Mentoring & motivating individuals to become amazing Product Designers
How I’ve leveraged my company’s resources to inspire and motivate others with what they’re already interested in
I’m a big proponent of cultivating individuals because there’s one thing I deeply believe in — people will only achieve amazing performance if they are passionate and interested in the work they do. It will fulfill their needs and desires to a whole new level, rather than having just a job.
Look beyond their title & experience; focus on their potential instead
Anyone with the right aptitude and strong interests can be an amazing product designer, regardless of what their current role is. I’ve seen really talented people who have the soft skills and intelligence working in jobs that they are not passionate about; they’re often repetitive work.
Anyone who is passionate and has a thirst for knowledge in a particular field will succeed in whatever they choose to do. It will require hard effort and things may not happen right away, but grit and optimism will help him/her succeed.
Another must for someone to get to where they need to go is having a really good mentor. Everyone needs some type of guidance throughout their life, career, and relationships. Having a good mentor is priceless because a little guidance will go a long way.
Establishing design standards & processes
If a company already has an established design system and process, you can leverage off of the resources to help guide and train the individual who’s really interested in Product Design.
If there are no design standards and/or processes, the first thing you would need to do is to set it up for the company. After it’s setup, you need to run a few projects through the design process you’ve established to validate your process actually works smoothly.
Project success metrics are the main measurements on how effective your design process is, so before you want to start develop others, make sure you have a well-rounded design process in place already.
Creating a “Design Development & Training” Program
Once your company has a good design process, I’d recommend creating a “Design Development & Training” Plan. This plan is a template that you can use for training aspiring designers, interns, or any young individuals who are interested in design during this program.
Below is a 90-day template I’ve created for one of my colleagues, Jia, at Roofstock. This plan has been very effective in guiding and mentoring Jia when teaching product design concepts:
A lot of content on this training plan rely on self-learning such as reading articles and books related to that particular topic. I’ve also included agenda and deliverables to provide a clear understanding of what needs to be covered every 30 days.
Even though this was planned for 90 days, but because Jia had her current role’s responsibilities, the program was extended to 120 days for her to complete all the topics in this training program.
Two-way learning between mentors & mentees
You can actually learn a lot as a mentor because of the intellectual conversations while you’re trying to explain a concept or case study will bring up interesting questions.
It is quite a rewarding experience because as a mentor, you get to see your mentee grow as her knowledge expands from knowing not much about the subject in the beginning. Also, there were some moments when you see your mentee finally understood what you’re trying to teach, they bring really big smiles and they’re happy they’ve learned something new.
Knowledge will be passed on from one person to another
The best feeling you’ll get as a mentor is when your mentee learned what you’ve taught them, and can explain better than yourself. This is when you know that you’ve done a really great job mentoring.
The time you’ve spent mentoring your mentee will be beyond worthwhile because you’ve just trained someone who can do good for many companies and encourage your mentee to pass on the knowledge wherever he/she goes.
