The portfolio interview was 30 minutes and felt a bit unstructured so I wasn’t sure it was even happening since the video link only came through five minutes before. The design leadership I spoke with mostly had experience at larger organizations, so you should approach the conversation as if you are interviewing at a bigger design org. Yendo is still in the very early stages of building its design team. At the time I interviewed, there was only 1 IC designer, but they were already hired a Director of Product Design. While this could help bring structure and credibility as the team scales, it also felt a slightly premature since the company still seems to need strong hands-on generalists who can execute quickly at a startup pace. Anyone considering the role should clarify whether the Director position is meant to be more of a player-coach or a traditional leadership.

I would highly recommend interviewing at Yendo for any role, even if you are not completely aligned with the product. The team is incredible, and the hiring manager is someone I would have been thrilled to work under. They were present, shared what I was doing well, what they liked, and what they would have been looking for to make me a better match. That feedback was incredibly valuable, especially after going through dozens of interviews with no feedback. It was a respectful, transparent, and genuinely human process.