When to hire your first product designer
Hire your first product designer when engineers are deciding how the product looks and works by default, and customers are starting to notice.
The role in one sentence
Before writing a job post, say the role in one sentence. If you cannot, the role is not clear enough to hire for.
"We need a founding product designer: has shipped complex web application screens, works directly with engineers, and can do research and visual design alone."
Change the details to yours. In Evander this sentence is enough to create the job post, interview stages and scorecards as drafts; see how it works.
Job description template
[Company] is building [product]. You would be the first designer: you decide how the product works and looks, from rough flows to finished screens, and you work with the engineers who build it the same day.
What you will do
- Design flows and screens for new features from problem to shipped detail.
- Talk to users and watch them use the product.
- Build and keep a small design system the engineers actually use.
- Work in short loops with engineers; review what ships.
- Own the look of the product and the brand basics.
What we look for
- A portfolio with shipped product work, with your part made clear.
- You have designed dense application screens: tables, settings, workflows.
- You are comfortable doing research, interaction and visual design yourself.
- You can explain why a design is the way it is.
Add the location, the pay range and equity, and how the interview process runs. Several US states require a pay range in the post, and EU rules require telling candidates the range before the first interview.
Screening brief
A screening brief says who should get an interview. Use it yourself or give it to AI screening.
Must-haves
- A portfolio with shipped product work, not only concepts, because the job is shipping.
- Has designed complex application screens, because that is what the product is.
- Has worked directly with engineers without a product manager in between, because there is none.
Either of these profiles works
- Designer at an early-stage startup who covered everything.
- Designer from a strong product team who owned a product area end to end.
Bonuses
- Writes front-end code or prototypes in code.
- Has built a design system.
- Brand and marketing design skills.
Interview plan
| Stage | What it tests |
|---|---|
| Intro call (30 min, founder) | What they have shipped, what they want to do next. |
| Portfolio review (60 min) | Two projects in depth: the problem, the options they rejected, what shipped and what happened after. |
| Working session (90 min) | Work through a real problem from your product together. Tests thinking and collaboration, not polish. |
| Team conversation and references (60 min) | With an engineer: how they hand off, review and disagree. |
Scorecard
Rate each criterion from 1 to 4 with a written example, before the debrief and without seeing other ratings. More in interview scorecards.
| Criterion | What strong looks like |
|---|---|
| Problem framing | Starts with who the user is and what they are trying to do. |
| Interaction design | Handles states, errors and edge cases, not just the main screen. |
| Visual craft | Clear hierarchy, consistent spacing and type in shipped work. |
| Works with engineers | Designs with the build cost in mind and reviews the result. |
| Reasoning | Can explain and defend choices, and change them given a good argument. |
Interview questions
- Show me something you shipped. What did the first version look like, and why did it change?
- Tell me about a design that tested badly or failed after launch.
- How do you decide what not to design?
- What would you change first in our product, and what would you want to learn before changing it?
- How do you work with an engineer who disagrees with your design?
Common mistakes
- Judging the portfolio by how pretty it is instead of what shipped.
- Unpaid take-home redesigns of your product.
- Hiring a brand designer for a product design job, or the reverse.
This kit is also available as Markdown, free to copy and adapt, in the hiring-templates repository on GitHub.
Questions
When should a startup hire your first product designer?
Hire your first product designer when engineers are deciding how the product looks and works by default, and customers are starting to notice.
What should a job description for your first product designer include?
A short summary of the company and the role, four or five things the person will do, three or four requirements that can be checked, the location, the pay range and equity, and the interview process. Start from one sentence, for example: "We need a founding product designer: has shipped complex web application screens, works directly with engineers, and can do research and visual design alone."
What interview questions should I ask your first product designer?
Show me something you shipped. What did the first version look like, and why did it change? Tell me about a design that tested badly or failed after launch. How do you decide what not to design?
What are common mistakes when hiring your first product designer?
Judging the portfolio by how pretty it is instead of what shipped. Unpaid take-home redesigns of your product. Hiring a brand designer for a product design job, or the reverse.