So you are a Mentor — Now what?
If you are already a mentor, that’s great! Thanks for joining the Ladies that UX Amsterdam Mentorship Program. If you are considering becoming a mentor, this is still a good place to get started.
As a mentor you are making a difference for someone — and it doesn’t take much to do that. Except for a bit of your time, and a lot of you in that time — being present, asking open questions, listening, engaging as well as sharing your knowledge and expertise. Bonus: you’ll learn a lot from your mentee — so get outside your bubble and I guarantee you, it’s well worth the ride!
Since everyone was asking me, I decided to make a ‘Being a mentor — Quick fact and experience sheet’ for the Ladies that UX Mentorship Program 2020. This article evolves from that.
I have been a mentor myself since the Ladies that UX Mentorship program started three years ago, and I helped set up the mentorship program of 2019. I’m also a Ladies that UX-Utrecht co-organizer and besides the mentorship program, I mentor and coach different people, so it’s about time I share this! ;)
What you’ll learn:
- What is mentoring
- How the mentorship program starts
- Mentoring is a journey
- Don’t be a ‘mentorsplainer’ :)
- What if… there is no match
Mentoring is
This year the program runs from April 2020 to August 2020. It’s the 3rd year in a row, initiated and organized by Ladies that UX Amsterdam and supported by Ladies that UX Utrecht. Last year we had 95 mentees and 65 mentors.
The idea is to match experienced designers, researchers, and POs with less experienced designer women- and of course, men are welcome too- who are early in their careers. The mentees will be challenged to work on their goals while utilizing the guidance and support of their dedicated mentors.
Mentors and mentees are expected to have about an hour-long (remote) conversation every 2–3 weeks. Setting an agenda prior to each call is recommended.
As mentor you
- Help your mentee identify their goals
- Motivate and inspire
- Broaden perspective and ways of thinking
- Support your mentee in achieving their goals
The start of your mentorship
Bingo, it’s a match!
You are matched based on the goals and questions of the mentee as well as your interests and expertise. Around 110 matches have been made by the Mentorship organization team this year!
Your 1st get together
You initiate the 1st virtual get together and of course, it starts with an introduction. Be open, make it fun and listen. Listen attentively and determine together what the actual questions (or goals) are, and also help to prioritize because sometimes a mentee wants to achieve ‘everything’ at the same time — 1st things 1st.
Together you determine goals and (small) steps to get there. Making any kind of plan or approach can take 2-3 conversations, while some have this directly in place after the first time they meet.
Mentoring is a journey
During the following get-togethers, you discuss the first steps and challenge your mentee, by asking questions like we know how to do as more senior design experts: how did it go, what went well, what could go better, why did you (and why, and why, and…), how would you propose to, can you show me how, what would you do different, and the killer design question ‘how might you?’ :)
But hold on! Always 1st ask: how are you?
Check-in at the start of the conversation! You never know what is going on in someone’s life, private or professional. As we know from the current situation, our worlds are changed completely in a matter of weeks or days… also in a mentor-mentee relation, you have to deal with it.
Be flexible
So we know context is everything, and when it comes to goal setting you have to be flexible along the way. Besides that, mentoring is usually a bit broader than strictly professional. You’ll learn about someone's character, communication style, patterns and pitfalls and how that affects them professionally — you will have to take these things into account too.
Don’t do ‘Mentorsplaining’!
Listen attentively, ask questions, just being there for your mentee can help a lot. In addition, taking some first steps with regard to the goals (older, new ones or slightly changed ones), will surely help their confidence. For example, just the plain notion that an entirely different professional goal might be worth pursuing, how valuable is that to know and act on!
You will of course also share a lot from your own experience and knowledge with your mentee — but be careful, do not fill in for the mentee — don’t do ‘mentorsplaining’ ;)! Let the mentee talk and take most of the steps. They have to take action themselves, that is key.
And what if you don’t know an answer or can’t think of a way to help your mentee? That’s okay, you can’t know it all. In my experience, you consciously and unconsciously look for that knowledge and together you enrich the knowledge about a topic along the way. You can also choose together to focus on things that you know more about, or you can help the mentee more with.
Your network and resources will help your mentee in different ways. Like connecting your mentee to someone in your network or introductions into communities or groups. You’ll share resources you use yourself or have access to. Again, remember it is not about you so don’t overload your mentee with ‘all you have’. Be relevant with respect to the goals or situation of the mentee. Challenge your mentee to do things towards their goals, but also help them focus and take realistic steps.
Planning and connecting
Planning your first get-togethers can be somewhat difficult and you may also experience a kind of barrier at the start. This is not unusual considering you are most likely coming from completely different bubbles and backgrounds. My experience is that if you open yourself up to this, it is really worthwhile and enriching. Ending up with a warm and caring relationship beyond the program is not unlikely.
No match
It might be that there is really no match between the mentee and you or the other way around, for whatever reason. That sometimes happens but don’t be ashamed if that happens to you. It is important to be open to each other. After all, you pursue the same goal and it is on a voluntary base, we all do our best!
Always involve the mentorship organization team to help you sort things out when this happens. If possible (and desired) another match follows.
Tools and techniques
On a more practical note, in terms of communication channels and tools, you are free to choose how you meet. The same applies to setting goals and the steps towards them — you can use any format you like; a simple to-do list might do or a spiffy canvas — just remember, let the mentee take the lead in that.
To help your mentee identify their goals, I do recommend using a framework of some sort, it just really helps! This article of Ladies that UX Amsterdam organizer Agata Ageieva helps your mentee set goals in 3 easy steps.
As I wrote this down, I’m just bursting with more things to tell and share and maybe I will. For now, I hope you’ll enjoy being a mentor.
Let’s rock and roll!
Take care and stay safe,
X Anouschka
anouschka.scholten@userneeds.nl
