Common Design Brief Agreement
We’re working on a proposal to eliminate design tests as a requirement for job applications.
Your voice matters – share your thoughts:
Design hiring is broken.
Over the past decade, design tests have become a standard part of the hiring process for creative roles.
Applicants are now routinely asked to complete customized exercises, often at the very first stage of applying. These tests can take several hours or even days to complete, frequently under tight deadlines.
Because the briefs are tailored to the hiring company’s brand and needs, the resulting work typically has little to no value to the designer beyond that single opportunity, resulting in millions of unpaid hours per year – all to hire a single applicant.
The process perpetuates systemic bias, takes advantage of candidates' time and labor, and falls short of basic ethical standards.
The Common Design Brief Agreement is an initiative to establish a shared set of design briefs that can replace custom, one-off assignments in the job application process.
We’re currently gathering input from both those who hire designers and designers who’ve been asked to complete design tests as part of job applications.
The insights we get from these surveys will help us create a process for developing a standard set of briefs. Once available, designers will be able to use these briefs in place of doing custom design tests, and organizations that agree to accept this work can sign a pledge stating that they won’t request bespoke design tests in the future.
We’d appreciate hearing your thoughts:
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