My Uber Whiteboarding UX Challenge // How to approach design whiteboarding exercises
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
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A common step in the design interview process is a whiteboarding challenge. A designer will give you a prompt and then you'll have around 60 minutes to whiteboard and work your way through how you would approach the problem. Watch the video for advice on how to approach these challenges and nail this part of your interview!
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//TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - What interviewers are looking for
1:22 - The challenge prompt
2:08 - Do's/Don'ts
3:46 - Articulating the problem statement
4:36 - Understanding the context
5:22 - Assumptions & constraints
6:32 - Involve the designer
7:08 - The user journey
8:29 - Key screens and flow
10:05 - Summarize
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//LINKS
5 steps to master whiteboard design challenge: uxdesign.cc/5-steps-to-master...
Whiteboard Design Challenge - as part of the design interview process: blog.prototypr.io/whiteboard-...
Crushing the product design whiteboard challenge: uxdesign.cc/crushing-the-prod...
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![How To BEAT The UX Whiteboard Challenge Using My Google + Meta Cheat Sheet [FREE GUIDE DOWNLOAD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bds7FDZiNb8/mqdefault.jpg)
Notes after the do's and don'ts section:
1. Articulate the problem statement
- Don't be afraid to go back to the interviewer and ask them clarifying questions or repeat back to them your interpretation of the problem statement.
2. Have a good understanding of the goal
3. Understand the context
- Why is this a problem, how did this come about, what's been done before, is there already a solution in place, what has worked, what hasn't worked, what have you tried, who are the key players, what is their roles in this problem
- Context helps frame the rest of the design process
- Write all of this down
4. Set assumptions and constraints that will help you narrow your focus
- Ex. technical constraints
- Assumption example, all the foundation research has been done.
- At this stage you want to mention cross-functional partners and how you might collaborate with others on your team. Ex. Here is where I would talk to data science to get a better understanding of the problem or take this to user research so we can do some lightweight testing.
- Involve the designer as much as you want. You might want to use them as a sounding board. If the challenge is within the company, use them as a resource for their knowledge on the topic
5. Map out the user journey
- Within this stage, you might want to think through potential opportunities throughout it
6. Draw out key screens or basic user flows
- You can pick a part of the user journey to focus on here. But if you do this be sure to tell the interviewer.
- Feel free to use the assumptions and constraints you came up with.
- End this section with some key screens and key flows and remember to talk through what you're doing
7. Summarise and talk through your solution at the end.
- Summarise the story, walk through the flow
- It's alright if you uncover some new opportunities or maybe you realise that something wasn't working quite as you thought it was, it's alright to verbalise that and make some small changes
- It's also alright to talk about more alternatives and what you might have done if you had more time
bro u did a great a job
Thanks for sharing! I was gonna do the same and you saved me some work. Thanks!
Booya! Thanks 👌🏾
Hey girl, I followed your strategy the other day and it WORKED! They called me the next morning to continue with the process. Two more steps to go, phew!
I researched other approaches as well (I do research for almost everything) and I can say that this one is effective and straightforward, some of the other ones were too complex. BTW it was the first time I was doing a whiteboarding session and it felt like I have done it so many times. However I practiced for 3 days before the interview with 2-3 prompts from chatgpt by adding the company name.
I'm just here to say that I aced my whiteboard interview!! Thank you Femke. Your biggest fan from kenya.
@@femkedesign Thank you so much. You are making everything so much easier for me. You've literally elevated my confidence in design.
Hey Lavet Adhis, I am a ux student from Kenya too. Could we connect on twitter?
@@jescaochieng5601 sure, what's your handle?
Femke, your video totally helped me come up with a plan for approaching a whiteboard exercise in my interview- AND I PASSED!!! THANK YOU!
The video I was waiting for long. Thanks a lot Fem :)
That was awesome, thank you Femke! ❤️
Hey Femke! Loved the process and the steps to focus on while doing a whiteboard challenge. It would be of great help if you could do a mock whiteboard challenge. It would help in gaining more clarity about the decisions you took and how much time you allocated to each stage.
exactly!!! this way, the videos are more helpful to people: we are able to see the thought process, steps in more detail etc.
