How to Hire a Product Designer: A Guide for Startups

You’ve officially hit major milestones: Your product is live, customers are taking notice, and feedback is starting to come in, much of it positive and exciting. But they’re not all raving reviews.

Some users want more features. Others say your interface is confusing. Your small but dedicated team is already wearing multiple hats. Whether you are relying on your sole Product Manager to also oversee design, or are designing by committee, these growing pains are often a sign that an experienced designer is a necessary hire.

But what kind of Product Designer do you need? And how do you find one that not only matches your immediate (and long-term) needs but also your organization and industry?

In this hiring guide, we’ll break down when and how to hire your first Product Designer, what to look for in candidates, and how the right design hire can transform your product.

What does a Product Designer do?

A Product Designer does much more than come up with color palettes and component libraries. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “design is not just how something looks, it’s how it works.”

The Product Designer role encompasses an array of skills and responsibilities related to the look, functionality, usability, deployability, and marketability of a digital product. Effective design can be a game-changer across multiple levels of a product’s lifecycle.

Product designers often perform different functions at a company depending on the organization’s size, stage, and design culture. Product Designers can often be put into the following buckets:

• UX Research: UX Researchers understand how users interact with your product and find ways to make that experience smoother, more intuitive, and more effective. UX involves diving into research, behavior, and user flows to improve usability. For early-stage SaaS companies, a UX designer can be instrumental in shaping a product that feels easy and natural to use, even if your team is small and roles overlap.
• UI design: UI (User Interface) focuses on the look and feel of your product, making it visually appealing and consistent. At early stages, UI design is especially helpful for creating polished prototypes, which is great for pitch decks or initial user impressions.
• Visual design: Visual design plays a key role in shaping a consistent and recognizable brand identity across all digital platforms. While it overlaps with both graphic and UI design, visual design focuses specifically on non-interactive digital elements like logos, icons, illustrations, and overall branding. For SaaS products, strong visual design helps unify the look and feel across touchpoints, and in growing teams, it can act as a guiding force — almost like an art director — ensuring cohesion as multiple creatives contribute to the product.

• Graphic design: Graphic design is one of the oldest design disciplines and often serves as the foundation for many Product Designers. While not typically a core role on early SaaS product teams, graphic designers bring valuable skills in creating original visual concepts and branded materials. As your company grows and needs expand, a graphic designer can provide a more polished touch to the visual identity of your product marketing materials.

  
  Use these to guide the job posting you write (more on this later) to ensure you hire the right designer, and not just a good one.

When to Hire a Product Designer

Earlier in this article, we laid out a scenario in which a product team struggled to find bandwidth to take on design-related needs.

As it turns out, taking a closer look at your team’s design capabilities is the ideal place to start when determining whether you should hire a Product Designer. Here are some signs to watch for as you evaluate your current capabilities:

• Your team lacks design skills: Are your developers spending time picking fonts and making layout decisions? If so, you’re not using their time (or skills) effectively. If no one on your team can handle design, then you’re holding back your product and need to consider bringing on a Product Designer.
• Your product lacks a design identity: Do you find that buttons appear ever-so-slightly different from one page to the next, or is there no cohesive set of font sizes across your app? Subtle mistakes like these lower the confidence users have in your product and tarnish your growing reputation.
• You have steady design needs: If you’ve got ongoing work for the next six months or more (product UI, new features, etc.), it’s time to bring someone in. Keep in mind that if your needs are short-term (like branding or a website), a freelancer or agency is probably enough.
• You’re in a crowded market: Great design can give you a competitive edge, especially in markets crowded with clunky products. For instance, take a product like the insurance platform Lemonade. Lemonade is in one of the stodgiest industries (insurance) but consistently stands out for its clean, user-friendly UI.
• Your product is hard to use or navigate: Similarly, ** ** if users are getting confused, dropping off, or constantly asking for help, that’s a strong sign you need a Product Designer to improve usability. Good UX can reduce support tickets and increase customer satisfaction.
• Poor customer retention/high churn: Poor design (or a lack of design) is not the only contributor to churn, but it certainly does not help it. By bringing in outside expertise to craft the user experience, flow, and visual hierarchy of your product, you can keep customers using your product longer, potentially lowering churn in the process.

Remember, design is more than picking colors and fonts.

