Product Design Interview at “Avo Automation — A division of SLK software”

In this, I will tell you the questions that were asked and the answers I gave. It will be a thorough and concise walk.

P.S.: Feel free to excuse my over-excited face :p

Resume Shortlisting

By an internal referral, I gave my resume for review.

Tip: Resume grilling (asking why and how of every keyword written in your resume) is a very common practice here. So make your resume accordingly.

The mistake I had done was not taking the follow-ups. So take updates once in seven days. After 1 month, I received a call for the interview.

Preparation for the Interview

To be honest, preparation for the interview starts from the moment you decide to be a Product Designer. Last moment preparation is like a cherry on the cake. Later in the article, you will see a complete twist and a lesson.

So few last moment preparations were :

1. Viewing the profile of the interviewer.
2. Reading basic laws of UX from https://lawsofux.com/
3. Understanding why and how of keywords in the resume.
4. Practising explaining two of my best works.
5. Reading about the company via their website and news mentions.

Interview Round 1

Here comes the twist. She didn’t ask me any of the things which I prepared at the last moment. Rather, she was checking my love for product design.

Some major questions were :

Q1. What design trends have you observed during 2021?

Ans: You can get this from various medium articles.

My addition : Unnecessary fear among designers that technology will make them unemployed. To all the designers out there, I want to say that technology is just automating the manual part of our work so that we can focus on the creative aspects of our job. They are just liberating the human potential. So instead of being fearful, be happy and rock the world.

Q2. What is inclusive design?

Q3. How will you be collaborating with a developer?

My Ans: Few tips and tricks to collaborate with developers are :

1. Since they also care about the product, so it’s okay for them to have some opinions that don’t match my opinions. So knowing “why behind their opinions” and then resolving it, is the key to satisfy both of us.
2. While working in a team you get to know what might be the points of disagreement. So, try to back them up with data.

Would love to listen to a few of yours in the comments !!

Ending of Round 1

She ended with “Are there any questions for me ?”

You all might know multiple answers to this by now, like What a day in your life looks like? but I will highly recommend you to ask for feedback about your interview and your profile.

I got the reply as “Your interview went pretty well. You are energetic and have a young mind. But I am a little unsure about the quality of your work after seeing your portfolio.” So I got to know my values are good but my work needs refining. So till the next round, I worked towards improving the quality of my work. After a week I got a call for the next round

Interview Round 2

Tip: Last moment preparations give confidence so try not to avoid it.

Some questions were:

Q1. If you don’t have any prior knowledge about the product you are working on, how will you start the process?

My Ans: To answer like a pro, frame star answers in the format: Situation, Task, Action and Result.

The tricky part: If like a generic-bookish person, I would have said that “I will first empathize” so I might have gotten a negative point. As about a thing which I myself not aware of, How can I ask questions to people regarding that?

So my answer was:

1. Situation and task: When I did an intern assignment for a company named Bimape, I was unaware of the concept they assigned to me.
2. Action: So I researched the problem statement using the 5 why method to see broader and to understand the problem.
3. Result: Later, I conducted interviews confidently and according to the deadline given to me, I am satisfied with the end product.

Apart from this, I will recommend that whenever you join a company, spend your time understanding the product and people involved in making that. That way you might hardly face this scenario of not knowing anything about the context.

Q2. What are the products you love?

My Ans: In digital, I love the Amazon website because whenever I read an article related to best practices in design. I can clearly see the implementation on their website and they care a lot about customer experience.

For non-digital, I love Biotique Lotions. They are budget-friendly and natural. They are easy to carry. They are visually aesthetic.

To ace this question, I will highly recommend you to watch Most UX Designers FAIL This Test In Interviews! — By AJ&Smart

Q3. What is storyboarding and does it come before wireframing?

Going above and beyond

As we know (1)³⁶⁵ = 1 but (1.01)³⁶⁵ = 37.7

So, to score at least 38 times more, always go above and beyond.

While seeing their Linkedin profile, I came across the term “Red-Blue Ocean theory”. Out of curiosity, I learnt the basics of it. In the interview, I used this term once. So now they became curious and asked me about it. While answering, I sensed their facial expressions and realised that I am going wrong. After the interview got over, I introspected it and guess what the first thing I did?

I texted via Linkedin to my recruiter, in a humble tone asking for a correct reply. I learnt a lot and he might be impressed by my curiosity.

Screenshot of my LinkedIn chat with my interviewer

Bonus tips :

1. Reach 10 minutes early. If it’s virtual then join the link 10 minutes early.
2. Greet the person with their names like Hello Ashwitha ma’am.
3. Don’t forget to take a rest. Earn a brownie point by looking fresh during the interview.

All the best to the folks preparing for the interviews. Have a blast !!

Keep reading. Keep exploring. Keep going