Thanks for your thoughts Elena. It's always good to hear different perspectives.

I'd agree that nothing is as simple as black or white. If a designer is a fresh grad with no portfolio a take-home assignment might be one way to assess their skill set.

1. Even if a project didn't go according to their plan there are tons of things a designer can reflect upon, or learnt during the project that can be shared with an interviewer.

2. From my experience, a take-home assignment takes between a day to a week to work on. It's nearly impossible for a designer to conduct and synthesise proper research to then make informed decisions on their design all while working or studying full-time. Designers that do their best work outside of a group setting (i.e: introverts) inevitably have to work with other designers, engineers, PMs to talk about their approach. Talking to them about their past work is a good way to identify and evaluate their approach.

I agree bring precise about what you're assessing and being clear about that internally and with candidates is crucial. By no means is our current white-boarding exercise anywhere close to perfect. But like every good process, we continue evolving our hiring process.