A good Product Designer plays a key role in establishing a visual identity for your product, a foundational understanding of your customer, and a brand that customers trust and believe in. Hiring a designer is not just a matter of having someone with good taste review your product; it’s hiring someone to shape how people experience your brand.

How to Write a Product Designer Job Posting

Your job posting will dictate the type of candidate that you attract and bring into your hiring funnel. Bland or generic job postings may appeal to a broader audience, but they won’t necessarily appeal to the right hire that your team needs.

Keep in mind that the Product Designer role is a highly specialized position. You need a well-rounded person in that role, so you need to make sure your job description covers all the bases.

At a high level, though, a good job posting begins with a job description that covers the responsibilities and duties of the role. Start by describing the role, challenges the hire will work on, and skills they will need. Then move on to write your job posting, which you will use to market the role and attract ideal candidates.

When writing a job posting, I like to start with the following three things:

• Assess the needs of my team
• Define the ideal candidate profile I want to hire
• Note the responsibilities and roles of the job

And from there, the basic job posting template I use includes the following:

• A company description: Go beyond the basics and use clear, descriptive language to give your prospective candidates a taste of what your company culture is like.
• Summarize the role: Make sure to include a brief description of the role, key responsibilities, and experiences you are looking for, as well as the tech stack that your team uses and the product category that the Product Designer will own. Make sure to define success for the role, too, and the team structure.
• Skills: Are you looking for someone with strong aesthetic chops? An expert on color theory and brand building? Or how about a UX researcher? Make sure to outline exactly what you need from this role for it to make the right impact in your company.
• Portfolio and work samples: For designers, especially, it’s essential to ask for and review samples of their prior work to gauge their skill and ability.
• Benefits and location: Finally, include where the job is (if it’s not remote), expectations around being in the office, and benefits that come with the job.
• Compensation: I’m an advocate for being upfront about compensation. Pay will depend on location and experience, though data from Indeed suggests the average is around $124,000/year, with a range extending down to $69,000 and up to $224,000.

Those figures are base salaries; you will need to factor in equity and bonus structures as well. Check out my guide for writing effective job postings for an in-depth walkthrough of this.

The Hiring Process for Hiring a Product Designer: What to Expect

Interviewing is a key step in any hiring process, but many companies aren’t using their interviews strategically.

This especially goes for Product Designer interviews, where you can gauge whether a candidate is truly the right fit for your company. When interviewing a Product Designer, I recommend involving multiple team members in the interview process so you receive multiple diverse, informed perspectives on each candidate.

At a high level, the typical product designer interview process looks like this:

• A recruiter screen: Make sure the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role and is likely to be a fit for the organization. Focus on their expectations for the role, basic skill questions, personality fit, and their interview timelines.
• A portfolio review: A portfolio review can give you a good first impression of a candidate beyond the recruiter screen. This allows you to review the work the candidate has done and see their process on paper. For a design role, the portfolio is often more instructive than a resume!
• A hiring manager screen: Make sure there is a strong chance that the candidate fits the role. Focus on getting to know the candidate at both a professional and personal level to ascertain whether they match the role needs and your internal culture.
• A “meet the team” interview: This could be a full-day or a half-day, depending on the size of your company and product organization. This is typically made of two parts:
  • A take-home project that the candidate presents.
  • 1:1 interviews with potential colleagues to assess the candidate’s skills, thought processes, and leadership approach.

It’s worth calling out a quick note about the take-home project.

This is your chance to gauge whether the person you’re interviewing is a good fit for the role, and not just a good fit on paper. Common take-home projects for designers include:

• A case study to present: For UX-centered roles, you could present a problem to the candidate and ask for a case study presentation to demonstrate their process for researching and solving the problem.
• A design project to complete: For design-centered roles, you could present a part of your product or a hypothetical scenario and ask for a real design example from the candidate.
• A real-time exercise: If you want to see a candidate’s design chops and process in real time, you could have them design something live in a whiteboard exercise. In-person interviews afford physical whiteboards for this, but with tools like Figma and Miro, you can also wireframe over a shared screen.

Look for good design and aesthetic choices here, as well as:

• The ability to tell a user-centric story
• Evidence to support their decisions
• Examples of their customer research process
• Their ability to collaborate and work with others
• Creative acumen, attention to detail, and design range

The project should be closely aligned with the work you are looking for this new hire to do, and because of that, you should pay the candidate for their time. I recommend setting an hourly rate based on what a designer of this level would be paid, and communicate clear expectations around the amount of time you expect them to take on the project. This allows you to cap the pay per candidate and get a sense of what each candidate can do with the same amount of time.

