Running Practice Sessions with Your Team

Team practice sessions create space for collaborative problem-solving, knowledge-sharing, and mutual growth. Done well, they strengthen team culture while building interview readiness. Done poorly, they become uncomfortable theater that nobody enjoys.

Why Team Practice Sessions Work

Learning From Others

You learn as much by observing others' thinking as you do from practicing yourself. Watching teammates approach problems differently reveals alternative frameworks and new techniques.

Building Psychological Safety

Practicing together normalizes struggling and vulnerability. This builds the psychological safety teams need to do their best work and take creative risks.

Strengthening Team Dynamics

Collaborative challenges reveal how teammates think and approach problems. This builds empathy and strengthens relationships.

Setting Up Effective Team Sessions

Logistics

• Duration: 60-90 minutes including challenge, review, and discussion
• Frequency: Weekly or bi-weekly depending on team needs
• Group size: 4-8 people optimal (larger groups become hard to manage)
• Setting: Large whiteboard or digital whiteboarding tool, quiet space where everyone can see and hear
• Recording: If possible, record sessions for review and knowledge-sharing with those who couldn't attend

Challenge Selection

• Choose challenges appropriate for your team's experience level
• Mix challenge types to keep sessions fresh and engaging
• Vary difficulty to give everyone opportunities to stretch and succeed
• Consider upcoming interviews or hiring needs when selecting challenges

Time Allocation

• Introduce challenge and context: 2-3 minutes
• Perform challenge (observer taking notes): 20-30 minutes
• Break and preparation for feedback: 2-3 minutes
• Facilitator feedback and discussion: 15-20 minutes
• Peer feedback and questions: 15-20 minutes
• Wrap-up and key learnings: 5-10 minutes

The Team Challenge Format

Participant Rotation

One person performs the challenge while others observe. Rotate to give everyone practice opportunities and the chance to observe different approaches.

Setting Expectations

Before starting, remind participants:

• This is practice, not a test
• Struggling is expected and valuable
• Observers should be supportive, not judgmental
• The goal is learning, not perfection

Observer Role

Assign one person to take notes on:

• Questions asked during problem analysis
• Assumptions identified and stated
• Research approach and key insights
• Solution concepts generated
• Final solution and key decisions
• Communication effectiveness (clarity, pacing, technical language use)

Facilitating Productive Feedback

The Feedback Framework

Step 1: Participant Self-Assessment

Ask the performer: "How do you think that went? What did you do well? What would you do differently?"

Step 2: Facilitator Feedback

Lead with strengths and specific observations:

• "You asked great clarifying questions about the time commitment for users"
• "Your user research was comprehensive - you considered three distinct user types"
• "I noticed you spent 10 minutes on problem analysis and jumped quickly to solutions"

Step 3: Peer Feedback

Coach peers to offer constructive, specific feedback:

• Encourage them to identify one thing they'll copy from the approach
• Ask "What would you have done differently here?"
• Foster discussion: "Did anyone notice X?"

Feedback Do's and Don'ts

Do:

• Be specific: "Your sketches made the layout hierarchy clear" vs. "Good sketches"
• Balance positive with developmental: Acknowledge what worked before suggesting improvements
• Focus on process, not just solution: "How you approached the problem" matters as much as "what you created"
• Ask questions: "Why did you focus on X first?" opens discussion rather than dictating

Don't:

• Make it personal: Critique the approach, not the person
• Over-index on solution quality: The journey matters more than the destination
• Dominate the feedback: Facilitators should ask questions and guide, not deliver monologues
• Create hierarchy: Avoid suggesting some ideas are "right" and others "wrong"

Session Variations

Paired Challenge

Two people work through a challenge together while the group observes. This reveals collaboration skills and how people negotiate and make decisions together.

Consecutive Challenges

Two performers tackle the same challenge separately (back-to-back, without watching each other). Compare and contrast their approaches to show how the same problem can have multiple good solutions.

Hot Seat

Observers ask challenging questions throughout the process. This prepares people for real interview situations where interviewers actively engage and challenge thinking.

Fishbowl

Divide the group in half. One group performs challenges while the other observes and takes notes, then swap roles. This gives everyone equal practice and observation time.

Building Strong Team Culture Around Practice

Creating Psychological Safety

• Leaders and experienced designers should go first to model vulnerability
• Explicitly normalize struggling and uncertainty
• Thank people for trying and learning, regardless of solution quality
• Address any dismissive comments immediately and privately

Making It Sustainable

• Keep sessions to a consistent day and time so people can plan around them
• Track and share improvement over months to show progress
• Celebrate learning moments, not just solutions
• Connect practice directly to hiring outcomes to show impact

Handling Varied Participation Levels

Some team members will be eager, others reluctant. Strategies for increasing engagement:

• Emphasize that whiteboard challenges are a core professional skill everyone needs
• Start with lower-pressure formats (no recording, smaller groups) to build comfort
• Pair nervous participants with supportive observers
• Frame this as team investment, not performance evaluation

Documenting and Scaling Learning

Session Documentation

• Record each session (with participants' permission) for those who couldn't attend
• Capture the challenge, approaches taken, and key feedback in a shared document
• Highlight interesting decisions and techniques for team learning

Building Institutional Knowledge

• Share recordings and notes with broader team/company
• Create a repository of common mistakes and strong approaches
• Use team sessions to onboard new designers to your problem-solving culture

The teams that interview best are those that practice together, learn from each other, and build a shared vocabulary and culture around design thinking. Regular whiteboard practice sessions are one of the most effective ways to build this.