Reflecting on the Mentorship Program 2020
It is already a cliché to say how extraordinary and challenging 2020 was (which it definitely was). In January 2020 when bars were still full and the pandemic seemed like something that is not going to happen to us, Sabrina Couto, Daria Kuzmina, Ecesu Erol, and I gathered together at Hoxton’s lobby bar for the yearly planning. Oh man, the plans we had for that Mentorship Program! Workshops, events, get-togethers, you name it.
In March the Netherlands went into full lockdown and soon we realized that it seems like we wouldn’t be able to organize any of these events. The silver lining of this whole pandemic situation was the fact that it allowed us to accept and match people from countries other than the Netherlands. We ended up getting 99 mentor applications and 113 applications for mentees. We even had to close the mentee application form due to extremely high demand, because we knew that we wouldn’t be able to provide everyone with a mentor. We welcomed design professionals and aspiring designers from different backgrounds and countries — UX researchers, Product Designers, PMs turning designers, UX/UI designers, and Service Designers.
To put these numbers into perspective — we’ve matched 443 people over 3 years, 212 of which were matched last year. Not so bad for growth, huh?
Even though I am the first person who says that standalone vanity metrics are rather useless and deceiving, it’s still kind of a nice feeling to know that more people can experience positive changes out of the Mentorship Program. This kind of thinking is especially motivating when you find yourself staring into the matching Excel sheet for 4 hours straight on Saturday morning.
Changes to Mentorship Program 2021
UX Design remains the top skill our mentors are willing to teach and the top skill our mentees are willing to acquire. Followed by qualitative and quantitative research, and career development. However, last year we’ve noticed that we got quite some applicants who are keen on receiving help with things like Portfolio review, CV review, Cover Letters, Do’s and Don’ts during an interview. This type of goals is very specific and if handled correctly could be done in a time-frame shorter than 4 months.
Hence this year we want to try something new — we’re introducing 2 different tracks for Mentorship Program.
⏩ Fast track
Fast track is a 2-month track with 4 sessions with a mentor. We designed this track to help mentees who require advice regarding their job search. During this track, these mentees will get an opportunity to get help with their CVs, Portfolios, and all things related to landing a Design position.
🧐 Mentorship Classic
As you can guess by the name Mentorship Classic is our regular 4 monthly program for people who seek guidance in professional development or want to grow into a new more senior role.
We leave it up to mentors and mentees to decide what kind of help and commitment they are willing to provide.
Lessons learned
It won’t be a proper reflection if I wouldn’t put down some items for improvement we noted to ourselves for this year's program.
📣 Communication
One of our biggest struggles last year was communication. We had cases where people were genuinely surprised that they became mentors or where people expected to be paid for their services.
There are several reasons why communication wasn’t ideal, but I believe the most important one is the fact that the program went way beyond the LTUX Amsterdam community. In 2019 we had 68 mentors and 97 mentees from the community, in 2020 these numbers grew to 99 mentors and 113 mentees. Back then we didn’t realize that we’ve reached people who haven’t even heard about us.
This year we plan to send confirmation emails to both mentors and mentees explaining the next steps and what to do while waiting to be matched.
👋 Kick-off event
Traditionally we have a kick-off event, where mentors and mentees get together over a couple of drinks and get to know each other. While all the social interactions, for the time being, will remain remote it makes sense to reconsider the format of this event.
We will have a kick-off event but it will be rather informational this time. We plan on gathering Mentors and Mentees separately and organize a Q&A with organizers, where you can ask questions about the program and learn about the experiences of other participants.
🧩 Workshops in Zoom
Zoom fatigue became a real deal in 2020, which also made it harder for us to get people into video calls and ask them to open up about their struggles in front of other strangers.
Lesson learned, this year we will give the community the freedom to decide which topics they want to touch upon and we’ll try to share our experience and knowledge via recorded video and a podcast.
🤝Guidance
As mentioned before since our audience changed and the format of the events is different as well we noticed that quite often people felt lost within the program. The plan was to create supporting content about being a mentee or a mentor. However, due to various reasons, we ended up having 2 articles, which probably wasn’t enough.
This year we want to provide our participants with more guidance not only around mentorship and how to get the most out of it but also about the program in general.
Exciting plans for this year
We are beyond excited to roll out the Mentorship Program 2021 since we have very exciting plans for it. We are ready to welcome you on either of the new tracks and provide the support and guidance you’ll need on this journey.
The program will remain free. But in case if you feel extra grateful we’re always happy to receive articles and tweets about your experience.
Do you want to participate in Mentorship Program 2021?
Check out our website for exact dates of registration for mentors and mentees ➡️ https://www.ladiesthatuxams.com/