Following this, you will review the candidate’s performance with your team to make a final hiring decision. You may want to include the following as you evaluate and compare candidates:

• A post-interview panel to discuss, followed by a decision by the hiring manager.
• Reference checks to ensure the candidate has good character and standing, and to make sure you haven’t missed anything across the hiring process.
• Make an offer!

Now that we’ve explained the interview process at a macro level, we need to specify how to engage the Product Designer candidates through specific questions, skill-based assessments, and team needs. The devil is always in the details!

How to Interview a Product Designer

Hiring a great Product Designer means going beyond checking for software proficiency or visual flair — it requires a deep understanding of how they approach a wide-ranging scope of work, solve problems, and collaborate with others.

Product designers are involved in every stage of the design process, from research and ideation to prototyping and production. Your interview process should reflect that breadth.

Furthermore, hiring well (for any position) means investing in people who shape the culture and elevate your organization’s work and level of quality. Anyone you hire will define the team just as much as the work itself.

I like to split the designer interview into two parts:

• Seeking out the required skills (again, these should be based on your company’s needs)
• Specific questions to assess those skills and competencies

Let’s walk through both parts.

Skills to Look For

Product Designers touch every aspect of the product – from bringing a concept to life and getting it in front of customers to evaluating consumer feedback and ensuring the offering reflects the brand’s values.

As such, you need to seek out a deep base of skills, including:

• Visual and interaction design: Ability to craft intuitive, aesthetically pleasing interfaces that align with the organization’s brand and enhance user experience across devices and platforms.
• User-centered problem solving: Skill in identifying user pain points and creating effective, practical solutions that balance usability, feasibility, and business objectives.
• Research and insight gathering: Experience in conducting or synthesizing user research and usability testing to inform design decisions with real user data and behavior.
• Cross-functional collaboration: A team-first approach that enables smooth collaboration with product managers, engineers, marketers, and other stakeholders throughout the product lifecycle.
• Prototyping and iteration: Proficiency in quickly translating ideas into wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs — and refining them based on feedback and results.
• Strategic thinking: Understanding of how design decisions contribute to product strategy, business goals, and market differentiation, especially in fast-paced startup environments.
• Adaptability: Ability to stay flexible, thrive in ambiguity, and pivot quickly as priorities shift. Also, a mindset that embraces change, handles evolving requirements without fuss, and is energized by working in dynamic, fast-paced settings.
• Business acumen: A solid understanding and appreciation of the business context surrounding the product, including organizational goals, market positioning, and key performance metrics. A real understanding of business enables design decisions that take both user needs and the organization’s strategy into account.

Startups can’t afford to make hiring mistakes. To avoid the pitfalls of a bad hire, you must identify the necessary skills to achieve your company’s goals and satisfy immediate needs. From there, your hiring team must ensure the candidate who receives an offer is qualified for the role both technically and as a cultural fit. The best way to determine whether your hire is the right person is to prepare a thorough evaluation process.

What Questions to Ask in an Interview

By focusing on skills first, hiring teams will be better informed about how to evaluate the candidate and what the relevant probing and follow-up questions are. For Product Designers, you should get a good sense of their design chops from their portfolio and case study presentation. For the interviews, I recommend asking questions to probe for their processes and working styles to make sure they are a good match for your company beyond their design capability.

As you’ll see below, there are several key themes to hit on in your questions. I’ve broken them down into the following sections:

• Storytelling ability
• Design thinking
• Communication and collaboration
• Research and analysis
• Startup-mindset

Storytelling Ability

You’re not looking for someone who offers cookie-cutter designs or a surface-level understanding of how to connect your business’s value to real people’s needs. This is your chance to determine whether your candidates can craft effective messaging that grabs attention and lays out a compelling narrative.

Some recommended questions related to storytelling ability include:

• Could you select a specific project from your design portfolio and guide us through your design process from concept to completion? Please focus on a project where you faced significant challenges, explaining the key design decisions you made, why you made them, how they addressed user needs or project goals, and the outcome of those decisions.
• Describe a specific instance where your product design solution directly improved user experience or contributed to achieving a key business objective. What was the problem you identified, what approach did you take to solve it, and how did you measure the impact of your solution?
• Can you provide an example of a project where you successfully integrated core brand elements throughout the product lifecycle while balancing organizational values and customer needs? Walk us through your approach from ideation to launch and explain how you ensured consistency.