Thank you for showing it all so transparently! Love your channel!
I have a whiteboard challenge coming up very soon! perfect timing to get inspiration. Thanks :D
Hey Femke, Ive been following your journey on CZcams and these videos are tremendously helpful! Thank you for sharing your insights with the greater community!
Thank you for creating this video! You are amazing at articulating your design process and steps to take along the way. I found it to be very helpful as I am fairly new to the concept of whiteboard challenges!
This was so helpful Femke! Learned new mindsets and techniques. Will definitely use them when I find myself in a whiteboarding session 🙌🏻
Thank you for your fruitful and clear-cut recommendations for preparing for the session. I actually jotted these down on my Evernote. I have more confidence in making a career switch now.
Hi Femke, Thank you for making this video as I was preparing for interviews. The info is very insightful and helpful and in the end I got the offer of a top-ranked tech unicorn company! There are still not so many WDC videos on CZcams. You are of great help to lots of people!
Love this so much, thanks for sharing Femme 🔥
Amazing tips, thanks!!
Hi, Femke!
Thank you for your videos! I got the job finally✌🏻 it helps a lot!
thank you. I have one for a senior level on the 20th of Aug. it was very helpful. Wish me luck :)
I would like to come back to this video and let you know that this has helped me very well in my interview and hopefully get to hear a good news soon! Not just that it helps me to be a better designer with problem solving approach
Thank you so much, I was able to do my whiteboard round with your help!
thank you very helpful, i love your channel and your content
This is super helpful. I have a challenge coming up, I'll definitely report back.
I am here also to say that I totally ACED my whiteboarding challenge, thanks to you. I even got an offer afterwards.
I've watched this before, but I've just received my first design challenge for an internship interview and came back to refresh. Will report back!
Hello, might be a little bit late but I want to thank you for this video. You really helped me get through the whiteboarding challenge and eventually landing my internship as product designer!
You are a lifesaver :)
Thank you so much for sharing this video. I've got a new job today. :)
Femke, you're awesome.
Hi Femke, I enjoy your video so much and I'm happy to share with you my enjoyment. After I watched several videos you made, I surprisingly got a Product Designer job in London in only a month! I'm from Taiwan and this is my first time to find a job abroad so I'm so excited. Big thanks to you especially this whiteboarding challenge approach really helped me to nail the interview, even though that was my first time doing it. I love how articulated you are when you share different content with clear explanations. Hopefully, someday I can become a skilful product designer like you! Thank you for sharing your wisdom with the design community and I'll keep watching them.
Congratulations that is such amazing news!! I wish you all the best in your new role and a smooth move to the UK!
amazing!!! thanks!
Agree with all the tips. Amazing content!
Thanks so much!
Awesome Femke.
Thank you! It is helpful
thanks you're so kind person
Thank you!!!
wonderful video
About to do one this morning! Thanks for this helpful video! Wish me luck
Good luck!
@@femkedesign Thank you! I received great feedback 😁
Thanks lets see how my interview in 2 hours goes!
how did it go?
Thanks Femke. :)
Thanks again Femke, I am switching jobs!
Very insightful. Thanks for the effort you've put to make this video. If portfolio reviews or case study reviews are topics you do videos on, I'd like to share mine. Just let us (me & others who may be interested) know where to drop our portfolio/case-study link.
thank you 💚
You're welcome 😊
Awesome!
Thanks!
Thanks for the video. I wish I could watch before I just failed one case study like this today. The challenge includes 5 questions like how do you approach, what's your agenda, what kinda features you propose. half an hour prep and 1 hour discussion. I was too busy with answering all that questions. I did have some design thinking process, and a couple of features/ideas. And after the 20 minutes presentation, the interviewer asked how did I solve XXX feature was developped yet no users are using it. I have to think live and got stucked somehow. In this case, what's will you do if you were me? thank you!
