Making Progress

3 min readJul 17, 2016

It’s Sunday night. And while I should be packing for a business trip to Sydney, I instead admire my kitchen wall.

Why you weirdo?

Yes, I’m weird. A weird colorful UX crazian who always gazes happily at the fruition of a Post-it frenzy. (Actually that’s a lie, these days I mainly use Daiso static cling papers. They are way better than Post-its, my fellow synthesis veterans — in wall cling and price.)

Three months of hard work pays off! (My lovely housemate refers to this as “good wall deco” hehe.)

What the heck have you been doing?

In case you haven’t heard, I’m working on a little UX passion project.

I did a rough estimate of the time I’ve committed to this thus far. Something like 60-hours over the course of three months. THAT IS IN-SANE.

This has consisted of:

50+ cold-emails and LinkedIn messages
20+ Melb coffees and chais
31 interviews with lovely Aussie industry leaders
5-ish catch-up sessions with Naomi Easson and Rohan Irvine
600+ Post-its and Daiso static papers
1 synthesis brunch (trading home-cooked meals for brain power works wonders)

Any lessons learned?

The biggest takeaway from my research: peer mentorship.

With all the assumptions I came into this project with, peer mentorship was not one of them. I confess, the idea of a “good mentor” used to be someone more seasoned than I, who has achieved #goals I strive to accomplish.

So once this was mentioned in interviews I was pleasantly surprised. There was an internal sigh a relief. Here I was anxious to find mentorship in Melbourne, when really I had multiple sources already.

These leader interviewees have enlightened me with the notion that mentorship can come in all forms. Mentors can be inside and outside of your industry. They can be younger and older than you. And friends can be mentors, especially those you geek out and bond with in mutual UX weirdness.

Really, a mentor just needs to be a person that you trust, who you can relate to and connect with.

Much love to my fellow weirdo mentors in New York and Melbourne who have supported me through this journey!

With that said, I must give a huge thank you to four amazing designers: Via David, Mike Jennings, Nigel Quinlan, and Serge Stefanovic! After our lovely synthesis brunch this weekend, the essences gathered from my interviews are all grouped in patterns within that beautiful affinity map (aka très chic home decor). And each person contributed some form of motivational advice that day, which will help push me forward to the finish line.