Hey #UX #Product folks, how do we feel about whiteboard challenges were the interview team is the owner of the product being critiqued? Scenario: you are being asked to improve a flow of a product owned by the company you are interviewing for. - ThreadSky

lucascufre.design • 19 days ago

Hey #UX #Product folks, how do we feel about whiteboard challenges were the interview team is the owner of the product being critiqued?

Scenario: you are being asked to improve a flow of a product owned by the company you are interviewing for.

Comments

harmenstr.bsky.social•19 days ago

I never got through one of these. Damned if I know what they hope to see. It feels like a set-up to fail. At this moment; if they want me to do a whiteboard challenge, I abort the job interview process. I don’t know how to do it, I and don’t see the point.

lucascufre.design•19 days ago

I actually did it like an ideation session using them as co-creators.. like to hell with everything I’m taking you along for the ride with me.

It seems like it actually worked because I got through it.. I guess they where trying to see my process? I get it, I didn’t like that it was THEIR product.

harmenstr.bsky.social•19 days ago

That sounds a bit more fun than my experience. I guess that if people are open to it, facilitating a co-creation session is much more engaging than a traditional white board session.

lucascufre.design•19 days ago

Yeah, you are right on that.. I get the sense that this was not a regular challenge in the strict sense

jonas.so•19 days ago

Like the team’s not very good at designing the process for assessing new candidates for their team

lucascufre.design•19 days ago

great, so I'm not alone here. How would you go about it? have you ever been asked to participate in a whiteboard challenge before?

jonas.so•19 days ago

I’ve done maybe 5-6 whiteboard challenges, only 1 or 2 were for real live in-product flows, but all were undisclosed until they started

At the end of the day it’s their game, so their rules apply. I never sensed whiteboard challenges was to cull free ideas, tho — just bad interview design

jonas.so•19 days ago

If I knew I’d be doing actual real flows beforehand, I’d probably suggest if it weren’t more useful to do a hypothetical—to remove the teams’ stakes from it—but at the end of the day HR gonna HR, so I’ve just marked it as a stain on their first impressions to me as a candidate and moved on

jonas.so•19 days ago

But, to be fair, I always approached it as a collective brainstorming exercise, and they did too, so I didn’t feel like I produced anything of end-value to anyone. Hopefully they didn’t either 🙃

lucascufre.design•19 days ago

Completely get you, my experience was waaaay too far into the process, like second to last step, though I’m with you about the weirdness of the challenge.. I mean, they could’ve presented me with many hypothetical situations or a flow none of us owned

mrnuma.bsky.social•19 days ago

Yeah this is no bueno

lucascufre.design•19 days ago

Am I right or what?

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