KiwiCo Product Designer Interview Questions
& Process

I spoke with the two Senior Directors of Product Design, the CEO (Sandra), the VP of Product Design, the Editorial Director, and another Product Designer. They wanted to see my portfolio and I had to complete a multi-part project. Sadly, my call with the CEO had some tech issues, which I think led to me not getting the job. Sandra (the CEO) is really intense and if you didn't give her a perfect answer she lost interest, seeming to look for a very specific type of candidate. I liked talking to the Product Design team though; they were friendly and encouraging, making me feel like I would get an offer. I was pretty surprised by the rejection, and felt upset when I saw the job posting relisted a few months later.

So, before I had this long interview with three people who have been at the company for ages, I was given a "creativity" test where I had to come up with a few ideas for them. Then, during the interview, I got to talk about my ideas and how I thought about them, and also learn more about how KiwiCo does things. I'm not a huge fan of "creativity tests" in interviews, but I get why they're useful for filtering candidates to find those with the right mindset and outlook.

The initial phone call with the recruiter was great, really friendly and quick. Then I had an interview with someone from the design team, but they seemed a bit unfocused and not very engaged. I got the impression they were overworking their designers and trying to launch too many products too fast. I didn't think the interview went well, but they invited me to the next stage. For that round, they gave me an unpaid "homework assignment." I did the assignment but then didn't hear anything back for a couple of weeks. When they finally got back to me with a rejection (which some other candidates didn't even get), I felt really negative about the whole experience. It feels like they're just stealing ideas with this "assignment," and it's a pretty bad and unethical practice to ask candidates for free work. The job is still posted, making me question if they even intend to hire someone – they might just keep getting free labor from candidates indefinitely. I'd suggest avoiding this company!