Deloitte · Primly Community

Deloitte product designer / UX interview and portfolio review: here's exactly what they evaluated

ux_uma · 4 replies

I interviewed for a senior UX designer role at Deloitte Digital last month. Deloitte Digital is the creative/digital arm, distinct from the consulting practices, and the interview process reflects that. Writing this up because most of what I found was outdated or consulting-specific.

The loop: Recruiter screen: 30 min, background + timeline + culture check. Portfolio walkthrough with two designers: 60 min via video. You share screen, walk through 2-3 projects. Design challenge: take-home, 48-hour window. Final presentation + behavioral: 90 min, present your design challenge solution, then behavioral questions.

Portfolio walkthrough: This is where it starts or ends. They're not just looking at visual output. Every project I walked through, they asked: what was the problem you were solving, how did you validate your direction, what did you cut and why. One interviewer asked me to point to a specific decision in my case study where I changed direction based on research. If you don't have a specific moment like that, your portfolio walk comes across as decoration.

For Deloitte Digital specifically: enterprise and government clients are a big part of the work. I had one consumer-facing project in my portfolio and two enterprise workflow redesigns. The enterprise projects got 80% of the conversation time. Know your audience.

Design challenge: They gave me a brief around redesigning a clunky internal tool used by healthcare administrators. 48 hours. I submitted a light research plan, two conceptual directions with rationale, and a mid-fidelity prototype in Figma. They were not looking for polish. They were looking for process transparency.

Behavioral round: All STAR. Questions included: a time I had to advocate for the user against a business constraint, how I work with engineers when scope needs to shrink, a time I presented research findings and the stakeholder didn't agree with the conclusion.

Did not get the offer. They wanted someone with more direct enterprise systems experience. That feedback was actually useful and I respected that they gave it clearly.

4 replies

alex_design

The 'specific moment where you changed direction based on research' question is such a good litmus test. Anyone can say they're research-driven. Far fewer can point to an artifact or a decision in their own work where it actually happened. Worth building that into every case study you present.

brand_ben

Appreciate you posting a 'didn't get the offer but here's what I learned' story. Those are actually more useful than the pure success posts. Enterprise systems design is its own discipline and it's hard to fake if your portfolio is consumer-app-heavy.

apm_aisha

Did they give you a sense of the level system they use for designers? Curious whether 'senior' at Deloitte Digital maps closer to a senior IC at a tech company or something like a staff-equivalent.

ux_uma

My sense was the senior level there is roughly equivalent to a mid-to-senior IC at a product company: individual contributor, leading your own projects, some mentorship but not people management. The principal and above is more the staff/lead equivalent. The consulting title structure is a bit different from tech.