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Mastering the UX Design Whiteboard Challenge: A Step-By-Step Guide with an Uber Case Study
With more companies becoming aware that take-home exercises are taking too long and requiring too much effort from both the candidate and the company, there is a growing trend towards conducting on-site exercises or remote whiteboard challenges instead.
Braden Kowitz, a former partner at Google Ventures and designer at Google, once said, “It’s such a good technique because there’s no faking (like showing portfolio work from a big team effort).” Essentially, whiteboard challenges are designed to see how you’d tackle a product design problem in a constrained timeframe, from zero to one or sometimes from nine to ten.
Through my own trial and error, I’ve come to realize the necessity of a guiding framework. To that end, I’ve created a FigJam template you can follow.
For the purposes of this article, let’s dive into a hypothetical example: “Uber wants to support family businesses better. Design an app feature to facilitate this.”
Before You Start: Clarifications Are Key
Before your interviewer even states the challenge, be proactive and clarify a few things:
- What’s the deliverable? Is it a user journey, a wireframe, or a high-fidelity prototype?
- Time Allocation: How much time do you have for this challenge?
- Role of Interviewers: Should you treat them as partners, users, or stakeholders?
Phase 1: Understanding the Business Perspective (3 Minutes)
Once you’ve received the task, spend the initial moments gathering the context. Let’s break it down:
Who is Involved (Who’s in my team)?
Begin by identifying who is part of the team and how many people you have at your disposal. This clarifies the resources you’ll work with.
Why are we working on this?
Understand the broader business objective:
- Why is this feature or product important for the business?
- What impact does it have on the world?
