Journeys into UX Design — LTUX mentees
Every journey is unique. We are all shaped by our context and interactions with it. Hopefully, we learn from our experiences and reflect upon them. It helps us grow. And spills-over, becoming a source of inspiration for others who are embarking on a similar journey. In this article, I’m sharing the experiences of participants of the LadiesthatUX mentorship program.
Sofia
Sometimes it’s building up previous encounters and retrieving them from our memories and using them to make sense of our world and decide where to go next. Like Sofia, whose UX journey started in the Netherlands with the realization of how difficult it was for a foreigner to perform daily activities such as buying groceries. Having read, Stephen Krug’s Don’t make me think, the content reemerged and Sofia was convinced: “Such an easy task has to be more intuitive and simple”. With a background in Communication and Multimedia, Sophia decided to look more into usability and the all-encompassing UX Design. The journey continued with a UX bootcamp, building up a portfolio and getting more involved in the local UX community by attending LTUX meetups and joining the mentorship program:
“It made me believe more in my skills and focus on important aspects of the UX process that was not so stressed in my studies. One thing I can mention is the importance of measuring the results, how to understand success and iterate on failures. Also, thanks to the mentorship program and the LTUX community, I landed my first full-time job”.
Gimena
The design community is very accommodating in helping out and sharing experiences. Everyone is open and willing to guide you, as long as you reach out. Gimena, for example, has been a UX Designer for the past 6 years. In her thirties, Gimena went back to college to study Fine Art and worked in the cultural sector upon graduation. When it was time for the next challenge, Gimena continued with Postgraduate studies in Multimedia Programming, became a UX Designer, and eventually relocated to the Netherlands:
“When I moved to the Netherlands, I looked for design communities here and started going to Meetups — that’s how I discovered LTUX and heard about the mentorship program.”
For the past two years, Gimena has participated in the mentorship program. The first year as a mentee, and in the second year as a mentor and a mentee:
“As a mentor myself, I wanted to learn how to listen to what another designer needs, bearing in mind that their journey is unique and they may need to do it their own way, and not necessarily my way … what can I give that helps? Both times it was a really good experience for me, I was super lucky with my great mentors and my amazing mentee. Taking time to know each other and find a common language was really valuable. I loved the sense of connection and the chance to support others.”
Anna
Anna is another participant who joined the mentorship program as a mentor and a mentee. Anna’s journey started in Germany, with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design. After working as an industrial designer on a freelance basis at several agencies in Hamburg and Stuttgart, Anna started to reflect:
“I often asked myself if we solved the right problem by making for example a cleaning mob more ergonomic. Do users even want to mob their floor? At some point I did a project for DHL, and a project that started as designing a new packaging range for their boxes became a project to improve their packaging centres. We went to the packaging centres and observed how they work as well as interviewed the workers. I really loved this project and it inspired me to move towards user research and interaction design.”
This led Anna to finish a Master in Interaction Design at TU Delft and becoming an active member of the LadiesthatUX community sharing insights with fellow UX’ers. By participating in the mentorship, Anna wanted to brush up her writing:
“I learned how to write and structure an article and how to publish. I also learned how to better coach and give advice to my mentee and that coaching is much more about asking the right questions and giving small pushes in the right direction rather than conveying knowledge itself. In the end, everyone has to go their own way.”
Alessandra
Going your own way or even finding your own way is something that is closely related to learning and development, which is always at the forefront of UX. You don’t have to know it all, you don’t have to have figured it out yet. For Alessandra, who was working as a Design Thinking Consultant in Brazil prior to joining the LTUX mentorship program, it was a difficult period. Due to the pandemic, clients were canceling workshops:
“I was lost. One of my friends in Utrecht knew about the mentorship program, she told me: Ale, you’re a little bit lost, maybe a mentorship program will be good for you to organise your thoughts and also feelings. I decided ok, let’s do that.”
Alessandra is currently working as a UX Researcher, a job that allows the practitioner to be in touch with people and trying to understand them, and provide all the insights to develop the product. When asked about how the mentorship helped, Alessandra reminisces:
“The mentorship helped me to recover my past. Because for me, at first I was thinking omg, I’m going to start again. I’m transitioning a career and start from scratch, and during the mentorship I was discovering that no, this is not true. I was researching before. I have my experience from previous jobs. When I started to build up my portfolio, it was really nice to receive some tips about how to put the information like twitter, the essential information over there and then stimulate people receiving my portfolio to be curious about me and have a conversation.”
