And so the time has come. You have completed your portfolio, applied to your dream job, and have been asked to come in for an interview. All very exciting stuff! Do you know what's not so exciting? Preparing for the interview. If you're anything like me, the idea of a whiteboard challenge scares the heck out of you. The best way to calm these nerves is to practice ahead of time and come to the interview prepared for what's to come.
I have been practicing the whiteboard challenge for a few weeks now, and I wanted to go over my most recent experience and provide some insights on how to practice this challenge at home.
Step 1: Choose your prompt
There are plenty of websites out there that will generate a design prompt for you, including Desingercize, Sharpen, and What Should I Design. Here was my prompt for this most recent challenge.
Prompt: Design a scheduling application for fashion models with a severe phobia of icons.
What I like about this source is that it generates a variety of unique and funny prompts. Practice doesn't have to be all that miserable, right?
Step 2: Think about your design process
After reading over my prompt, the next thing I do is think about my usual design process and how I can use that in this challenge. With only 30 minutes to complete this challenge, I wanted to plan out the steps that would help me solve the challenge in the most efficient way possible.
In an ideal project where I have all of the time and money in the world, my process would go as follows:
Given the time frame, I decided to focus on Discover, Empathize, and Design. Here's why.
Discover
In any project, I must have a full understanding of the problem I'm trying to solve and the users I am solving this problem for. For the first 5-7 minutes, I discovered the goal of the challenge, who my users were, and what their potential pain points, problems, and behaviors might be.
Empathize
For the next 10 minutes, I wanted to focus my time on understanding my users' needs and goals and visualizing their journey through the app. I crafted my persona's jobs to be done and a user flow for the most common function of the app.
Design
The next step was sketching wireframes based on the user flow I created in the empathize stage. This showed a very basic structure of what my initial thoughts were concerning the application, and how our product could be designed with the users' needs at the forefront.
Reflection
In all of my case studies and design challenges, I always end it with the next steps and reflecting on the final product. In this case, I gave myself the last 3 minutes to quickly explain what my next steps would be for this project, and what I would have done differently given more time or a different circumstance.
Step 3: Talk out loud
This felt pretty weird and unnatural the first time I practiced these challenges, but after the third attempt, it started to come naturally. Talking through your design process and decisions while you're completing the challenge in an interview will be a crucial step in creating a successful design.
Step 4: Practice again
You'll only get better with practice. If you keep at it, you'll be a natural before you know it!
Practicing at home will always be different than doing the challenge in front of your interviewers. Important tips to remember are asking plenty of questions so you have a full understanding of the end goal and your users, and taking deep breaths throughout the process.
If you're looking for more ways to practice design challenges, there are groups committed to designers collaborating and practicing together! Reach out if you need some more resources to get you started.
- Kaity
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