I mentor to be a better designer

and you should too.

This past weekend, I volunteered as a design mentor at TechTogether’s Hackathon. This wasn't my first experience mentoring, but it was intensified. I was mentoring hackers through a 36-hour hackathon with prizes from companies like Capital One Tech and Microsoft Design.

I loved mentoring this past weekend, but it was stressful being on call. During downtime, I reflected on why I continue to mentor. I found it not only because I enjoy it, but it makes me a better designer for 4 main reasons; It helps me diminish imposter syndrome, ask valuable questions, improve validation processes, and grow my community. I'll explain how below.

Diminish Imposter Syndrome

Volunteering as a mentor allowed me to better trust my skill set. Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. For me, this stems from trust in my work and design processes.

My confidence is always boosted when I can help people and provide value. Validation of this can be hard to come by as an employed designer because it's my job to provide value to the team. The missing feedback loop for validation is a reason I volunteer as a mentor. As a mentor, my input can spark new ideas, rethink designs, and consider data with my mentees. The feedback loop that I am seeking is provided in realtime with my mentees. While this validation is helpful, it truly allows me to identify my own expertise as I guide mentees through design processes.

Asking Valuable Questions

Understanding the mentee’s goals has allowed me to build my skills in asking the right questions to get to the root of the problem faster.

I have mentored students who get frustrated when I don't give them valuable feedback. Through this work, I have been able to better understand why, at times, my feedback is poorly received. It is not because I or the Mentee is not trying, it is generally due to a few reasons that revolve around asking the right questions; the context; the problem; the process; or the scope. I have concluded that the framing of the question is just as important as the question itself in order to receive precise feedback. I prompt my mentees to take a step back and give me a framework prior to asking questions.

Knowing when I, as a mentor have difficulty providing feedback has completely transformed the way I approach advice, reviews, and feedback. I give all relevant information in a snapshot to scope the feedback. This allows me to improve productivity in design meetings and provide a line of questioning to understand the problem faster.

Data-Based Validation

Many times, mentees just want validation of their work. This differs from a critique or feedback because they are looking for confirmation that they are on the right track with their proposed solution.

As a mentor I can't answer these types of questions, I can only provide assumptions based on what I know. I direct my mentees to validate their guesses and assumptions with data. Confirming that a design is on the right track, also known as, solving the right problem can only be done with user research.

This has changed my perspective of how I approach feedback sessions. In the past, I may have taken a more established designer’s word to validate my designs or thought process. Now, having been in that mentor’s position, I understand what they say is an assumption unless proven through data.

Building my Network

I love being involved in the design community. Offering my expertise as a mentor is a way to give back and say thanks to all the people who have guided me as I have broken into the industry.

Being a part of the mentoring community has not only built my network with my mentees but with other design mentors as well. When I see that another designer has been a mentor through the same organization as me, I feel an instant connection because we have a common experience. It is easier to connect past a superficial level and can instantly start a new friendship within the industry.

Final Thoughts

In the end, it really is true that kindness is the secret to success. Helping others has made me a better designer in more ways than listed above. More than that though, it has made me a happy designer. I find energy, strength, and delight in helping other designers find their path. In doing this, we are all making the tech industry a kinder and more inclusive place.