Create perfect take-home assignments for Product Designers
Tags: management, hiring, design
Published: 2023-03-06 11:49:03

Take-home assignments for Product Designers (or, using different nomenclature, UI/UX Designers) have a mixed reputation. I’ve met very few people that truly enjoy doing them while job hunting, especially if the take-home assignments are a prerequisite to doing an interview. Still, back in my designer days, there’s been quite a few take-home assignments that I truly enjoyed doing.

Assignments can be an invaluable tool for determining the prospective candidate’s real-life skills and ability to do things in new domains, but you have to do them right.

When I started hiring product designers (a few years ago), I tried to establish a sort of a system for doing the hiring flow just right and making sure that the assignments are there to help me find a good match and not to get new product ideas for free (I consider this to be highly unethical).

Here’s the process that works best for me:

- Prospective candidates send you their CVs, cover letters and portfolios
- You pick those that resonate the most with what you are doing
- You do intro interviews to make sure you share the same overall approach to product design
- You send a take-home assignment for the designers to do
- As they get them done, you arrange a second call to go through what has been done

I want to focus on the take-home assignments and the review here, as the rest of this process is commonly employed in almost every industry and with every skilled profession.

# Take-home assignment

## Dos

### Keep it small

Rule number 1, or possibly even 0: never ever ask people to do more than a day’s worth of work for free. In fact, even asking them to spend 6 hours may be pushing it. For me, the hard limit is around the 6-hour mark.

### Define the assignment clearly

Give your candidates a good overview of what they have to do and why.

### Give context

A good Product designer doesn’t just make pretty pictures. They make stuff that drives some performance metrics, and for that to happen they have to know which metrics they have to be driving. So, if your assignment involves your own product (I’m definitely not a fan of this) give them some numbers and KPIs. If your assignment involves some other product, like a competitor, give them some fake context. Just make sure to evaluate based on the provided context.

Here’s some extra context I’ve provided in the past:

> Here are a few things that would impact *our* decision:
> 
> - Number of Instagram and Twitter followers the applicant has
> - Whether the applicant represents a reputable company
> - Their technical skills (but that’s pretty obvious)

### Provide the style guidelines

The last thing you want a product designer during a 6-hour take-home assignment is to create a visual identity for a product you thought up. Providing the styles and colour schemes, specifying the typography or even giving them a UI kit to work with will greatly improve their experience and help you evaluate their performance in a real-life scenario.

### Use an existing product as a starting point

Using a product that already exists in some way gives your candidates a way to find more info on their own. This means that you’ll be able to evaluate their Google skills and critical thinking too. Just make sure you don’t use your product.

## Don’ts

### Don’t ask for free work

A completed take-home assignment should not have any ability to benefit your company. Even if you think you’ll never use the ideas expressed there, avoid asking people to do some changes to your existing product. Back in my product designer days, I encountered this sort of behaviour from several major companies, and I still think it’s pretty lame.

If you really want to use your own domain, use a competing product as a starting point.

### Don’t go into *too* much detail

You need to make sure the product designer doing the task is competent, and the worst way to test this is by giving them detailed wireframes or a pixel-by-pixel description of what you want. But if you really like to control everything your colleagues do, this can be a good place to show this, so that you only have to work with people who enjoy this.

### Don’t make the task too vague

Clearly specify the deliverables and avoid vague things like “Design an app”. If it cannot be a Jira task in a self-respecting company, it definitely cannot be a take-home assignment.

Here’s an example from a real take-home assignment I wrote:

> Please only create the **individual application** view. Don’t bother with the overview of all applications or any advanced views unless you want to include them in this view (for example, as a side panel with the latest entries).
> 

## Can you use ChatGPT?

Using ChatGPT to write test assignments may seem like a great way to save time. However, I would say that fully outsourcing something a real human being has to spend their time on to an AI is not particularly ethical.

Besides, by default, a ChatGPT-generated take-home assignment will be *weird*. Here’s an example:

> Sure, here's an example take-home assignment for a Product Designer that should take approximately 6 hours to complete:
> 
> 
> Design Brief: Redesign the Homepage for a Mobile News App
> 
> Background:
> 
> Our client is a leading mobile news app with millions of active users. They have requested a redesign of their homepage to improve engagement and retention. The current homepage has several content sections, including top stories, recommended articles, and trending topics. However, the client has received feedback from users that the homepage is cluttered and overwhelming. They are looking for a fresh and modern design that highlights the most relevant content and makes it easier for users to discover new stories.
> 
> Objective:
> 
> Your objective is to redesign the homepage of the mobile news app to improve engagement and retention. Your design should:
> 
> - Simplify the content sections to make it easier for users to navigate and discover new stories.
> - Highlight the most relevant content based on user behavior and preferences.
> - Incorporate modern design trends to create an engaging and visually appealing experience.
> 
> Requirements:
> 
> - Your design should be mobile-responsive and optimized for iOS and Android devices.
> - You should include at least three content sections on the homepage, such as top stories, recommended articles, and trending topics.
> - You can use any design tool or software you prefer, such as Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD.
> - You should provide a brief explanation of your design decisions and how they address the client's objectives.
> 
> Deliverables:
> 
> - Your deliverables should include a high-fidelity design mockup of the homepage, as well as a brief explanation of your design decisions.
> - You should submit your deliverables in a single PDF or web link.
> - Your submission should be no more than 5 pages in length.
> 
> Timeline:
> 
> - You should complete the assignment within 6 hours of receiving it.
> - You should submit your deliverables within 48 hours of receiving the assignment.
> 
> Note: This is just an example assignment, and you can customize it based on your specific needs and requirements. Additionally, make sure to communicate clear expectations, evaluation criteria, and provide a realistic timeline for candidates to complete the assignment.
> 

But something you definitely could and should use ChatGPT for is evaluating the take-home assignments you have written.

Here’s the evaluation of the one I wrote last year:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o6tf4hrsbx79cslnhrsc.png)


## Can designers use AI Tools to complete a take-home assignment?

[Galileo AI](https://www.usegalileo.ai) is an upcoming AI tool that would be able to help designers do simple standard screens like an onboarding, signup screen or an item list faster. Personally, I think that using tools like this one will be a great competitive advantage. Not because they will be able to create any production-ready designs, but because they may be able to save the designer’s time when doing some boring filler stuff and help them focus on the really hard bits.

# Review

Did you think the take-home assignment itself was the main course? Not at all!

The review, that second call, is the big moment when you and your colleagues can finally understand the candidate’s approach to design, see the way they think and make a decision on whether they will be a good match for your team (and whether your team will be a good match for them).

Here are a few tips for the review stage:

## Evaluate the process

Ask the designer about the way they approached the task, their process, and their step-by-step approach. Don’t focus on a particular sequence that you imagine to be ideal, just make sure you will be able to work together. An unconventional process executed beautifully could be much more beneficial for the company than someone doing everything by the book and failing.

## Collaborate

The review is not an interrogation, but a collaboration. Your goal here is to evaluate how you can work together, so try to play together.

## Don’t be too critical

Provide honest feedback, but always start with what you think is good and don’t spend all day telling the candidate how much you hate their design. Even if you do hate it, try to be as objective as possible.