By the time a team decides to make an offer, they have usually spent weeks on the process. It is tempting to treat the offer itself as a formality. It rarely is. More good hires fall apart in the last two weeks than at any other point.
Speed is respect
If the final conversation went well, say so the same day. Every day of silence after a strong final round is a day the designer spends wondering whether they misread it, and a day another team can move first.
Make the offer feel considered
A number in an email is not an offer. Explain how you arrived at it, what the first six months look like, and who they will be working with. Designers notice care, and they notice its absence.
The offer is the first piece of design work you show them as their future team.
Answer the real questions
- What happens to the work they are proud of at their current job?
- How much room will they genuinely have to shape the product?
- Who do they talk to when they disagree with a decision?
These questions rarely come up in interviews. They almost always come up at the kitchen table the night before someone signs. We stay close through this stretch on every placement, and it is where most of the yeses come from.