Thanks, it is really helpful. Any suggestions about allocating time for a whiteboard challenge?
Thank you
You're welcome!
Hi Femke, this video was immensely helpful. Since the interviews are remote, there is no place to write. So often, it's hard for both parties to remember the exact context discussed earlier. Do you suggest a tool or some other alternative?
Also, there have been times when I felt that the designer/PM was biased towards a certain idea and less receptive to other ideas discussed by me. Could you please make a video on how to balance your own creativity vs. talking about what the interviewer wants to listen to?
Cash payment is available from the day Uber was launched in India
Hi Femke
Thank you for this exciting content and trying in simple lines to summarize these steps
..
What's your opinion to take about the beginning steps once you already have a product and working with Users & Customers and Have a new feature to add or problem to solve it, My pain question is you are working with product mangers " the right idea is the problem or adding new feature comes from business "Product manger" or comes from working together...
I wonder if Femke would be interested in doing a talk at one of our Ladies That UX events here in London Ontario. Maybe when things start to normalize we can put in a request.
Hi Femke, great tips & process you have shared here. Thanks for this. Do you know any place where I can checkout some whiteboard exercises with answers or process for me to practice and check later once I am done answering on my own? This could help me gain confidence for the same.
Yeah! Check out: sharpen.design/
Hi! How would you 'speak out loud' when the whiteboard session is on Miro?
My notes:
- Don’t work in silence
- Don’t tell the solution rightaway
- Acknowledge your mistakes, correct and move on
- Time management, ask for time checks
Approach
- Articulate the problem statement, confirm
- Get a good understanding of the goal
- Understand the context- ASK your interviewer, whats been done before, did it work, key players, is there a solution already
- Write everything down- problem, context, constraints, assumptions,
- Now id take this to research, data scientists (shows collaboration)
- Include the interviewers/ designers
- Oh what do you think of this? etc to get signals
- JOURNEY- v imp, main key stage, step 1, step 2, look for an opportunity
- Make screens, user flow- dont have to do all, make a focus (recogize the journey)
- Think of edge cases too and acknowledge them too
- SUMMARIZE
thank you for sharing this!!
Hi Femke, Thank you for your great content. I have a question, as I realized there are many things we need to collect before we understand and make decisions, could we use our own temple, and make it efficient? For example, use a refined template with many input questions covering who, what, when, etc information one by one, it would be a task for interviewers to give all input at once and a bit of poor experience on their side. It goes like not allowing them to speaking too much about none directly relevant bits, but just giving very specific questions listed and asking the interviewers to answer. it could be easier for us to efficiently get the points we need and save more time, once all basic info is gathered we can ask follow-up questions. It's like asking the interviewers to fill out a form verbally at the beginning.
Was there anyone who has tried to your knowledge? Would you reckon this approach? if not what would be the reasons not to?
Q2: Are you allowed to construct a layout of your own and paste it to whatever board you have been assigned during the challenge? Meaning, you bring your temple and paste it there before it and use it.
Could you walk through a demo of this exercise for remote interviews? (i.e. either using Miro or Figma?) Thanks so much for all the great tips :)
I just did a livestream last week with Furquan Ahmad, designer at Meta where we did a live whiteboard challenge! Will add it to the channel in the coming months :)
@@femkedesign Hi Femke, where is it possible to watch this livestream? :)
Hi Femke, who do you mean by the key players in this problem?
Hey Femke, how would you go about understanding what the goals of the users and business are if the interviewer doesn't provide them and ask you to make assumptions?
@@femkedesign Hey. Great video and tips, thanks! But I don't understand your response here to Karyn's question: If you are in a 60-minute whiteboard challenge, and the interviewer isn't providing information on user and business goals, but instead asks you to make assumptions... surely she can't go consult with product and design leaders internally or do some desk research *during* that 60-minute period. So in this case, what would you recommend (that could be accomplished within the design challenge duration)?