Design Thinking

Technical skills and acumen only get you so far. Strategic thinking, problem-solving capability, and creativity are the hallmarks of a great design thinker.

Some recommended questions related to design thinking include:

• Describe a product you recently led from concept to launch. Walk us through your key decisions at each phase, including how you validated your approach, collaborated with stakeholders, and measured success. What specific outcomes or learnings emerged from this process?
• Tell us about the most challenging product design problem you’ve tackled. What was your process for diagnosing the issue, developing and validating your solution, and implementing it? What measurable impact did your solution have on users and business objectives?
• How do you prioritize features and functionality when designing a product while ensuring the usability and accessibility of your designs for a diverse range of users?

Communication and Collaboration

The Product Designer role works across functions and product lifecycles. This role needs to be capable of working independently and moving the ball forward across multiple categories of deliverables, but also needs to align with an array of project team members to ensure a cohesive vision.

Some recommended questions related to communication and collaboration include:

• Tell us about a time when you successfully collaborated with cross-functional teams throughout the design process. How did you facilitate effective communication and alignment across disciplines?
• Describe an example of how you involved Product and Engineering in your design process, especially when there were conflicting priorities or feedback. How did you navigate these challenges and establish alignment?
• Can you describe a time when you faced resistance to your design decisions and how you handled it? How did you arrive at a resolution?
• How do you approach feedback from others in your design process?

Research and Analysis

It’s not enough to have a beautiful design or an expertly coded application. You need someone with curiosity and a passion for testing and refinement. Your greatest asset is your consumer base. The Product Designer can play a key role in ensuring that consumer feedback, changing market needs, and pain points are integrated into future iterations of the product.

Some recommended questions related to research and analysis include:

• Share an example of how you have incorporated user feedback into a project’s design process and describe the impact this had on the final outcome.
• Describe a time you combined qualitative and quantitative feedback to inform your design decisions and explain how this shaped the direction of your work.
• Tell us about a project where you directly used customer feedback or interviews to influence your design. What changes did you make, and what was the result?
• Give an example of how you’ve pursued continuous improvement or learning in your design practice and the effect it had on your work or team.
• How do you balance creativity with practicality when designing a product?

Start-up Mindset

Start-ups love to talk about agility, but what does this look like in practice? A great Product Designer can work at speed and scale without letting things fall through the cracks. They’re capable of pivoting and responding to evolving internal or external needs.

Some recommended questions related to start-up mindsets include:

• Describe a time you faced a design challenge with limited resources or a tight deadline. How did you adapt when requirements or timelines shifted, and what was the outcome?
• What specifically motivates you to pursue this role and work on our projects, and how do your past experiences align with what we’re looking for?
• Share how you stay current with the latest trends and advancements in the industry, and give an example of how you’ve applied new knowledge or practices to your design work.

What Makes Someone a Good Fit for a Startup Product Designer Role?

Nearly every tech company calls itself “agile and fast-paced,” but this is especially true for early to mid-stage startups.

In early-stage startups, Product Designers play an influential role in the success of the company: they literally shape what the product looks like and how it functions. Product Designers are often advocates for what the customers need, and must work closely and get buy-in from their colleagues and leadership to be successful.

In the early stages, Product Designers are expected to deal with ambiguity, but the level of ambiguity can be uncomfortable for some in the early stages. For younger companies, there are few decisions truly ironed out and less of an understanding of customer needs and challenges.

This could present a world of opportunity to a Product Designer, or lead to analysis paralysis.

Even the best Product Designers may not be ideal fits for an early-stage startup environment. Beyond the core skills listed above, look for someone who:

• Is comfortable working with many unknowns.
• Can work well with engineers and build buy-in for product decisions.
• Does not need a process; they can help create the process.
• Can switch directions based on the needs of the business.
• Makes decisions quickly, but backs them up with data.
• Deftly juggles team challenges, customer demands, and business needs without letting things slip through the cracks.

Beyond being analytical, thoughtful, and customer-centric, a good candidate for a startup environment will be able to think and move quickly depending on evolving needs or shifting circumstances.

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