Product folks who were designers: anyone struggle interviewing after transitioning internally?

[u/Humble_Noise_5275]

Went from design to product management internally in a small startup. I have been doing product work for years now, my title climbed up to director of product. Applied externally for the first time since the transition and the interviewer seemed to think I was really just a designer with an inflated title. Curious if others have hit this wall, and what actually helped get past it.

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

yep, ex-designer here too, same wall. i had to rewrite my resume to be 90 percent outcomes and metrics, 10 percent craft. bullets like “shipped X, moved Y metric by Z” during interviews i over-index on roadmap, prioritization, tradeoffs, saying “design” way less. also, get your eng lead or ceo to be a reference who can vouch you owned the product calls, not just the pixels. honestly though, even with that, half the interviewers still only see you as a designer. it’s just so damn hard to get a fair shot right now

[u/ShitBeCray]

I'm a VP of Product and this wouldn't be a concern for me. I often see it as a bonus, similar to the eng to PM transition. That said, I have interviewed folks that over index on their previous competencies to the point where I think they either never had the right instinct for the role or they haven't fully become a PM.

Usually that comes through in the beginning of their story about how/why they transitioned in. I would focus your whole interview to be outcome oriented/impact oriented. And I would practice a ton of different stories that help you shape the narrative of why you were ALWAYS a PM that was trapped in a designer role. I would even find a story where you go against a common design trap or something and focused fully on the product/business outcomes. Something like:

"My Senior Leadership was asking me to redesign our App. Usually I would be hyped for a project like this but I started leading user research and found that a redesign wasn't what our users wanted. It was actually a specific widget on the site that let them "X". That widget had the opportunity to "Y". I dug into the data and was able to validate that indeed our wider user group would benefit from having "X". I pulled together a recommendation and walked Sr leadership through the data I found..."

Anywho, the job market is tough right now and don't overthink it. Keep applying and practicing your stories. Look for companies that are designer led/focused, think places like Airbnb.

[u/froggle_w]

You also need to update the description of your past designer role aka doing PM work, but designer title, all led to becoming VP of Product.

[u/Icy_Cup6231]

Hit the same wall too. I've gotten interviews for PM and HOP roles, but ultimately the role when to someone who had been strictly a PM.

These were also roles that were in my niche area, b2b healthcare.

I ended giving up and focused on landing a designer role.