It also helped Alessandra to learn something new about herself:
“I have an arrow tattooed on my body (showing her arm), because in my life, I believe in this movement. Sometimes you have to set back and get some impulse to move forward. About myself, I believe I rediscovered this. I’m able to step back and then move forward because I worked as a manager before. If I compare the job title to an elevator, I was at the 24th floor and now I’m on the 11th floor, but this is good. I don’t mind what kind of job title I have, it’s good to share experiences, work in collaboration, to work with young people, to provide my experience as a senior person. It’s a new world to still learn. I never stop learning.”
Hurdles and how to overcome them
In every journey, there are hurdles to overcome. During the mentorship program Sophia, Gimena, Anna, and Alessandra have faced challenges and provide us some insights on how they’ve overcome them and reflect on how they could’ve done things differently.
Specifying your goal and topics
One hurdle is that you don’t specify exactly what you want or need. Let’s be honest, at times it can be hard to formulate your thoughts and feelings. Just like Alessandra:
“When my mentor asked me what I want, I didn’t know myself what I wanted. I need your support to set it up I said, and then we developed the mentorship sessions. Sometimes there are people who are very specific and know what they want and just need help, and others who come and don’t know it yet. It’s also important to provide some comfort for the ones who don’t know it yet. No matter what you really want doesn’t matter. Just choose one path, go through this and see what happens. It’s not right or wrong, just try. This is innovation mindset also.”
Gimena experienced a similar hurdle not knowing precisely what to ask her mentors:
“My mentors were so experienced that I, at times I wasn’t too sure what to ask — I wanted to know everything. Even if there was no formal homework (in my case), taking the time to translate vague needs into a clear ask my mentors could work with was the biggest challenge but also the key to it. It made me aware of where I was (and where I wasn’t yet), what was most important for me and the direction I wanted to take. My mentors had great advice on how to get there.”
Time management
Who doesn’t have time management issues, right? It’s especially hard when you have other commitments. Anna relates to his challenge:
“I was quite busy at work and sometimes also could not find the time to work on the article for my own mentorship. But my mentor was very cool about it and I believe we never wasted time.”
During the mentorship program, you also have a limited session time and it’s up to you to make the most out of it. It was also an important hurdle for Sofia:
“I remember that at the end of some sessions I had more subjects to talk about, but not enough time to discuss them. For sure, it’s important to set expectations and boundaries with your mentor, not exceeding the time you agreed for discussion. But at the same time, if possible, agree on some flexibility for specific sessions. I think I could have organised better the time and subjects to talk with my mentor, be more objective and plan the next steps and meetings to not waste time on the mentor sessions.”
Storytelling your experiences
Coming from a different background and translating your previous experiences into transferable skills is a demanding job. Alessandra had some problems with that too:
“Recovering my experience and how to compose the storytelling was a challenge. When I was trying it by myself, it was really hard. I was also trying to figure it out, during the mentorship. You have to build up your storytelling as a way that feels natural. Also, because it was in English. So I was trying to put in Portuguese and then translate it into English.”
In a previous article, I had shared tips on how to get the most of your mentorship as a mentee. As an addition, here are some tips from the ladies:
Sofia: I think it’s important to join the program with a project in mind, the closest to a real project as possible. Even if you are focused on your portfolio, try to look into the projects thinking you are doing it for a real company and share this mindset with your mentor.
Gimena: If you put your work in, the program will definitely help you learn about yourself and get better in the areas you want to be better at. Honest feedback will definitely help, and you will meet great people.
Anna: Think clearly about what you want to learn before you get a mentor and communicate that well in the application form. Once you have a mentor, understand which topic you can learn from them and what they really are good at that can benefit you, and then refine your goals.
Alessandra: My recommendation is to set up a little plan, a schedule, of course during the mentorship it can change. For me it was quite new, at first, we were just talking, getting to know each other. Then, we started building up a schedule.
Being prepared for the session is also important. The session for me started one hour before the session. Just get in the mood, prepare your notes or your portfolio or check your internet connection. Maybe it’s something obvious but sometimes we’re so hurried up on our days and we don’t prepare this so I think it’s good to be prepared for the session.
Also, be open, I had this experience, I was mentored by someone very young and the experiences are completely different, so I’m senior in some ways but junior in other ways, so this is the real sharing, so be open.
These were the journeys and tips of previous mentees. Pivoting in a different career path is a difficult journey, and we can learn from each other’s experiences and get inspired. Feel free to share your story and tips in the comments.
This article is written to support participants of the mentorship program organized by Ladies That UX Amsterdam. You can find more information about us and the program here
