Purpose change ⚖️

Normally, UX tests are there to test the skills and abilities of a designer and to see if the approach fits the team. I wanted to change this and thought it made sense to see this test as a small "trial exercise". UX designers should do the work they will be expected to do in daily business, so they could see if this is for them or not. The disadvantage was that I had to create a separate challenge for each vacancy and its area, but it was worth it to me. At the same time, these tasks should have nothing to do with the actual product and be something completely independent and not reusable for the DCS.

Be transparent in the hiring process 💎

Collaboration with the HR team is very important when it comes to hiring new designers, it was important to sit down with the HR team regularly, answer questions from candidates and discuss the process and status. The goal was that the candidates should always feel that they were being listened to and valued.

Not only skill check but also a check for the hire 💡

This new approach of the challenges supported me also to hire the right people for the team, because I can also directly ask for feedback how they liked the challenge and if this is something they really want to do. But anyway, the candidates also had to present and show they process similar to a normal challenge, even if the skill wasn't the main focus of it. But if you want to hire someone who needs to push UX topics and defend their solutions, then it's important that they at least can tell and show why they came to the solution.

New hires are more likely to choose us at the end

The probability of a candidate choosing the DCS was more than twice as high as if we had only done normal challenges and tests with the designers. One candidate even actively decided against hiring from another company and came to DCS specifically because our hiring process was clearer and more open than other companies.