Springboard UX/UI Design Bootcamp Review

Intro

Howdy! If you’re reading this I’m guessing you’re either interested in joining a boot camp or interested in me, either way, I’m flattered you’re here. If you’re considering joining a boot camp, I recommend doing some hardcore research into the different programs as well as reading several different opinion pieces. Some folks have had great experiences while others have not and I think there are valid stories on both sides. I will say that for me, I think the investment was worth it. Springboard’s UI/UX program provided a solid foundation of UX basics and made me feel much more confident going into the hiring process. I had originally decided to attend a boot camp as a means to transition into product design from a background in economics and international relations. If you are also coming from a non-design-related background, I will say that I think it will probably take more effort and investment than just a boot camp to “break-in” to a design role. However, as I said, I do think the boot camp was the right decision for me and certainly pushed me farther along than if I had tried to learn everything on my own. Below I have outlined my experience with the major components of the program and provided what I found to be the major takeaways.‍

Curriculum

The curriculum at Springboard is a mix of original and curated content. At most boot camps you’re going to find a very similar curriculum, which makes sense, they’re all trying to teach you the same set of skills. The factor that differentiates your level of success is going to be how much work you put into understanding the content and creating your projects.

For the most part, I felt pretty prepared after completing the Springboard curriculum, but there are two main areas that I wish I had a better understanding of visual design and ambiguity in the design process. Coming out of the program, I felt confident in my ability to design for process, functionality, and user needs, but didn’t feel as confident when applying visual design techniques. It was through watching videos produced by the Futur that I learned the significance of aspects like hierarchy and typography within visual design. The curriculum at Springboard (and most other boot camps) practices a very linear design process. The projects are structured so that we “empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test”, starting with an idea and ending up with an app. But when it comes to working for a company, very rarely are you going to be designing the entire product from scratch. This is something that my mentor, John, had talked about during our weekly calls, but I think it would benefit the curriculum to teach students how to be more flexible within the design process in practice.

Takeaway: The curriculum helped me develop a solid foundation for design thinking, but lacked in building visual design skills and preparing me for real-world application.

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IDP

The industry design project is your final assignment at Springboard. Students are paired up with a company for one month to work on a UX project for them. This is incredibly valuable because it allows you to test the real-world application of UX design as well as gain experience and grow as a designer. Finding jobs, internships or even volunteer experiences can be incredibly difficult and this project can be a huge differentiator when trying to transition into a new field. Use this opportunity to learn as much as you can and ask for feedback from your managers.

Takeaway: The IDP is a great asset as someone who is transitioning into the field and needs hands-on experience.

Mentorship

During my program at Springboard, I was paired with John Maier as my mentor. Shout out to John!

The most significant impact of mentorship was on my confidence. Before Springboard, I had toyed around in Sketch for maybe about a month’s worth of time and I really had no idea what it meant for a design to be good or bad. Having a mentor provide actionable feedback and explain what made something good or not helped me develop a stronger approach for making my own design decisions and in turn, grew my confidence. I can’t say I’ll never struggle with being confident in my work or feeling like a “real” designer, but having someone with experience tell me that I had done well and explain why helped me build a better understanding of design.

In addition to providing me with feedback, John also pushed me to go beyond the requirements of the program and put all of my work into presentations. This forced me to think more critically about how to present my design decisions to managers and stakeholders. These extra things made me feel much more comfortable going into the IDP at the end of the program. When it comes to mentorship, I do think I got lucky when I was paired with John. From what I’ve learned from speaking with other mentees from the program, not everyone’s mentor was as passionate about providing great feedback. That being said, Springboard does give you the option to request a new mentor. If you feel like you aren’t getting anything valuable out of your mentoring sessions, I’d recommend asking your mentor for specific feedback or requesting a better fit.

Takeaway: Feedback was critical in helping develop my confidence as a new designer. If you’re not getting valuable feedback from your mentor, ask for it.

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Career Support

Springboard offers several different avenues for career support including coaches, curriculum, and community connections through groups and events. I thought the career curriculum was valuable in that it helped me prepare and organize my job search. Like any curriculum though, it’s created to be seen by a lot of people. The guidance and support from career coaches is tailored to you and more valuable than any resume guide you’ll come across. During the program, I had the opportunity to meet with several different career coaches. They all had different backgrounds which afforded me the opportunity to learn how different industries worked and what different companies looked for from people that had actually worked in those spaces. Towards the end of my program, I ended up meeting a coach, Cheryl Hamel (she’s fantastic!), that I clicked with and decided to work with her more long-term on my job search strategy. When you start applying to different roles and even when you first start working for a company there are inevitably going to be questions that arise and Cheryl helped me figure out what made sense for me given my experience and goals. Even when I was on my own at the end of my first contract, advice that I had received from Cherly during our career coaching calls helped me navigate conversations with my employer that I wouldn’t have felt confident approaching otherwise.

Takeaway: The access to a wide range of career coaches helped me learn a lot about different industries and pairing up with a specific coach long-term provided advice tailored to my personal experience and goals.

Mock Interviews

I think the mock interviews at Springboard are optional, but for the love of God, do them! I’ve always dealt with anxiety around any kind of presentation or public speaking, but I will forever be glad that I decided to go through with them. I gained both confidence and valuable insight. There are three different interviews: the behavioral, the portfolio review, and the whiteboard interview. My behavioral interview was conducted by Cheryl (this is when I met her, I believe) and it consisted of six different questions that I had about 2–4 minutes to respond to. In the end, she gave me great feedback about what to keep, what to toss, and what to work on. This was great practice for using the STAR approach.

The portfolio review and whiteboard interview were conducted by Rafal Jankos, another great mentor at Springboard. During the portfolio review, you get free rein to present your work for about 40 minutes. Throughout the presentation, I was asked different technical questions about design and specific questions regarding my projects. The most important advice Rafal had for me was to SLOW DOWN. I had tried to fit so much material in my presentation that I rushed through it when it would have been more appropriate to make the presentation concise and leave time at the end to focus on specific topics. I applied this advice to my whiteboard interview with Rafal, which actually ended up being a lot of fun!

You don’t receive your prompt for the whiteboard interview until it has actually started but you can prepare by outlining your approach. One of the notes I left for myself was to slow down and take the time to think critically throughout the process rather than letting myself rush through it. The interview ended up being very conversational and collaborative as Rafal acted as a stakeholder. Whiteboarding was more about having a solid strategic approach to problem-solving rather than creating wireframes or specific deliverables. I was really happy I went through with the whiteboard interview, especially because it ended up being a lot of fun and made me more confident about my ability to collaborate and problem solve.

Tip: Record your interviews! I wish I had recorded mine. It gives you the opportunity to see yourself present and go through the details of your presentation rather than trying to remember how you did.

Takeaway: The mock interviews helped boost my confidence and give me actionable advice to improve for when the real thing comes along.

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If you have any questions or want to talk more about my experience at Springboard, feel free to shoot me an email at rachel.v.carranza@gmail.com. I’m happy to chat!