Questions to ask a design executive in an interview
Questions to ask a design executive in an interview
A lot of companies do not know how to interview design executives.
To hire the best, you need to give them an interview experience that makes them believe in the company and believe you will be an enabler of great design.
Often I hear from design executives they had an underwhelming interview experience and didn't feel as the company would be able to best support them drive design forward in the organisation, often based on the questions they are asked.
Asking the right questions to extract the information is critical to make the right hire, but also important for the interviewee to feel that this company knows what they are doing, or humble enough to not know.
You have to remember moving companies at leadership level is a huge life decision. There is often a lot of money tied up in stocks, bonuses, relocation, international schools (if they have kids) and potential disruption for their family.
There needs to be another level of detail in executive hiring.
What design leaders want to know from a company:
What remit will they have?
Where does design sit in the organisation?
Will design play a strategic part of the organisation? Or does design just execute a CPO’s vision?
Why are they hiring a design executive?
Who is the most senior sponsor for design?
What is the buy-in for design with the CEO? How do they view design?
Do they view design as a cost centre or a value creator?
How much does the design team cost? What is the budget to grow the team?
How stable is the organisation?
Has there been recent changes at board level? if so why?
Who has the budget for certain topics?
Questions to ask executives during interviews:
Business leadership:
#1: What makes you effective as a design executive?
#2: How much of your work does not directly relate to the design function?
i.e. strategic alignment with CEO, teaming up with CTO to accomplish a defined shared goal, and so on.
#3: How much of your time do you manage down and how much of your time do you manage up?
#4: What do you need from a company to be fully effective in your role and in the wider organisation?
#5: If you look back in your career of the times you got "design on the map" from a business point of view, can you break down how you got there?
#6: What is your experience in integrating design across an organisation linking it to business goals and driving successful outcomes? How did you do this?
#7: How do you measure and communicate the impact of design investments to the board and other C-level executives?
#8: What kind of leader are you? Are you someone who likes to be involved in the C-Suite, or are you someone who prefers to focus on the team and get in the weeds?
#9: What is your process when identifying gaps for innovation?
#10: How hands on do you want the CEO/Board to be in a day to day?
Are they looking for a Steve Jobs/Jony Ivy type relationship or someone who is more hands-off?
Design leadership:
#11: What products or services have you been part of that exceeded expectations? How?
#12: How do you ensure you're keeping a consistent pipeline of top designers?
#13: How do you ensure the team has strong internal mobility to keep retention high?
#14: How do you feel having responsibility of a design team that costs the business between £10-£100m per year? Have you experienced companies before questioning the value you bring to an organisation?
#15: Are traditional design metrics still relevant in today’s rapidly evolving world?
#16: How do you define the standard for design?
Looking into things such as craft, what that means for them, how they communicate standards across the team etc.
#17: How have you shaped and advocated for design culture?
Motivations/General:
#18: What do you need from an organisation to feel fully equipped to do your job?
#19: How do you grow leadership skills in design? Design leadership is a thing, what are the things amongst those things for people to evolve? example being design strategy. Design leadership is a specific type of work, we need to unpack the tasks itself.
#20: Where have you dealt with immense push back?
#21: Are you someone who prefers joining companies in innovation stages? Optimise? Build? Cost-cutting?
#22: Have you been involved with layoffs? How do you decide who to lay off and why?
#23: How do you deal with failure?
#24: How do you handle having to lay people off?
#26: Have you led a team whilst the company has been in a crisis or a difficult period?
To hire the right leader takes time. Hiring the wrong person can lead to missed gaps for innovation, poor retention, weak integration of design amongst other things.
My advice for hiring an executive is go to a higher level of detail. Create a long list, short list and fully understand what the top design leaders are being paid, sometimes the best leaders are ones you’ve probably never heard of because they are busy doing the work. You don’t need to just go after the big names who are on the public speaking circuit, there are many people capable of being a top design leader.
Instead of hiring a leader in the image of your current leaders think about how a design leader can add to your boardroom and not simply have similar types of leaders.
If you’re interested to hear how Verified is re-inventing executive search please do message me.
Until next time!