Hey Femke! Are these challenges common when seeking an internship?
PS: I find myself struggling with the VERY FIRST question I should ask after the prompt. Do you have any go to questions for figuring out the problem?
@@femkedesign awesome!
I'm curious if it's beneficial to talk about the assumptions of the user after having a good understanding of the goal? ie. maybe create a persona? Or ask if they have any accessibility considerations?
I do think it's helpful to touch on the user a bit, but wouldn't get too carried away with personas, but rather focusing on what their goal is.
Pay by cash, there’s so many security problem. Would love you hear, how you actually came up with the solution?
Hey! This white-boarding challenge that I did is over 5 years ago now(!) so sadly don't remember all the details, hope the video was still informative for you.
Loved this 👏🏻 Any tips for remote whiteboarding rounds?
What was the answer to the challenge that you got?
Ux Collective Link will help too greatly, can you put through?
@@femkedesign thank you ...
Really inspiring video :). Would you try and squeeze in a 60 min challenge what specific metrics to capture or it's an overkill from your perspective?
I think what's more important is if you can relate your decisions back to the goals. Metrics wouldn't hurt, but not essential IMO
Hi Femke, thanks for this. Please I want to know, can I ask a designer in the company what their challenge was?
Can you elaborate? What's the context?
@@femkedesign I applied to a company and I have been scheduled for a whiteboard challenge. I was able to connect with a recent employee(Product Designer). Is it okay to ask the person about her whiteboard challenge? I believe that'd help me prepare for mine.
Interesting video, Femke. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.
I've got some reservations though.
In my opinion, you can proffer a solution as quickly as it came to you.
Who's to say you hadn't thought of the problem and the solution prior to the interview?
I think it's a little too presumptuous of anyone to assume that, just because a solution is quickly proferred, it has not been thoroughly thought of.
We've got 24 hours in one day.
Save the interviewer's time.
When software engineers update applications, this does not by any means mean that, they didn't get it right the first time - there's always room for "better".
If Elon Musk waited for everyone to catch up with him, Space would remain unexplored.
Bottom line: Provide solutions when you can, and as quickly as you feel the need.
Hey Adaego! I'm not sure what you mean by 'proffer' in this context. I'm curious if you've been in a whiteboard challenge where you knew the problem statement beforehand? In all my experiences and from what I've heard form others, you aren't given the challenge beforehand so cannot prepare.
@@femkedesign
Hi Femke,
The scenario I was referring to was, the "Uber" case you cited.
Something about being able to accept cash from customers, instead of card payments.
What I was trying to point out is, what if a candidate already thought of the same situation, but for an ecommerce site for instance, and if said candidate proposes[proffers]a formula that has been through its testing phase, and that works properly; If the process can be adapted to the hypothetical situation, would they be turned down, because they were too quick to answer?
It's just...having an interview is nerve wracking enough, without having to add on all the extra suspense, is all I'm saying.
If you know it, then out with it. Don't take 60 minutes. Please.🙂
SHOW, DONT TELL
Hi Femke, could you recommend folks / companies with whom I can practice Design Whiteboarding.
superpeer.com/maddybeard
superpeer.com/sarabrunettini
superpeer.com/hello_imalexa
@@femkedesign thank you for the links. Can one book a whiteboarding session with you as well. In case yes, should one book through the portfolio review or casual chat? Many thanks!
Casual chat is fine!
First 🙌
Wish I saw this earlier lol
I have learned how to 'swim' through a postal course. I am gonna jump to the sea...
What if I do course from Coursera ?
@@femkedesign general question
@@femkedesign like I completed my visual element of user interface designing and I'm in second level which mean basics of UX
@@femkedesign just want to say as you did your diploma in Designing I'm also doing some courses from Coursera that's provided by California Institute of Arts so is it worthwhile doing course from Coursera or not?
@@femkedesign thanks for your valuable time
You work on Uber for product and UX? So it’s your fault.
I now work at Wealthsimple :)