Mentorship in UX design: my experience
At the beginning of my professional journey, I was not only learning the basics of UX design but also looking for a mentor to fill my portfolio with solid examples. Later I started helping newcomers in UX design myself.
Why did I become a mentor?
My mentoring journey started with mentoring in the company where I work. A more experienced colleague comes to his aid when we have a new team member. This helps the newcomer to adapt faster, socialize, improve hard and soft skills, and fill in experience gaps.
Later, I transferred the mentoring experience outside the office. It came out naturally because I am a member of different professional communities and try to be an active participant in them.
Often in design chats, participants ask for advice from more experienced colleagues. Over time, I’ve realized that my experience can be helpful to someone else, and it can also help someone else avoid my mistakes. By typing out answers to questions, I’ve concluded that it’s better to have a one-to-one chat than to spell out a text canvas.
Here are a few more reasons that led me to mentor:
- UX design is constantly evolving, with interesting solutions and ideas emerging. I want to keep up to date with everything and find more partners and even competitors so that I’m not stomping around.
- Sometimes exciting solutions come from thinking out loud. Mentorship is the perfect environment for this.
- Through mentoring, I become a better mentee for those who mentor me.
- I get to structure my experience and knowledge, identify my strengths and close my blind spots.
- There are a lot of methods and tools in design, not all of which you encounter on a daily basis at work. And this way, you can maintain your knowledge, keep track of trends and use them for working projects when needed.
Why should a UX designer become a mentor?
When you learn something not only for yourself but help someone else with it, it adds value to your knowledge.
A designer should also consider mentorship because:
- it helps you to reflect;
- it energizes you, which you can channel into work projects;
- for the sake of the community;
- can be converted into money, although mentoring is a two-way process: each side has its motivations and benefits of such a working relationship;
- It helps to find a mentor for oneself to pump up the right skills.
How long does mentoring in UX design take?
Everyone has different requests, challenges and different cycles. Some people only need one session, while others require a long support session with professional discussions and brainstorming sessions. Consequently, the time is taken for mentoring varies. But the minimum is 1 hour to reply on messenger, call on Zoom/Skype or write an email.
I often communicate with one or two designers in a month. That takes about 2 to 4 hours of “live communication” a week and instant messenger communication. But I am not bound to a strict schedule; we resolve issues as needed. The initiative to hold a session has to come from the mentee; then, there is a result.
It also happens that a month is busy, in which case I refuse to provide mentoring.
Session topics and format
I mentor UX designers at different levels, from newbies to leads. But more often, I talk to beginners who are just starting to develop in UI/UX design. Here the main focus is to understand what you want to work with, build up a portfolio and find your first job.
If newbies have a portfolio, I look at it and give feedback. Then we work through specific topics where help is needed. For example, I help them prepare for interviews and technical interviews.
If I highlight one of the main problems of beginners, apart from employment, is not understanding which tools are best to use. I share my top plugins, for example plugins for Figma, usability testing tools, and resources for inspiration and finding ideas, for example:
I prepare practical tasks with realistic technical requirements and then sort them out together for those who want to pump up their skills.
The subject matter and format of the sessions depend on the mentee’s goals. I divide them into two types:
- Conversation sessions. They are more about soft skills: team relations, customer communication, payroll, free tests, etc.
- Practical sessions. When we learn tools and approaches and work through hard skills.
For my part, I try to maintain a relaxed atmosphere and ensure goal setting, which allows us to develop in the desired direction.
Final thought
If you are a UX designer, try yourself as a mentor.
Find a mentor if you feel it’s been a while since you’ve had a quality leap. You can write to me, and I’ll help with advice or recommend someone from my colleagues.
