Clio Product Designer Interview Questions
& Process

I had a 1-hour behavioural question session with the hiring manager, but after that, they ghosted me. The interview was entirely focused on behavioural questions, like 'tell me about a time you experienced X'.

The interview process at Clio was pretty standard for a popular tech company and everyone I spoke with was very kind and friendly. They provided guidance around what to expect and how to prepare and overall, the process went very smoothly. However, the problem I'm experiencing is that tech companies have different expectations for what they require of someone at the Staff level. One company will want a Staff Product Designer to lean into leadership, while another will put more focus on IC work, and neither company really knows which they really want. This creates a conflicting environment for job seekers to navigate: if you lean too far towards being an IC in your interview, you'll get rejected for not demonstrating enough leadership. And if you lean too far into your leadership experience, you'll get rejected for not demonstrating enough IC level knowledge. The knife edge is very sharp and extremely hard to balance on, making the Staff Product Designer interview one of the hardest to succeed at. After being rejected by Clio, I was disappointed to find out that I was rejected for not showcasing enough leadership drive, even though I was asked to present a case study outlining IC work. It was a perfect example of how difficult it is to obtain a Staff-level position. The lesson? Ask more questions up front about expectations for the role and what they’re looking for.

So the interview process starts with HR, then you have a second interview with the design team, and then it's an onsite whiteboard design task to see how you approach a problem. The office is in Burnaby, close to BCIT.