Design Hiring Framework
Creating a consistent hiring framework that brings structure to candidate evaluation while preserving flexibility in how design leaders hire.
- Role
- Design Program Manager
- Team
- Viewing Design + Talent Acquisition + Product Operations
- When
- 2026
The complexity
As the Viewing Design organization grew, hiring practices varied across leaders. Interview formats, evaluation criteria, and decision making processes weren't always consistent, making it harder to establish a shared approach to assessing candidates across roles and teams.
The challenge was to create a repeatable hiring framework without making every hiring process identical. Leaders needed clear expectations, structured feedback, and shared evaluation standards, while retaining flexibility to adapt interviews and assessment methods to the role, team, and candidate.
What I designed
- A seven stage hiring workflow
- I mapped the end to end process, from intake and kickoff through screening, hiring manager interviews, portfolio review, optional working sessions, stakeholder interviews, and the final decision and offer.
- Clear roles and ownership
- I defined responsibilities across hiring managers, Talent Acquisition and recruiters, interviewers and panels, and Product Operations, helping establish who owned coordination, evaluation, process execution, and guidance.
- A consistent evaluation approach
- I incorporated structured feedback at key stages, including recruiter screening, hiring manager interviews, portfolio reviews, working sessions when applicable, and stakeholder interviews. The framework brought those signals together to support a more informed final decision.
- Standardization with room for flexibility
- The proposal established shared expectations for the hiring workflow, stage objectives, feedback documentation, and role ownership, while allowing leaders to adapt interview formats, scoring methods, evaluation criteria, and whether to include a working session.
- Shared documentation and governance
- I incorporated SharePoint for drafting and collaboration, alongside Confluence as the source of truth for the published framework, approved templates, and ongoing guidance.
The outcome
The proposed framework was adopted, establishing a shared approach to design hiring across the organization.
- A repeatable hiring process: A documented seven stage workflow created a common structure for moving candidates through evaluation.
- Clearer accountability: Defined roles and ownership clarified responsibilities across hiring managers, Talent Acquisition, interview panels, and Product Operations.
- More consistent evaluation: Structured feedback at key stages helped build a cumulative view of each candidate to inform decision making.
- Flexibility for hiring leaders: Standard expectations could be applied across the organization while allowing role specific interview formats and assessment methods.
- A foundation for continued growth: Published guidance and templates created a shared reference point as the organization continued to scale.
The guiding principle was simple: standardize the process, preserve flexibility in execution, and help teams focus on selecting the right talent.