Interview Prep Guide: User Experience

Let’s Dive Deeper into the User Experience (UX) Interview!

Our design team at Audible works to bring our incredible selection of content to millions of users globally, across platforms and devices. And because they’re at Audible, they get to experience the best of both worlds: Amazon’s copious resources and cutting-edge technology, with our own independent operating model and culture of belonging and care.

We hope this information helps you prepare for your interview.

What does the interview process look like? What can I expect?

Your interview will include a portfolio review, an interactive case study exercise, and one-to-one behavioral interviews focused on our People Principles. The portfolio review and case study are each one hour long. The individual interviews are 45 minutes each.

Your interviewers will be UX professionals, product managers, software development managers, and business partners from the team you’re applying to, as well as other Audible teams. We select a diverse group of interviewers and assess candidates using a company-wide mentality.

*Please connect with your recruiter if you are interviewing for a UX role other than designer or researcher.

 

The Interview

Portfolio Review

You’ll begin the day with a one-hour portfolio review presentation, where several members of our UX team will view your presentation.

The portfolio review provides the opportunity for you to showcase your work, design philosophy/methodologies and project preferences. We recommend presenting 1-2 detailed case studies to showcase the breadth and depth of your work. We’re looking for excellent storytelling with a crisp, clear narrative and strong articulation of the customer problem you were trying to solve and why you were trying to solve it. Remember to briefly provide context about the product space. It’s also important to highlight your role and the impact you made for each project. Audible is a data-driven company, so be sure to incorporate data points in your presentation. The interviewers will be assessing your ability to present solutions that truly meet customers’ needs.

Please review the Portfolio Review Guidelines for detailed recommendations.

A few tips:

• Present your work in a format that best showcases your skills and projects. You can get creative with your approach – a slide deck, interactive demo, or any other format that allows you to effectively communicate your work.
• Using your online portfolio is not recommended. Share your screen to present your deck, and keep your video on. This will allow for a more interactive experience.
• Think about metrics. Interviewers will have follow-up questions on impact and metrics. If you don’t have metrics on a project, be prepared to speak to metrics you would have tracked if you could go back in time.
• Practice your presentation for timing purposes. You are your own timekeeper and own the flow of your presentation.

Case Study Exercise

Audible UX Design candidates will participate in one whiteboard exercise during their interview. You’ll be given a short problem-solving assignment and asked to spend 45-50 minutes of the one-hour session walking through how you would approach and solve the problem. This is done in person or virtually, with the Audible interviewer(s) in the room.

The goal of the collaborative design session is to give you a feeling for how UX work gets done here at Audible. When requirements are not fully fleshed out, a UX designer needs to respond to changes in those requirements and be able to help identify and shape user/business needs. As a designer, you need to be able to lead the discussion by hearing others and channeling their ideas, not just  adopting them, no questions asked. The exercise also gives us insight into your design sensibilities—specifically, a bias for complexity or simplicity in your process.

This is not meant to be a brainteaser or puzzle! There are no trick questions. We just want you to show us you can demonstrate a basic double-diamond design process.

UX DESIGNERS: Whiteboard Tool used for the Case Study Exercise

For your virtual whiteboard exercise, you will be using Figma’s FigJam tool. The interviewers will share the FigJam tool with you via the Open Sessions share link (or via the Chime chat if you are remote). If you’d like to familiarize yourself with the tool, check it out here. No need to be an expert— you can lean on Audible’s team to help you capture notes throughout the whiteboard exercise.

Behavioral Interviews

Your remaining sessions will focus on behavioral and case-study-type questions tied to Our People Principles. Behavioral questions will sound like “Tell me about a time…” or “Give me an example…” A significant portion of each interview conversation will be dedicated to understanding how you’ve already been demonstrating Our People Principles in your own professional experiences. You should expect every interviewer to discuss multiple People Principles with you, and they may even ask multiple questions about each one.

We want to know how you’ve solved problems in the past, made decisions, motivated others, and changed your perspective on something. When answering, think about your storytelling, focusing on the “what” and the “how” of your experience, and the “why” of your decision-making.

How should I prepare for my interview?

First, read up on Our People Principles. These are what guide us every day as a company, from decisions that impact our business, customers, and community right down to the candidates we hire. You should definitely consider what each principle means to you, specifically, and how you’ve applied them in your professional life.

How should I best prepare for these questions?

First, consider some of the most memorable days in your previous professional experiences. Spend some time recalling the specific details of those circumstances (e.g., who, what, when, what challenges, what mistakes were made and corrected). Then, consider how you’ve applied one or more of the People Principles in those experiences.

Use specific examples to showcase your expertise, and demonstrate how you’ve taken risks, succeeded, failed and grown in the process. Keep in mind, some of Audible’s most successful programs have risen from the ashes of failed projects. Failure is a necessary part of innovation. It’s not optional. We understand that and believe in failing early and iterating until we get it right.

Download this guide to reflect on how you’ve already applied the People Principles in your professional experiences.

How should I respond to questions using the STAR method?

While there are many ways to answer an interview question, we suggest following the STAR method. The STAR method enables you to provide the interviewer with the information they need to evaluate your past experiences and behaviors to determine your potential for success in the role and at Audible. So, let's break down the STAR framework.

Situation

Provide context and background for the situation that you were in. You should describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description. This example can be from a previous job, school project, volunteer activity, or any relevant event. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand the complexities of the situation.

Task

Describe the task that you needed to accomplish. What goal were you working toward? Be sure to consider quantitative and qualitative goals.

Action

Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail, and keep the focus on you. Use the word “I,” not “we,” when describing actions.
What specific steps did you take? What was your particular contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe what the team or group did when talking about a project. Let us know what you actually did.

Response

Describe the outcomes of your actions and don't be shy about taking credit. You should be able to answer: What happened? How did you measure success? What results did achieve? What trade-offs did you have to make to achieve this? What did you learn or what would you have done differently?

Note: In the event your initial response does not include each component of the STAR framework, interviewers will ask numerous follow-up questions to get at each STAR component.

Accommodations

Audible is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our inclusive culture empowers us to deliver the best results for our customers. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please connect with your recruiter directly or visit this link.

For more information about our Interview and Hiring Process, click here.