Tailored Brands - Product Manager Interview Flashcards
Tell me about yourself./Walk me through your resume.
I began my design journey with a degree in visual communication at a fashion design school and worked as a digital graphic designer in the fashion industry which trained me with a solid understanding of design principles. and gradually progressed to a Product/UX designer and I’ve been in this role for the past 5 years.
As I developed an interest in UX, I got my first UX certificate from Interaction Design Foundation and started my UX career working on a business listing/networking mobile app to promote and support women Entrepreneurs called OYA.
Then during Covid, I got my second certificate with Career Foundry and worked as a freelancer on short terms projects for a few different agencies that had clients with Chegg, Terra Kaffe, Anthem, etc. So I worked in a few different industries.
and most recently, I spent the past year as a product designer at David’s Bridal.
I worked on redesigning their e-commerce site alongside designing their new wedding planning platform and vendor marketplace.
While working on David’s e-commerce, I developed an interest in it, which led me to pursue my e-commerce UX certification from Baymard’s to specialize in this area. I’m still currently working on it.
and I’m looking to continue my career in the e-commerce industry.
Why are you interested in this role? / What do you think makes you a good fit for this role?
Sadly, there was a massive layoff, and our whole product team, including myself, had to be let go.
but I found a great interest in e-commerce UX during my time at David’s, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be assigned to one specific Tailored Brands brand or work across all of them, but the opportunity to contribute to multiple brands feels like a stimulating design challenge.
Jacob and Jon shared a little bit about the new project and
Just like David’s Bridal, it looks like Tailored Brands is also focusing on a more digital-first approach and it’s exciting to be part of that “transformation” phase.
Experience at David’s Bridal
Yeah! During my time at David’s, I had the opportunity to work on two major projects: redesigning their e-commerce site as well as their new wedding planning platform from its inception to launch.
I collaborated with my UX designer colleague to redesign the e-commerce shopping experience and in this collaboration, I took on the task of redesigning both the Product Listing Page and the Product Detail Page.
Additionally, I worked on Pearl by David’s which is a wedding planning platform and vendor marketplace. As part of this project, we implemented several essential features, including a wedding checklist & countdown, a user-friendly website and registry builder, a vision board, booking and managing your vendors, and a centralized dashboard to manage all of it.
What is your design process?
My design process is iterative, but it usually starts with understanding the users as well as the business goals so we can define the problem statement and set clear design objectives that benefit both the users and the business.
After I conduct user research, I compile it to create any documents that’ll be helpful in establishing design objectives. This could include creating user personas, journey maps, or empathy maps to visualize user insights.
and then I’ll use these references throughout the design process to help me guide decision-making.
After I identify the problems to solve, I develop wireframes and prototypes at varying levels of fidelity. Once it’s ready, I put them through a feedback loop to make iterative improvements whethers its with the UX team, my PM, Devteam, etc.
After that, I conduct usability testing and make any necessary adjustments before handing it off to the development team.
And this process is iterative and flexible based on the team I’m working with.
Usability Testing
In testing our product designs, we use various methodologies to ensure its usability. We often used A/B testing on our e-commerce site.
An example of when we conducted A/B testing. We redesigned the category buttons on our e-commerce homepage to include images associated with each category. After running the test, we found that this new design performed significantly better, it had a higher user engagement and increased the CTR. It also gave us enough data to convince our executive stakeholders to move this section right below the fold.
I also like to conduct heuristic evaluations to evaluate our site’s usability. It’s especially great if you have resource constraints. I assess the design based on usability principles and best practices.
I also analyze user feedback from our support channels to understand their experiences and satisfaction levels.
How does the approach of a UX designer change when considering e-commerce?
What are the most important points or pillars of e-commerce that a UX designer should consider when adapting their approach?
When thinking about UX design for e-commerce I think the main goal is to convert visitors into customers, users are much less likely to shop with a site again after having a bad experience, so my main focus is on providing the best shopping experience.
Basically I’m looking to create a fun, fast and easy time for the users while they shop, maybe even make them feel special with personalization (recommended for you, based on your last purchase).
To make that happen I tend to focus on:
- Easy to use experiences. For example, mobile responsive designs since today mobile shopping experiences are becoming top priority for e-commerce with users converting more and more to mobile experiences. I also like to make sure the navigation is placed in an intuitive and easy to control area, with a very noticeable search field. And I think an important one is easy checkout, with one page checkouts that include digital wallets.
How is designing for mobile e-commerce different?
For mobile, I keep in mind that the design needs to prioritize easy touch-based engagement like autofill or tap or double tap gestures. Making sure that all main calls to action are placed in the area that’s most accessible with your thumb.
- I also put a lot of focus into personalization which from what I can see is really becoming a must-have for e-commerce sites. For example creating recommendations based on previous user actions, previous purchases, search history, or any other personal data we can collect.
USER RESEARCH
After I conduct user research, I compile it to create any documents that’ll be helpful in establishing design objectives. This could include creating user personas, journey maps, or empathy maps to visualize user insights.
and then I’ll use these references throughout the design process to help me guide decision-making.
Stakeholder Collaboration
In my design process, I collaborate with various stakeholders, such as UX designers, the graphics team, product managers, the development team, and executives. We all work as a team to ensure that our user experiences are seamless, our designs align with business objectives, and we create products that are feasible and successful.
Engaging with executives helps to gain support for our design decisions. Through clear and concise presentations, we showcase the rationale behind our design choices, demonstrating how they align with the overall business strategy and user needs.
Working with Dev Team
I work closely with dev team throughout the design process, I like to involve them early on to ensure feasibility and consider technical constraints.
By working together with developers from the start, we can tackle potential challenges head-on, which helps us avoid expensive revisions or delays later on,
and it helps the team strike a balance between delivering an exceptional user experience and a seamless implementation.
I think developers help bring me back to earth.
PRODUCT MANAGER
I like to work with my pms closely.
In my experience, product managers are the glue to the product team, and building a good relationship with your pm generally leads to a better working environment and better product.
A lot of our interactions are about new features or design needs.
Depending on the scale of the request, we might discuss acceptance requirements and all possible use cases, as well as review any research, if available (user data gathered from google analytics and Hotjar).
I’ll take that information and put together some wireframes or high-fidelity designs and regroup and review.
If there’s any feedback, I’ll iterate.
IDEAL COLLABORATION WITH PM
I feel like the most useful designers are those capable of complementing their manager’s role.
I like to really feel like we’re partners and actively be involved in the strategic parts. Really think things through together.
I don’t want to be a designer that sits back and waits for my pm to bring up problems and then I go into solution mode. and I don’t expect product managers to be the ones finding all the problems.
I personally enjoy thinking of all use cases and thinking of ways to improve the product.
If you believe your design choice is right, how do you influence PMs to believe in your idea?
I would present my designs backed by user research, data-driven insights, and a clear alignment with user needs and business objectives,
CONFLICT WITH COWORKERS
It’s common when someone has a contradictory suggestion to a design I’m proposing. That’s usually the main conflict designers deal with the most. The first thing I do is understand where is it stemming from.
so I ask a lot more questions to understand if is this a technical limitation, if is it based on the history of the product that I’m not aware of, or if it is just a personal preference.
Starting there would then help me decide what to do next like asking more specific questions.
I’ve also learned through these conflicts there are different ways to present your designs that get the feedback you are looking for.
BALANCE USER NEEDS AND BUSINESS GOALS
I begin by understanding user needs and wants through research and feedback and then I prioritize iterative design, open communication, and data-driven decisions to balance user-centered experiences and strategic business objectives.
