Asking Questions

Thanks for being here! Why are we here, exactly?

Portfolios are evolving, both for designers and UX practitioners but also for the hiring managers and recruiters that review them. As a mentor on ADP List, an occasional hiring manager and a deep scroller on LinkedIn, I can tell you that evolution has not been well understood. Expectations on designers (especially the newest among us) are high and hiring practices have become complicated.

I’ll save some of my thoughts on that topic for another day… but it’s clear to me that the ‘old’ way of meeting designers, understanding their work and their skill set, and making a confident hiring decision isn’t working anymore for either party. It just wasn’t in-depth enough. With fewer roles to go around, tighter budgets and expectation for quick ROI - design hires have to be right. And for candidates, at least based on my LinkedIn inbox, more contract roles, more variation in remote/hybrid/office, more candidates, and unpredictable interview cycles mean there’s a LOT to learn about an organization in a short time.

As a dutiful UX’er, I see all this as a sign that it’s time for a new hypothesis and a fresh experiment. After 15 years of recruiter screens, panel interviews, and manager meet and greets I’ve got a long list of questions I ask interviewers, candidates, leaders and recruiters. Why do I ask them, why do I care about the answer so much, what am I hoping to hear, and how does it inform my decision to work together?

At the minimum, I hope that musing about them publicly will help me see my own work and my professional identity more clearly. But I also hope it will help someone get to know me a little better, and maybe we can short circuit this new world of connecting and collaborating.