172: UX Hiring Insights: Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat, on Building Diverse UX Teams, Scaling Design Teams, and What Makes a Portfolio Stand Out

What does it take to build a UX portfolio that makes a hiring manager stop scrolling? Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat, is here to share how he approaches hiring and what many candidates get wrong. In this episode of the Career Strategy Podcast, Sarah Doody sits down with Alexander Zeh, a design leader with over 20 years of experience who has scaled UX teams from 5 to 43 people. Alexander is refreshingly direct about what he's looking for and what sends candidates straight to the 'no' pile. He breaks down how he structures his hiring process to reduce bias, why a failed project can be a stronger case study than a polished one, how to handle NDA-protected work, and why the "hero designer" narrative is working against you. Whether you're actively applying to UX roles or just trying to understand what hiring managers are really thinking, this conversation will change how you approach your next portfolio presentation. Topics discussed in this episode: ✅ Why Alexander treats team diversity as a design decision ✅ The grading criteria that lets hiring managers make a confident call ✅ Why clear writing and articulation matter more than Figma fluency ✅ How constraints and failed projects can make a stronger case study than a polished outcome ✅ How claiming to do it all might be a red flag to hiring managers ✅ Whether UX job seekers in different countries need different portfolios ✅ How to handle NDA-protected work ✅ Why showing your thinking at every fork in the road matters more than the final product Links From This Episode: ManyChat Careers Page Metaview CSL Podcast Episode Archive Timestamps: 00:57 Intro: Alexander and ManyChat 03:10 Alexander's career journey 07:26 From consulting to in-house leadership 12:36 Building diverse teams intentionally 15:26 Why grading criteria beats "I'll know it when I see it" 16:22 Blind submissions to avoid groupthink 18:16 What hiring managers actually look for 22:19 What standout candidates do differently 28:09 Does location affect your UX job search? 35:25 Showing impact without a happy ending 44:34 Resilience, vision, and holding the tension 47:55 Handling NDA work in your portfolio 🎯 How I can help with your UX job search 📋 Get my <a href="https://www.careerstrategylab.com/ux-case-study-template?utm_source=careerstrategypod