4 rounds - HR screening, Portfolio Review, Design Challenge and Culture Fit Interview
HR Screening:
A 30 minute call to discuss your past experiences, your interests with regard to the role and how you would like to grow as a designer. HR was pleasant to chat with.
Portfolio Review:
This round was conducted differently from most companies. They sent me a blank spider diagram with all the skill sets of a designer (including technical and business) and got me to rate all of them on the spider diagram before the interview. They specifically asked me to prepare 2 projects to present. Naturally, I prepared 2 projects that showcased my strengths as marked in the spider diagram. During the interview, the interviewers went very in depth into 2 projects to understand my design process and reasons for every decision made. Be prepared for them to ask about challenges and how you would have done things differently while looking at it now.
Design Challenge:
This round was the most challenging, The HR assigned me a design challenge that was focussed on design research and consulting, both skills which I highlighted as my strengths. I was expected to prepare for a co-design workshop where the interviewers would role play as clients looking to engage me as a design consultant. I prepared templates for persona creation, user journey maps, idea prioritisation matrix, on-the-spot prototyping components and usability testing plans. I was given 1 hour to conduct the co-design workshop, which ended up being highly focussed on on-the spot prototyping. After the exercise, the interviewers told me the focus was meant to be on getting high level information about client needs rather than going too in depth for the discussion on designs, but commended my on-the-spot prototyping capabilities.
Culture Fit Interview:
This round was conducted by more senior staff where they asked about how I typically respond to criticism or negative feedback. They asked about the way I would respond to workplace racism in the case of micro aggression and outright aggression.
The whole process took 1.5 months. After the 4th round, the wait was about 2.5 weeks before I received an official offer. As for in between the other rounds, the updates from HR were pretty quick.