What is it like to be a Designer at Hopin? What can you expect during the interview process? What factors into our hiring decision?
It is little exaggeration to say that Hopin moves at the speed of a rocketship. It's equally true that we hold ourselves to the highest standards of excellence in our work product. These are especially the case for our Design team, which is responsible for transforming all Hopin ideas into actual products.
In this article, we will give you a glimpse of Design at Hopin, how we work, and what our interview and evaluation process looks like.
The Design team
We are a group of strong individual contributors.
Every design team finds their identity as the design organization develops, based on what jobs need to be done, company structure, and the direction of the team.
In the case of Hopin, we are a fully remote company. Our designers are literally spread across the world—from Bali to Vancouver. We span more than a dozen time zones.
This is why we require every Designer to have a high level of independence.
We collaborate with busy teams across many time zones, so we often need to turn work around fast to keep Product Managers and Engineers unblocked.
Given this context, it helps to deliver a range of options first, alongside a few questions to help understand the problem better. Think of it as providing 80% solutions, 20% questions.
In this way, we're able to keep things moving for our teams, while continuing to build domain knowledge.
Independence is a core part of our design philosophy.
Many of our Designers have worked as freelancers in the past. They know their own patterns, their processes are solid, and they know how to get the team started around basic, ready ideas. This gives our Design team a lot of decisional power throughout the organization.
How do you approach teamwork across time zones?
Hopin is organized around small teams that have a lot of autonomy—from ideation through code delivery. Each team has a Designer, a Product Manager, an Engineering Manager, and a group of Developers.
Most of the design work happens around London/GMT time and New York City/EST time. Some overlap with these time zones is required. But we don't rely solely on video calls. And as each Product team has a different situation, we believe it's good for each team to find its own balance around working hours, work style, and workflow.
For example, one of our teams has a Designer in Spain, a PM in Toronto, and an EM in New Zealand. Clearly, there's not much overlap in time zones, yet the team has found clear ways to document their work and ideas using online tools.
They do have a weekly sync (yes, one of them will wake up very early or take the meeting after dinner!)—but once the objectives are set, the work flows asynchronously.
How do I apply for a design job at Hopin?
Designers who want to join Hopin should apply for one of the positions on our Careers Page.
We recommend you apply with a cover letter, a CV/resume, and an online portfolio.
- The best cover letters we receive are short and sweet.
- The best CVs we receive are simple, readable, and carry links to LinkedIn profiles and websites.
- The best portfolios we receive are ones where we can read about the designer's process, can see their design work, can get a sense of their UI proficiency, and can test a prototype.
- Digital portfolios work best because they can carry animations and dynamic content that PDFs can’t handle.
With that being said, every designer is unique, and we treat all applications with the same care and consideration regardless of format.
What happens after an application is selected?
After an application is selected by our team, you will have a first call with one of our Talent Acquisition Partners, who will share key information about the role and seek to understand your goals.
During this first call, the conversation will focus on your working experience, your interest in digital products, and design industry. This is also when we will dig into the scope of the role you applied for as well as Hopin’s expectations and culture.
What is the portfolio review meeting?
Candidates selected by our Talent Acquisition Partners will be asked to meet Hopin Designers and/or Design Managers for a portfolio review.
These meetings usually last one hour, during which there will be 10 minutes of introductions, 20 to 30 minutes of portfolio screen-shares on your end, a brief chat about process, and 10 minutes for your questions.
In our experience, candidates have done great at portfolio reviews when they have had multiple projects to show.
We know it’s hard to talk about multiple projects in such a short time. However we’ve found that the presentation of a single case study doesn’t give us enough understanding of a candidate’s design expertise, so we prefer to make it more dynamic—asking questions and jumping from one part to the next.
What can I expect for the design challenge?
Product Design
Product Design candidates that pass the portfolio review will be asked to perform a live whiteboard challenge within 7 to 10 days.
We use Miro for the challenge, and we will test your ability to solve a design problem in around 25 minutes. We will ask you to lead the meeting, and your audience will be a Design Lead and a Product Manager.
Don’t worry—we won’t ask you to design visuals or prototype animations. By this point, the Hopin Design team is convinced about your technical skills. Our goal in this session is to understand your process and how you communicate it.
This meeting normally lasts 45 minutes to allow for introductions, get into the challenge, and have some time at the end for your questions.
Brand Design
Brand Design candidates that pass the portfolio review will be asked to work on a take-home exercise.
For visual design work, we think this is the best format to give you the space and time to best express your visual ideas. You will have five days to complete the challenge and send it back to the Talent Acquisition Partners.
If your challenge is selected, we will ask you to present it to an audience of Senior Designers and other members of the Brand and Marketing Teams.
What happens after the challenge?
All candidates that pass the challenge will be asked to participate in a culture add session within seven to 10 days of the challenge presentation.
This session lasts 30 minutes, and it’s an open conversation about process. In the meeting, you’ll chat with two members of our Design team as well as Product Managers (depending on availability).
This meeting will be an open discussion, so we encourage you to bring your questions. It is important that you feel confident that Hopin is the right company for you, so consider this an opportunity to get to know us better.
After this final step, if our consensus is that you are a great match for us, we will move swiftly on to making an offer.
Conclusion: Keep an eye on the Hopin Careers Page
To close, Hopin is a values-driven organization and culture. For every new hire, we take into account our five core values:
- Prioritize Impact
- #NoEgo
- One Step Ahead
- Lead with Empathy
- Customer Champions
Our ambition is to make Hopin the most rewarding professional experience of each of our employees' lives. That means working on problems that have major, global impact; building valuable professional relationships; and learning and growing as part of a forward-thinking, innovative organization.
If that sounds enticing, we look forward to hearing from you.
If you’re interviewing with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Talent Acquisition Partners with any questions.
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