i went through the McKinsey product designer and UX interview earlier this year. their process for designers is genuinely different from product companies and i couldn't find much about it when prepping, so here's the breakdown.
context
role was product designer on their internal digital solutions team. these are designers building tools used by McKinsey consultants and their clients, not consumer products. that context matters for how you frame your portfolio and case studies.
the portfolio review
this was a 45-minute session. they asked me to walk through two case studies. the focus wasn't on the visual output. they kept asking: how did you know this was the right problem to solve? what did research look like? what did you change between V1 and V2 and why? what was the business impact?
they're not looking for beautiful screens. they're looking for 'did you understand the problem, did you test assumptions, did you connect design decisions to outcomes.' if your portfolio is full of polished mockups with no process story, you'll struggle here.
one of my case studies was from a consulting context (i worked at a design agency before tech) and that actually landed well. they appreciated that i understood client dynamics.
the design challenge
there was a timed take-home: 48 hours to redesign a provided workflow. it wasn't about beauty, it was about 'here's a messy internal tool with real user pain points, what would you do.' i submitted wireframes and a short writeup explaining my decisions. they explicitly said 'we don't expect high-fidelity in 48 hours.'
the PEI
same as every other McKinsey track. tell me a time you had to advocate for the user when business priorities pushed the other direction. tell me about a cross-functional conflict and how you resolved it. the drill-down was hard. 'what did you actually say in that meeting' level of specificity.
what surprised me
no whiteboard design exercise in the onsite. all portfolio + conversation + the take-home. some companies do live sketching sessions, McKinsey didn't for this role.
also: one of my interviewers was a consultant, not a designer. that round felt more like a business case conversation. they were evaluating whether i could talk about design in terms that resonate with non-designers. this is important. practice explaining your design decisions in business outcomes language.