It's time to kill the Design Challenge.

In the last few years we have seen a huge shift in how companies are hiring designers. Gone are the days where, armed with a well presented portfolio, a decent presence on social media, and dare I even whisper it, a dribbble account, you would at least get in the door. But now? Now we are expected to compete in a gladiatorial arena in order to prove our worthiness.

The pinnacle of which, the showcase if you will, is “the design challenge”.

I get it (kinda).

There is no denying that risk and sentiment have changed in recent years. Companies want to be sure they are making the right choice. Finances are precariously balanced and employees are investments, so returns are expected.

But the idea of asking them to spend their time, to do work they love, on your problem is not the way to conduct due diligence.

“But…”

Hey, hey, calm down. I see you at the back with your hand raised, waving profusely to get my attention. There’ll be chance for questions at the end. However I have done you the service of predicting them here and prepared a few possible answers;

“We pay for their time”

Oh well, look at you. Move over Milton Friedman, you’ve cracked the fundamentals of economics, the principles of capitalism.

Look, it’s great that you offer that. But how much of their time are you willing to pay for? You may say to “only spend a couple of hours” but the reality is, the minute that brief hits their inbox that designer is spending ten times that working on it.

The truth is, we don’t switch off. We don’t stop thinking about problems the minute we step away because we don’t step away.

“It’s a solved problem”

A problem you’ve already solved? Well that’s just great. So you’ve spent time, iterating, testing, and collaborating?

You already have your solution, that you’ve all agreed on, and now you want a designer, an almost complete stranger, to bust in and say “no, no that’s all wrong”.

There is very little chance of convincing you to see something differently. The game is already lost.

“We give feedback”

OK when? Within hours? Days? Weeks? And this feedback you talk about, is it written? Will we discuss it together?

Designers lean into collaboration, iteratively sharing our work with others, batting it back and forth until we are happy.

You need to begin to understand what it feels like to share work with people. Design, inherently, is an emotionally driven occupation. We spend as much time convincing ourselves that the work we produce is good enough, let alone other people.

I mean, you could open multiple Slack channels to allow this collaboration, but do you really want to do that?

“We want to see their thought process”

Their thought process? You may think you’re looking at their thought process, but you’re just looking at an output.

The only thing you need to know about their thought process is the excruciating thinking they do the minute they throw their efforts over the fence.

Sometimes it’s in these moments, the “I could have done” moments that allow us to produce our best work. The beauty of these moments is stripped away from us, as soon as we hit ‘Send’.

“OK…so what do we do instead?”

As an old boss once said, “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” (and yes, I too believed that his entire persona was crafted from a 1980’s business book).

Before I make my suggestions, there needs to be an understanding that you are never going to completely eliminate the risk when hiring. Even if you play a blinder there’s always a chance of culture clashes, mismatched personalities, and secret affairs between team members (see what I did there?).

So with that said, here are my suggestions.

Look at their portfolio, I mean really look.

The crowd gasps! The shock! The horror! In order for them to get to this stage you would have at least glanced at it. Now is the time to really comb it.

A designer’s portfolio is the perfect way to get a feel for who they really are. Their styling, their layout, their tone, their typography choices, the parts of it that have been tweaked to death.

Be aware of how they communicate as they’ll be doing this the majority of the time they work for you.

No doubt they have at least one case study, read it, don’t skim, read. Reflection is a masterful tool to have as a designer. And unless they are a complete psychopath, they would have produced this after they’d done the work.

Maybe they have another creative outlet. If they write, read it. If they make music, listen.

They’ve taken the time to present themselves to you, and done their research about your company. You should extend the same courtesy to them.

Let them talk about their work instead.

As much as I agree with David Bowie’s perspective, that artists would prefer to spend more time doing the work than having to explain it. One, we are not artists, we are designers, and two, part of being a designer is being able to explain our choices and thought process.

As mentioned before, reflection allows growth. Invite them in, virtually or physically and let them present their work to you. It doesn’t have to be a full blown presentation. In fact it could just be something that supplements a case study.

Let them go deeper (bites tongue).

If they’ve been savvy, they will still have the design file, get it open, allow them to bring more depth to the story. It’s here that you’ll get to see how their work has progressed throughout, and their ability to articulate choices.

See how they respond to being challenged on a particular decision they have made, yet be aware that ‘It just felt right’ is a perfectly acceptable answer.

Listen to how they react to criticism in a public setting, from people they don’t have an already established relationship with.

Do not look at whether they name their layers, or how they present their working out. Design files are scratch pads, never polished, never finished. They are what some love to call “living documents” (ugh, I’m off for a shower).

Do it live.

I was tempted to use that Bill O’Reilly .gif, but didn’t because you already thought of it, didn’t you?

If you really want to understand how a designer thinks then allow them to take part in a live challenge.

I’m not talking about them sharing their screen whilst you watch on in anticipation at what they’ll do next. The last thing a designer wants is a Kalashnikov pressing firmly into their back as they adjust the inner padding of a rectangle.

It’s here that you will both (I’m assuming it will be two of you) work to solve a problem. So, you have a chicken, a fox and a bag of grain… no no, not that sort of problem.

It will be a new problem to them, and, here’s the kicker, to you too.

“This sounds interesting but how do I do that?”

Ah ha, thought I had done predicting your questions aye? OK here’s my take.

Head to ChatGPT, or whatever you used to help craft your job posting. I’m sorry, look sometimes it’s just too easy, and when the ball sits up perfectly, you just have to swing.

Here’s an example of a prompt you could use, feel free to edit.

I’m interviewing for a design role, I’m the interviewer. I need a small challenge that we will work on together. We will spend about 30 minutes to an hour on it. Create me a small scenario that will allow us to collaborate together on possible solutions. Keep it short, maybe less than 500 words. The purpose is to learn about their design thinking.

What’s this? A free prompt? Without having to sign up to a newsletter, or write a ridiculous phrase in the comments? That’s right.

Share your screen as you do this, be sure to hide the sidebar, no one wants to show the world their chat history. By being transparent, you’ll reinforce that whatever it generates is new to you too.

“But how will I assess them?”

Really? Probably the same way you were doing anyway. Listen to them, where do they start? What do they ask? How do they involve you? What tools do they reach for? Be prepared for them to hold up scrappy pieces of paper, articulate their thoughts out loud or start a document.

This is the work, the work they’ll be doing 90% of the time. Ideas are just balls of yarn that are played with, and sometimes to unravel them you grab an end and just shake. It’s much easier with more than one person so don’t be afraid to interject or add some ideas of your own.

See how they react to these. Are they dismissive? Do they welcome them in but gently critique them?

Be aware of how you react too, you’re also being assessed here. How does that feel?

Where to next?

Look, I am not going to sit here and suggest that any of this is easy, for either side. Every hour you spend hiring, is an hour not spent building, I get that.

This is an investment, not just in your company, but a person, an individual that has spent considerable time honing their skills, and worked hard to articulate them.

Asking them to distill that into a 3-4 hour design task? It’s the equivalent of asking a comedian to make you laugh on the spot.

They’re not clowns.

Neither are we.