Screening calls may seem old-fashioned in an age of AI recruiting tools, but they’re still one of the most valuable steps in the hiring process. Why? Because in less than 30 minutes, you can figure out if a candidate is worth moving forward — saving you and your team hours of time in deeper interviews.
And there’s one question that does more heavy lifting than any other:
“Tell me about your ideal design process from the beginning of a project to the end.”
Notice the word ideal. This isn’t about how they currently work (which may be shaped by leadership, resource constraints, or team culture). It’s about how they believe great design should happen.
Asking this question reveals two critical things:
- Communication skills – Can they clearly articulate how they work?
- Alignment with your team – Does their vision of design sync with how your org collaborates?
What to listen for
The strongest candidates usually describe a process that looks something like this:
- Starting with stakeholders → defining the problem with the team
- Collaboration early → brainstorming, design thinking sessions, and co-creation with product managers, developers, and leadership
- Grounding in research → user insights driving direction
- Co-creating solutions → sketching, prototyping, iterating with their team, not in a silo
- Testing with users → usability feedback and refinements
- Partnering in delivery → working closely with dev through implementation
- Checking their work → collaborating with QA to fix issues before launch
Red flags to watch for
If their answer sounds more like:
- “I take requirements and make wireframes.”
- “I design on my own, then hand things off.”
- “I make things look good.”
…then you’ve likely found someone who won’t thrive in a complex, collaborative design environment.
Why this matters
Most teams today need designers who can:
- Solve complex problems
- Work cross-functionally
- Bring people along in the process
A quick screening call and this one question can tell you if you’re talking to a collaborator, a problem-solver, and a communicator… or someone who sees design as only creating artifacts.
The takeaway
Next time you’re screening designers, there’s no need to overcomplicate it, ask them about their ideal process. The way they answer will tell you if you should move to the next phase of the interview process or not.
