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This presentation was an IGNITE session at the UXPA 2012 Conference and is accessible here: http://www.igniteshow.com/videos/5-rules-mentoring-new-user-experience-professionals ...

This presentation was an IGNITE session at the UXPA 2012 Conference and is accessible here: http://www.igniteshow.com/videos/5-rules-mentoring-new-user-experience-professionals

Being a successful mentor requires an organization’s support for a mentorship program; getting buy-in from all parties before committing to a mentoring project; structuring the mentor-mentee relationship to the benefit of everyone involved; and pinpointing the methodology or best practices for mentoring. How can you make mentoring work for you?

Mentoring is different from managing. It’s different from teaching. These are important skills to have, but they usually involve managing projects and people, or teaching skills and behaviors. They maintain a manageable status quo or have a limited scope. On the other hand, mentoring involves a social contract, where the mentor wants to set up a one-to-one relationship to effect a change in the person being mentored. As a mentor, you want to bring the mentee to a higher level, say from a Junior Designer to a Senior Interaction Designer, a Business Analyst to a Usability Researcher, or a nervous UX Practitioner to a confident UX Moderator.