Using a whiteboard is not just an interview challenge.
Have you ever stayed up at night with your eyes closed, just drawing in your head?
Some of my most memorable head drawing breakthroughs were made when I was learning descriptive geometry. I would stress over assignments I wasn't understanding in class, just drawing lines, erasing and starting over.
One of them was drawing the front view of a cube, sitting on a corner with its 3d diagonal axis perpendicular to the horizontal plane, it took me multiple "sessions".
When I finally had it, I jumped out of bed and started sketching the whole process, worried that I might forget it by the next day (even 13 years later, I haven't).
This story is not just me down on memory lane, it's a parallel - the same process that I was using to move the cube in my head, is identical to drawing on a whiteboard, with the added value that it's faster and you can show other people.
Illustrating thoughts is important because it forces us to organize and break down big chunky problems into small and manageable processes.
The best time to do it is at the beginning, no doubt about it.
But, when it comes to digital product development where everything is a variable and things many time change one week to another, it can be vital.
Throughout each phase, we tend to get a zoomed in view over it because we tend to focus on the problem in hand, often overlooking what comes next.
A great benefit of drawing and revisiting your main project processes on a whiteboard is regaining a zoomed out view over the entire monster.
Even though the smooth feeling of writing on a whiteboard is irreplaceable, we can still get the work done over various applications.
I personally use Freehand from Invision, as it has been the main tool in my workflow for a while now. One of the things I really love doing is using it on my iPad Pro, sketching on it feels natural.
Adobe XD also released a new whiteboard plugin which looks very promising , it's definitely on my "to try" list:
I use my whiteboard for any project or particular problem that I need to break down.
I use it when I am working on my own.
I use it when I am in meetings.
I use the digital version for remote meetings too.
I used it to break down this blog post too.
Its uses are endless!
More human-like experiences.
Integrate permission requests in your strategy.
Why most times this is the best answer.
