How to ace your first whiteboard challenge for product design (remote or in-person)

[@Designalily]

Get my free design interview prep book! 📖 www.designalily.com/prepped

[@vi8177]

You explain it so well. I feel confident for my next whiteboard challenge already. The high/low impact and cost graph is super useful for any problems we are trying to solve. thank you for this.

[@Designalily]

Wow my validation meter went off with this comment. Thank you for taking the time to write something. This means a lot as a creator.

[@adesignwoman]

Literally watching this during my first whiteboard challenge in an interview!!! Thank you so much for sharing this. I really appreciate your work.

[@Designalily]

Best of luck, let me know how it goes!

[@poiikaer]

You're so good at explaining things in a clear and concise way! I'd love to see more from you in the future about the actual process of being a product designer on a daily basis. I'm currently self-studying to transition from a career in education to product design, but it's hella daunting going from understanding UX ideology/research to actually grasping what the job itself looks like :x Appreciate the time and effort that went into this, ty!

[@Designalily]

Thank you so much! I didn't know you were looking to transition into UX. I'm hoping these videos help because I feel like most UX videos gloss over of what it takes and how they got there. I'm going to keep your feedback in mind, appreciate it. I plan to release a video showing how I do a daily UI challenge.

[@poiikaer]

@@Designalily I agree about the pre-existing UX content out there, this is the first video I've seen where it opened my eyes to how broad your solutions can be. It's not a cut and dried "must make an app/website" kinda situation. I'd love to see something about daily UI because I ended it thinking it wasn't helping me to design without having context, but I miss the daily practice a lot so I'm curious to see your process!

[@Designalily]

@@poiikaer Exactly, they want to see how you solve business problems... how adaptable you are. Going straight to app/website is a junior move (without verbal instruction from interviewer) because at highly competitive companies like lyft (advanced product design culture), they'll ask you problems like How might we design the future of transportation with autonomous cars? Notice this can mean a lot of things - acclimating customers, user research, distribution of autonomous cars? They make the problem broad on purpose and see how you can narrow it down and sell your vision (hence why presentation for buy-in is just as important as the design itself). Product designers at these companies solve problems that have never been solved, and they want to see how you would approach it. Hope this helps! I will have to record one of my daily ui processes, the process is not as pretty as you'd think (YT how to design videos are like ideal scenarios).

[@roter13]

I have a whiteboard challenge on Thursday and I'm legit about to cry. I have so much trouble coming up with solutions quickly.

[@sdl444]

Like she said it’s not about finding a solution ASAP. The challenge and focus here is to understand and break down the problem.

[@ellapark8770]

girl, your channel's the best. wow

[@Designalily]

Thank you! :D

[@philippendletonmusic]

Thanks to you and and this video I just landed an extremely well paid product designer position. I would not have aced the whiteboard challenge had it not been for your tutorial. I can't thank you enough.

[@Designalily]

Happy to hear that. Hope you're enjoying product design!

[@philippendletonmusic]

@@Designalily Still working at the job and still loving it. Thanks again!

[@kwegan20]

Learned alot from you on this. Thanks!

[@Designalily]

You're welcome :)

[@leonardogalvao2631]

OMG you are so good, thank you for this video!

[@Designalily]

What about this was the best part? Thank you I will take that compliment and save it for a rainy day. :)

[@jserr9682]

Amazing job explaining your great thank you !!

[@marocchi88]

This is great!! Thank you for sharing! I feel better prepared for my next interview!

[@RajivNarayanan]

This is good! thank you. You explained the important things which is what I really needed! Thank you

[@yaraneves9945]

The explainations were very direct and easy to consume. Thank you for the effort and help! :D

[@Designalily]

Thank you for the feedback, let me know how it goes ;)

[@milksliced]

great idea to use the matrix for ideas

[@alexlavatai845]

This is legit better than the “solving product exercises” book. Thank you 🙏

[@sarahxjoung]

I'm currently in my last month of UX bootcamp, and starting from next week, I'll be practicing interviews and white boarding. I'm really excited to take back all of the information that you've provided in this video as well as from your other videos. Super excited for this new journey ahead of me despite the global pandemic we're going through. Thank you for your talent and information (& your very amazing and hilarious Tiktoks) !!

[@Designalily]

Thank you for writing this out! Please LMK how it goes :) I would love to hear your success story

[@rafaeldelacruz6362]

A really fantastic video for whiteboarding 101. You kick Ass!

[@Designalily]

thank you!

[@kookieskookie3729]

Thank you so much for this! I've been laid off recently. I'm a graphic designer looking into transitioning to UX. I've been self-studying and I'm feeling overwhelmed by how much I don't know. This video was helpful!

[@Designalily]

Thank you! I think this video will help as well. These are my essential books for building a product/UX designer mindset: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKS9eGp3fpt1kMk Not the generic Product Design Exercise book by Artiom (that one has the basics)

[@kookieskookie3729]

​@@Designalily Awesome! I've been on a hunt for more books to read. I'm interested in the Articulating Decisions book as I've always struggled to explain my design decisions. Thank you!

