Went through IBM's product designer interview process last quarter for a role on the IBM Consulting design team. IBM has a deep design culture (they've been running Enterprise Design Thinking for years) so the bar is real but the focus is different from a consumer-product shop.
Here's the full loop:
Phone screen with recruiter (30 min). Pretty standard. They asked about my background, my relationship with IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking framework (know what it is before this call), and salary expectations. Know the band structure: designer roles typically land Band 7-8 for mid-level, 8-9 for senior.
Portfolio review (60 min). This is the core. They want 2-3 case studies, emphasis on process not polish. What I noticed: they pushed hard on the 'how did you know what problem to solve' question. IBM Consulting works with enterprise clients so ambiguity is constant. Show that you navigate it. One interviewer specifically asked 'what was the riskiest design decision you made and how did you validate it.' Have that answer ready.
Design exercise (take-home, 1 week). Prompt was to redesign a specific enterprise workflow for a fictional client. They told me to timebox to 4-5 hours. The output they wanted wasn't a polished prototype, it was a documented design process: research approach, problem framing, concepts explored, rationale for what I chose. I used a Figma deck, roughly 12 slides.
Design critique (45 min). They gave me an existing IBM product screen and asked me to critique it. Be specific. 'The information hierarchy isn't clear' is weak. 'The primary action is visually competing with the secondary action because the button weights are too similar, which will increase error rate for first-time users' is the level they want.
Behavioral and stakeholder (45 min). How have you handled pushback from engineers. How have you presented to senior clients. Cross-functional partnership stories.
Overall the process is slower than startup design interviews but thorough. If you've done Enterprise Design Thinking work or worked with enterprise clients, lean into that hard.