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Compiled Questions for your Whiteboard Product Design Challenge
For the past few weeks, I was looking for a full-time Product Design position in tech companies. A few companies I interviewed for set up a Whiteboarding Challenge (or some might call it an “On-the-spot” challenge). In Australia, take-home challenges (an assignment where you were given a design problem to solve within days) are more common than whiteboarding challenges, but it is always a good skill to practice in case! To prepare for my Whiteboarding Challenges in the past, I spent many hours researching and learning from other designers online. In the end, I created a cheat sheet that I studied and referred to. The outcome? I passed multiple Whiteboard Challenges and got a number of job offers!
What is a Whiteboard Challenge?
A whiteboard challenge is a challenge where you will be given a problem to solve in the Product Design space. For example, “how do you create a seamless experience of xyz?” or “how do you increase conversion for a website?”. In this interview, it is as if your interviewers are the clients for a project. It is typically around an hour long and done in front of a whiteboard. With the current pandemic, some have it virtually via Figma, Adobe XD or Miro.
What is a Whiteboard Challenge for?
To do well in a whiteboarding challenge, it is good to know the intention behind them and why they are asking you to do it. It is not on how you can make pretty wireframes on the spot or how fast you come up with solutions right after the problem is presented. Instead, it is about seeing how you think through the problem and how you arrive at the solution based on your findings. These are a few common reasons why they have a whiteboard challenge:
- To show your interviewer know how you think or solve a design problem through your questions and solutions.
- To show your interviewer how you work well with them and in a team.
- To see if you are the right fit in their team make up.
