Went through the Nike product design loop for a senior designer role on the digital commerce team. This was for Nike.com and mobile app products, not brand/marketing design. Important distinction -- they have very different interview tracks.
I had about eight years of experience going in, with a background in consumer e-commerce and some agency time before that. Here's the whole picture.
Recruiter screen. Straightforward. They asked about experience with design systems, cross-functional collaboration, and whether I'd ever shipped something at consumer scale. They're genuinely interested in people who've dealt with complexity -- designing for a platform with millions of SKUs and global traffic is different from enterprise or startup design.
Portfolio review (first design interview). One hour, share your screen, walk through your work. They told me to prepare 2-3 case studies max. I picked a checkout optimization project (directly relevant), a search/browse redesign, and a design system contribution I was proud of. They don't want to scroll through a gallery. They want to understand your process: how did you frame the problem, what did you learn from research, how did you handle constraints and pushback, what was the outcome.
The follow-up questions get specific fast. "Why did you choose this pattern instead of X." "What did users say about this in testing." "How did you convince engineering to implement the harder option." If you can't answer these, the case study is decoration.
Design challenge. They sent a brief three days before the onsite: redesign one part of the Nike.com checkout experience for a mobile-first user. Not redecorate -- redesign, with reasoning. I did 48 hours of quick research (NNG articles, existing cart abandonment research, a handful of informal usability observations) and built a prototype in Figma. During the presentation I got maybe 20 minutes before they started asking questions. They were less interested in the final UI and more interested in how I'd de-risk the design with real users before shipping.
Cross-functional interview. With a PM and an engineering lead. They wanted to know how I work in a triad, how I handle spec ambiguity, and whether I push back when asked to design something I think won't work. The honest answer here is better than the diplomatic one. They're looking for someone who has a point of view.
Design leadership interview. With a design director. Half of it was about my development over time as a designer, what I find hard, what I'm still learning. The other half was about how I give and receive feedback. They explicitly asked how I handle it when my work gets criticized in a critique.
Comp for senior level: the offer came in around 155-165k base. Benefits and Nike discounts are solid. The discount is legitimately meaningful if you buy their gear.
If I were starting prep: pick 2-3 real case studies and go 3x deeper than you think you need to. Every claim should have evidence. Every decision should have a reason.