I passed UX whiteboard interview, here’s you can learn

No matter what position you are in and want to become a candidate that stands out to interviewers, acing the UX Whiteboard Interview is a crucial step towards achieving your goal.

For the past few weeks, I had a Singapore Government project and they required me for a Whiteboarding session, it was my first time doing a whiteboarding session. To prepare for this new experience, I spent countless hours researching and learning from other designers on YouTube and blogs. Here are the lessons and experiences I gained, what might surprise you, what mistakes to avoid, and how to get over pressure. Let’s go

2. How did I approach

Knowing that my interviewer could prepare any problem or case for me to solve, I couldn’t prepare anything specific in advance but I could prepare a set of questions I’ll ask to help me get to the bottom of the challenge.

As interviewers may present unexpected problems for you to tackle, these questions are designed to assist in understanding the challenge. While it may not be feasible to ask every question due to time constraints, you can select those most pertinent to your task to develop a comprehensive solution.

Alternatively, you can utilize the 5W’s and 1H method—Who, What, When, Where, Why, How—to ensure you have all necessary information to proceed smoothly, without relying on memorized question sets disrupting your problem-solving flow.

To help you imagine more intuitively, I will clearly explain the steps to take through the problem I encountered that day

Design a media content management dashboard for a healthcare application, helping admins to effectively manage, create, and edit content

Time frame: 30-minute challenge; 10 minutes Q&A at the end

Step 1: Understanding the Problem & Context (5 minutes)

• What’s the goal of the design?
• What is this product for?
• What are the important features of this product?

Step 1.5: Understanding the users (5 minutes)

• Who are the users?
• What are their need?
• What are their pain points?

Step 2: Make a decision on which personas or assumptions you are moving forward with (5 minutes)

If the interviewer hasn’t specified the users or hasn’t provided ample information, use your experience to make assumptions and generate scenarios, selecting the primary course of action based on your past encounters.

Our persona for the current prompt:

• Name: Liam
• Age: 24- 35 (assumption–> know how to use technology a little but don’t want a complicated system)
• Occupation: Content manager
• Goal: A simple dashboard to view posts of products and write a post easy

Step 3: Main user flow (5 minutes)

Narrate the journey of the user chosen for focus in Step 2, detailing their primary flow for this experience.

Enumerate the steps (1, 2, 3…) to facilitate easy reference to their user journey when outlining solutions in the subsequent step.

Step 4: Sketch Out Some Solutions (10 minutes)

• You will not have time to sketch out everything, choose the critical screens and check in with your interviewers with “Since we have a time limit, I’ll have to sketch out <screen from flow 3>, <screen from flow 5>, screen from flow 7>. Is that alright?”
• Sketch out some wireframes or solutions based on your main user flow from Step 3.
• Draw it out clearly and label your drawings.

Bonus (If you have time!)

Suggest alternative use cases to show that you consider other factors. For example, accessibility considerations, other ideas, or situational use cases (What if the user is in <a different environment> instead?)

In the end

Some methods I have applied and learned about before are:

• Fast-thinking methodology (agile methodology, design thinking, lean methodology, Six Sigma, critical thinking)
• Time management
• Communication Skills
• Stress management 

It might feel overwhelming to remember and jot down all these details within a 30-minute timeframe. However, having a coherent flow to explain can significantly enhance the presentation’s smoothness.

Remember, perfection isn’t attainable, especially within such a short timeframe. Remain receptive to questions and feedback from your interviewers, they’re navigating through a lot of information as well.

Lastly, the more you practice whiteboarding, the more proficient you’ll become. So, take a deep breath, exude confidence, pick up a marker, and start honing your skills. Experiment with challenges from a random generator or tackle predefined ones. You’ve got this!

• Tags:
• Interview
• UX Design
• whiteboard challenge