Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams

by Peter Merholz

Portfolio presentation Begin the candidate’s day with a 45- to 60-minute portfolio presentation. Everyone speaking later to the candidate should attend — this way the candidate doesn’t need to walk through their work over and over again. This also gives interviewers a chance to appreciate the candidate’s presentation skills, which are instrumental to a designer’s success. When preparing the candidate before the Day of Interviews, encourage them in their portfolio review to share some personal background, to dive deeper on fewer projects (as opposed to presenting a little about a vast array of work), and to leave some time for discussion. If the location of the portfolio presentation has room for more attendees, open the invitation to the broader design team, with optional attendance. This has two benefits for team members: they can engage in the hiring process, even if they’re not conducting interviews; and it exposes them to new design work and how other people talk about it. A teaching opportunity emerges when design leadership’s assessment of a candidate’s work differs from their team members. This encourages explanations of what leadership is looking for, and helps team members develop and refine their review skills.