My Uber Whiteboarding UX Challenge // How to approach design whiteboarding exercises 

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

I'm just here to say that I aced my whiteboard interview!! Thank you Femke. Your biggest fan from kenya.

The video I was waiting for long. Thanks a lot Fem :)

Thank you for showing it all so transparently! Love your channel!

Hey Femke, Ive been following your journey on RU-vid 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!

I have a whiteboard challenge coming up very soon! perfect timing to get inspiration. Thanks :D

This was so helpful Femke! Learned new mindsets and techniques. Will definitely use them when I find myself in a whiteboarding session 🙌🏻

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 RU-vid. You are of great help to lots of people!

Femke, your video totally helped me come up with a plan for approaching a whiteboard exercise in my interview- AND I PASSED!!! THANK YOU!

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.

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.

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'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!

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

Love this so much, thanks for sharing Femme 🔥

Thank you so much, I was able to do my whiteboard round with your help!

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!

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.

Amazing tips, thanks!!

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.

Thank you! It is helpful

You are a lifesaver :) Thank you so much for sharing this video. I've got a new job today. :)

amazing!!! thanks!

Agree with all the tips. Amazing content!

thanks you're so kind person

Femke, you're awesome.

Thank you!!!

Awesome Femke.

wonderful video

About to do one this morning! Thanks for this helpful video! Wish me luck

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!

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?

Thanks, it is really helpful. Any suggestions about allocating time for a whiteboard challenge?

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...

Hi! How would you 'speak out loud' when the whiteboard session is on Miro?

Thanks lets see how my interview in 2 hours goes!

thank you 💚

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

Awesome!

Thanks Femke. :)

Cash payment is available from the day Uber was launched in India

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.

Hi Femke, who do you mean by the key players in this problem?

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

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.

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?

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?

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?

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 :)

Loved this 👏🏻 Any tips for remote whiteboarding rounds?

Pay by cash, there’s so many security problem. Would love you hear, how you actually came up with the solution?

Ux Collective Link will help too greatly, can you put through?

What was the answer to the challenge that you got?

Hi Femke, thanks for this. Please I want to know, can I ask a designer in the company what their challenge was?

Hi Femke, could you recommend folks / companies with whom I can practice Design Whiteboarding.

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.

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?

What if I do course from Coursera ?

First 🙌

Wish I saw this earlier lol

SHOW, DONT TELL

I have learned how to 'swim' through a postal course. I am gonna jump to the sea...

You work on Uber for product and UX? So it’s your fault.