I interviewed for a Staff Product Designer role and was asked to present two case studies in 30 minutes, likely the worst format I’ve encountered for a lead level interview. For a role where you're expected to demonstrate depth, there simply wasn’t enough time. I was cut off before finishing my presentation, even though the interviewer asked how much time I needed but then didn't wait for my answer before launching into his own questions. The questioning style felt overly rigid and at times misaligned with how design actually works. One example: I was asked to describe a time I used storytelling with engineering that directly resulted in an increase in UX resources, a pretty specific and arguably leading question. It came off as more of a fishing expedition for a particular answer than a genuine dialogue. Overall, the process felt like it prioritized rehearsed questions over meaningful conversation. I’d encourage the team to consider interview formats that give candidates space to go deep and demonstrate their thinking, especially for a leadership-level role.

The interview process itself was easy. Simple recruiter screen, then hiring manager chat in which I presented two case studies in 45 minutes (had to be very brief in order to fit time at the end for questions) and then met with the Head of Product (I think? I can't remember the exact title). Similar to the other Glassdoor interview on this role, the questions were hyper specific and indicated extremely low levels of design maturity at this org. I made it through all 3 rounds, waited over a week for the recruiter to tell me they had made an offer to a different candidate before I even got the chance to finish my last interview (?) and would (probably) not be moving forward. Seems kind of silly they didn't just cancel my last interview, but I digress. Interestingly enough, the role remains open on the website, I've seen it reposted numerous times since my final interview on different job boards, and there was zero feedback on the interview. Convinced this was a ghost posting and they're not serious about actually hiring this role. Could have just told me the team didn't feel it was a fit instead of lying about closing it.