Want to be a mentor in the UX field, but you’re not sure where to start? Feel like you want to give back and help strengthen our industry, but running low on time and resources? You’re in luck: this presentation will not only reveal your personal secret UX superpower to you, but it’ll also show you how to use it on your co-workers to grow your mentoring skills, improve their careers, and build up the UX industry as a whole.

1. Mentor Your UX Co-Workers
Without Them Realizing It
Midwest UX 2014
!
Naa Marteki Reed
@marteki

2. I was an unconscious mentor.

3. “I needed help,
you realized that
I needed help,
and you
coached me.”

4. Part 1:
What can I mentor and
teach others?

5. Strengths,
to a UX recruiter

6. Strengths,
to a UX recruiter
interaction design prototyping
ethnographic
research
usability
testing Agile
HTML/CSS/JS
information
architecture
visual design
the latest, hottest
LinkedIn keyword

7. Strengths,
in core UX skills

8. Strengths,
in core UX skills
asking the right questions
active listening
holistic view
kicking it into overdrive and
getting s*** done
empathy
facilitation
collaboration
strategy

9. Marteki

10. Marteki
holistic
know-it-all
creative
emotional
more than
the visual
righteous

11. Marteki
holistic
know-it-all
creative
emotional
more than
the visual
X
self-righteous

12. What have people complimented
you about at work?

13. What have people complimented
you about at work?
What have people said when
critiquing you at work?

14. What have people complimented
you about at work?
What have people said when
critiquing you at work?
Grab the positives, and spin the
negatives into positives!

15. Part 2:
Who can I mentor?

16. Write what you know.

17. Write what you know.
Teach who you work with.

18. Folks who are junior to you,
of course.

19. Folks who are junior to you,
of course.
Peers.

20. Folks who are junior to you,
of course.
Peers.
Higher-ups!

21. Don’t forget the non-UX folks!

22. Don’t forget the non-UX folks!

23. Don’t forget the non-UX folks!

24. Don’t forget the non-UX folks!

25. What can non-UX folks
learn from us?

26. What can non-UX folks
learn from us?
“how to get feedback from sample
groups about our user interfaces”
“types of user testing” and what
“tools and methods we like to use”
“how hard it is to do good research”
“UX means actually talking to users”

28. Is there anyone at your workplace
who you think you could teach
something to?
Write down 3 names.

29. Is there anyone at your workplace
who you think you could teach
something to?
Write down 3 names.
Commit to mentoring one of them
through the end of the year.

30. Part 3:
Ways to mentor
without appearing to mentor

31. Why would you want to
not appear to mentor co-workers?

32. Why would you want to
not appear to mentor co-workers?
They’re “too busy”.

33. Why would you want to
not appear to mentor co-workers?
They’re “too busy”.
They “don’t need to know
anything about UX”.

34. Why would you want to
not appear to mentor co-workers?
They’re “too busy”.
They “don’t need to know
anything about UX”.
Company culture doesn’t have a
mentoring setup in place.

35. Why would you want to
not appear to mentor co-workers?
They’re “too busy”.
They “don’t need to know
anything about UX”.
Company culture doesn’t have a
mentoring setup in place.
Can be easier if a teacher-student
hierarchy isn’t in place.

36. Life is a design project, yo.
That includes your career.

37. Life is a design project, yo.
That includes your career.
Use your skills
(the same ones that pay da bills).

38. What skills?

39. What skills?
Listen.

40. What skills?
Listen.
Ask ques-ons.

41. What skills?
Listen.
Ask ques-ons.
Turn up your empathy.

42. Got more hints?

43. Got more hints?
Avoid being direc-ve.
(I know, that was direc-ve.)

44. Got more hints?
Avoid being direc-ve.
(I know, that was direc-ve.)
View non-­‐crea-ve things
through a crea-ve lens.

45. Got more hints?
Avoid being direc-ve.
(I know, that was direc-ve.)
View non-­‐crea-ve things
through a crea-ve lens.
Always be looking to learn more,
and change your approach.

46. To sum up:

47. To sum up:
Everyone can mentor on something. You
just have to determine your natural-­‐
born strengths and UX superpowers.

48. To sum up:
Everyone can mentor on something. You
just have to determine your natural-­‐
born strengths and UX superpowers.
There are people to teach and people to
learn from all around us.

49. To sum up:
Everyone can mentor on something. You
just have to determine your natural-­‐
born strengths and UX superpowers.
There are people to teach and people to
learn from all around us.
Use your UX design skills, always be
looking to learn more, and be willing to
adapt your methods.

50. Take this knowledge on your journey.
Thanks for coming!
:-D
Midwest UX 2014
!
Naa Marteki Reed
@marteki