provide detailed and specific examples of your time management strategies
• Imposing deadlines — Avoid suggesting that you set deadlines alone. Focus on the collaborative approach and how much you consider the team’s input

Prepare examples of managing conflicts, problems, and disagreement

We all know that things in product development are not always hunky-dory — and hiring managers know that too! Navigating disagreements between stakeholders is such a valuable skill to have for ensuring progress and maintaining harmony within your team members.

It’s super important to have relevant examples that showcase your ability to navigate healthy disagreements. Try to add a positive spin to your examples if possible, but be sure to give honest answers.

What interviewers want to know:

• Your conflict management resolution skills
• Your ability to find common ground when you don’t see eye to eye

How to answer:

• Emphasize professionalism — Highlight your active listening skills and ability to communicate professionally in potentially tense situations. Explain how you gather information and clarify everyone’s perspectives before forming your own conclusions
• Give specific examples — Share a specific instance where you encountered a challenging conflict between stakeholders with competing interests. Explain how you facilitated open communication in the team and helped identify common ground
• Show empathy — Demonstrate your ability to understand the different viewpoints involved in the conflict. Briefly explain how you addressed each stakeholder’s concerns and ensured everyone felt heard and valued
• Choose a meaningful disagreement — Select a challenging problem you had regarding a design decision. This could be feasibility, UX consideration, or accessibility issues
• Walk through your approach step by step — Clearly outline the specific conflict and the reasoning behind the developer’s perspective. Explain your design vision and why you disagreed. Emphasize open communication and your active listening skills
• Highlight positive outcomes — Describe how you worked together to explore alternative solutions or brainstorm new approaches addressing user needs and technical feasibility. Emphasize how you maintained good relationships and arrived to a solution that worked for everyone

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Weak problems — Don’t downplay the disagreement. Choose a scenario that demonstrates your ability to navigate a conflict skillfully
• Authoritarian solutions — Avoid suggesting that you imposed your solution onto developers. Highlight the collaborative approach and how you worked together to find a mutually beneficial outcome
• Avoiding responsibility — Don’t shy away from taking ownership of conflict resolution. Explain your role in facilitating communication and finding solutions
• Playing favorites — Avoid suggesting you sided with one stakeholder over another. You should highlight that you listened to all parties involved

Prepare for behavioral questions

Behavioral interview questions are pretty much the standard questions in any interview, including UX interviews. Yes, they seem unpredictable, but with preparation, you can easily turn them into opportunities. I like to prepare stories rather than answers, because one story can be applied to multiple interview questions.

How to prepare:

• Reflect on experiences — Go beyond simply listing past jobs. You need to dig deeper and think about big moments in your career, school projects, or volunteer work. Have stories where you can demonstrate your UX skills, like user research, prototyping, collaboration, or problem-solving
• Choose diverse stories — Don’t rely on one single story. Prepare a repertoire of situations that highlight different aspects of your skillset. In your examples, you need to balance your technical abilities and soft skills
• Practice — The power lies in practice. Rehearse telling your stories out loud. Make sure you deliver the message with clarity, conciseness, and a logical structure. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to frame your experiences
• The “just in case” scenario — While you can’t predict every question, be ready to adapt on the fly. Have a few flexible stories in your back pocket that you can tailor to various behavioral interview prompts

Tips:

• Adapt and pivot on the fly — If you don’t have a specific example for an interview question, take a pause, say, ‘Such a great question which I’ve never been asked before…I might need a second to think of an example.’ Think about which story might still be relevant and how you can adapt it to address the core aspects of the question
• Stay calm & think on your feet — Always try to keep your composure. Take a deep breath and use the STAR method to structure your responses, even if you haven’t rehearsed the story
• Focus on action & outcome — Simply describing the situation isn’t enough. You need to focus on the actions you took, the design decisions you made, and the positive outcomes your design & decisions achieved. This demonstrates your impact and contribution to the project

Final thoughts

I said it multiple times, but I’ll repeat it: Preparation is key, and interviewing skills are acquired through deliberate practice!

You can anticipate behavioral questions and tell compelling stories. Work on your interviewing skills for a few hours before any interview, and you’ll be well-equipped to showcase your hard and soft skills in the best light.