This document summarizes best practices for hiring UX experts that were discussed at the UXcamp DC 2018 conference. The discussion was led by UX experts who had been recently hired. Key recommendations include quickly hiring highly skilled candidates, trusting referrals from trusted sources, asking candidates about their goals and proudest work rather than inappropriate personal questions, and giving new hires trust, honesty, and recognition for their contributions. Attendees also cautioned against lying about compensation, outsourcing, or overpromising workplace culture.

1. How to hire the best UX people
This deck was created by the UXcamp DC 2018
audience on Saturday, January 13, 2018

2. An inverted talk
UXcamp DC 2018
(see uxcampdc.com)
We walked in with just a
title and after 45 minutes
of conversation, we had
a deck.
The images were added
after the session. They
are licensed from Adobe
and are subject to
copyright laws.
The other content is
owned by no one and
can be used by anyone
for anything. Knock
yourself out.

3. Two assumptions
1. The audience at UXcamp DC 2018 are the best UX people.
2. These kinds of talks are usually dominated by the people hiring,
but the real experts are the ones who have been hired. So we
asked those people how to hire them.

4. Hiring best practices
• Flatter your candidate, but be ready to back it up with solid
examples of their awesomeness.
• When you find awesomeness, hire it very quickly.
• Trust the recommendations of people you trust.*
• Connect with people you find interesting and then find a job for
them.*
* One participant provided an alternate view soon after our session. Livia Labate (@livlab) tweeted
this observation that may have been inspired by these two asterisked practices:
“Now that I've been going to journalism conferences for a few years, the hiring advice I see at UX
events sounds truly awful. Every single thing reinforces bigotry, classicism, in-grouping, and is
entirely self-reinforcing.”

5. Questions you should ask
• “What would you like to learn? In what areas would you like to
grow?”
• “Where do you wanna be in five years?”
• “What questions do you have for us?”
• “What body of work are you most proud of and why?”
• “Would you like to leave (this interview)? Would you like to stop
talking now?”

6. Questions you shouldn’t ask
• “If you could be a bear, what kind of bear would you be?”
• “When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror,
what do you see?”
• “Would it bother you if I told you I was a born-again
Christian?”
• One for which you don’t have the correct answer.

7. What new hires want
from their employer
• Trust me to do my job.
• Be courageous.
• Be honest.
• Don’t hire me for a role, hire me for what I bring
to your organization.
• Recognize me for my work.

8. Other stuff that came up
• A new hire will be looking to see if
the trust they thought they saw
was in fact there.
• A new hire needs their employer to follow through on their promises.
• The person doing the hiring should never lie about money.
• Outsourcing does not thrill
some potential employees.
• Provide an applicant with
access to the team they’ll be working with.
• The person doing the hiring should trust their gut.

9. Other stuff that came up
• Organizations shouldn’t describe
or promise culture that they
don’t have.