[@Designalily]

@@kookieskookie3729 Look at the amazon reviews, it's seriously the best for that subject

[@kookieskookie3729]

@@Designalily I bought it already. ;)

[@Designalily]

@@kookieskookie3729 you're going to love it! please let me know how it goes

[@seriouslyme921]

Another amazing video! This is so helpful. thank you!

[@kiarasunm12]

Love your videos! Do you have any advice for someone that struggles to think on the spot? :(

[@MrRodtal86]

Very interesting!

[@seanmoynihan2711]

amazing - thank you. I'm currently in the middle of interviews and this helped me out alot - thanks so much for sharing your process :)

[@Designalily]

you're welcome, I hope you get the role you want

[@unicee514]

THANK YOU SO MUCH LILY, I passed my whiteboard challenge thanks to your videos!!

[@Designalily]

Wowowow congrats!! Where did you land?

[@unicee514]

Thank you!! I'm heading to Amazon :')

[@supra2k8]

@@unicee514 damn! congrats!

[@chubbybunny0121]

thank you! this was so helpful and easy to follow. You're like my design big sister :")

[@Designalily]

Such a sweet comment, thank you for writing this.

[@marvin4630]

Just adopted her as well!! :)

[@biswadeep9522]

This was so helpful....This looks like a nerve-wracking process....But at least I know What to do and to handle it now...

[@daniellekavanaugh7732]

Thank you for such a great video!

[@emilyjooe]

Thank you for this video! This information is very useful and has helped me understand how to approach a whiteboard challenge now.

[@Designalily]

Glad it worked :)

[@kyliepray5486]

Your youtube videos and tik toks have inspired me to learn more about ux/ui and the tech industry! I work in hospitality, so I was recently furloughed due to the pandemic (and might be facing permanent layoffs in the near future), but your videos are a source of hope and motivate me to challenge myself to learn new skills! I hope you know that you are making a difference! Keep up the awesome work (:

[@Designalily]

Thank so much for this! This means a lot for me for you to write this out. This is the reason why I decided to do KZbin. I will keep working on it if it makes the difference.

[@john.nguyen]

Thank you for the great video! But more importantly, your SKIN tho girl! It's glowing

[@nacholibre2129]

Thank you for the video. Your skin looks awesome btw!

[@Designalily]

Haha thank you :)

[@benedhk9119]

Congrats u got a new subscriber

[@Designalily]

I don't deserve you sempai 🥺

[@yaelr5938]

This was really helpful! I just went through a challenge and did absolutely awful! I was thrown off because they were pushing me to start designing above anything else, is there anything you'd recommend in this case of how to speed up the process to end up with a visual solution? (it was also only 30 minutes long)

[@thelastjess]

Very insightful. I appreciate you taking the time to share this with us. What has been your experience with take home design exercise/assignments? How long should it take? I know each assignment varies but is there a rule of thumb for a designer to give him/her time to work on it? Is a week asking too much?

[@supra2k8]

From my short experience, I have been told to not spend more than 4 hours, but they didn't have a timeline on submitting it, so technically I could have spent the weekend on it. I highly doubt anyone will only spend 4 hours.

[@sharanniresh6851]

Thank you for this amazing explanation. Also, Can I ask how do we go on about approaching design challenges where the challenge or the goal is designing a product which practically is not efficient and/or difficult to design. For example: design an alarm clock with just 1 button? Thank you!

[@Designalily]

Hi Sharan, are you interviewing at somewhere like Shopify? Someone I mentored on a 1:1 workshop got that exact example 😅

[@sharanniresh6851]

@@Designalily ha ha no , I wish! I read in one of the forums that google asked this question and from then I am trying to figure out how to approach such physical product questions.

[@seoulkimchi50]

Is there any way I can see your portfolio?

[@zuojianing1800]

Hello~I would like to book a session with you, but I don't know where to click, the link you left above,not really working!

[@Designalily]

Oh I see, try this link: designalily.com/coaching

[@賴昶辰-c2u]

Good

[@dreamsdressy727]

I am confused..so as a ux designer are you going to design a label with instructions to stick on the plant or are you going to design website or news letter?what is the role of UX designer here?

[@supra2k8]

The role is to solve the issue, a graphic designer, web designer/developer could work on your design solution.

[@riteshmalviya3170]

To me, a Whiteboard challenge is a test to check your problem-solving ability with critical thinking and that's what UX designers do. Sometimes you need a digital solution but you don't always need a website(or a product) to sell your product.

[@charusaraswat8565]

Just a question- is it possible that the shop gives a pamphlet to the customers with all the instructions? Customers can keep a picture of it in their phone, or keep the pamphlet in such a place that it's easier for them to look and understand more about the plant. Is this solution acceptable?

[@Designalily]

yes! no set solutions for whiteboarding (theoretically), just be able to sell it with critical thinking like with the pain points analyzed

[@TheJoker-te7te]

Can I give you some constructive feedback? It might come across as mean, but I assure you it is not intended as such: all I gathered from this video is that you probably like doodling stuff. Handwriting on an iPad is a bad choice. You would have fared far better firing up Notepad and writing in there, with a smaller Paint window on-screen showing whatever it is you're trying to draw. This is coming from someone who already knows what you're trying to explain here. Best of luck!

[@chumleyk]

You missed user insight. to the shop owner - "Why are they returning the plants?"