Getting started as a UX mentor

Tips to help build a great experience for mentors and mentees

Author: Amanda Spilchen, November 11, 2020. Originally Published to Shopify UX

This article was written by a mentor for the Shopify Internship program. It is a great insight into what interns at Shopify can expect to see from their mentor during their internship. As well as a useful article for anyone who will mentor young talent in the future.

If I was asked to point out the single most valuable growth tool at the beginning of my design career, I would start by listing the names of all of my mentors. Beyond helping me build confidence in my craft as a UX designer, these connections helped me to form opinions on where I wanted my career to go, and what kind of designer I wanted to be. After gaining so much knowledge from my mentors, I wanted to be able to give back, too — to contribute to the UX community and to help others grow and feel inspired.

Mentorship is a huge part of being a great UX professional since it helps both mentor and mentee to grow in their field. Taking on a mentorship role allows the mentor to strengthen and reaffirm their skills by teaching and passing on knowledge to others. So, this summer, I was excited to get the opportunity to be someone’s mentor. Our team hired a design intern, and while I was preparing for that person’s start date, a whole heap of change happened in the world, which in turn changed the way we worked. The pandemic hit, and Shopify became a digital-by-default company — which meant that all employees now work from home permanently. The UX team I belonged to also changed its focus, pivoting to a new product area in order to adapt to our merchant’s most immediate needs. I needed to quickly onboard myself to this new domain before our intern arrived so I’d be able to provide them with as much context as possible about the projects we’d be working on.

I was nervous — would my mentee and I be able to connect with each other through a computer screen? What mentorship style would resonate with both myself and my mentee? Would I know enough about this new product area to be able to confidently onboard them? It would be unfair of me to assume I’d know their needs or what their challenges would be before getting to know them or understanding their work habits. I had to embrace this opportunity by coming prepared and understanding the different variables that we could run into along the way. This experience taught me a lot about my own leadership style, how to be a constant learner, and the value of creating a plan (even if it isn’t followed to a T). Here’s what I learned, and how you can get started when it’s your turn to mentor someone.

Onboarding a mentee

Reach out via email

Saying hi to your mentee before their first day is the first step to opening communication and building a connection. Be sure to include a little bit about yourself, and what their experience will be like, in an email. I’d recommend sending one out at least a week before they start — this gives your mentee time to go through any recommended readings, methodologies, and job-related expectations the team has prepared. Your mentee will feel more confident and secure having access to this information before they start.

Create an onboarding document

Your mentee will also need a series of documents and tasks in order to ease their onboarding experience and to help them get to know your company and their new team. The first one I created was an onboarding document outlining details relevant to my mentee’s upcoming internship. This will relieve a lot of the first-day jitters that your mentee might have, as it creates a place for them to come back to and find all the things they’ll need — which adds to that sense of security. It’s important to note that this is not a checklist of items to complete before their first day, but a framework of things to come during the first few weeks at their new workplace. Here are some examples of sections I included:

• Quick links: A section of links at the top of the document that they can refer to in order to find more information (e.g: The team’s Google Drive, our team’s project onboarding document, the Polaris design system, and some helpful resource about working remotely).
• The project(s): An outline of what their project focus will be over the course of their internship and any links to documents about UX questions/thoughts, project kick-off decks, relevant research links, and Figma files.
• People to reach out to: A list of names (and Slack handles) of coworkers they should form connections with. These should be both inside and outside of your team so they can gain more context and develop working relationships. Try and diversify the roles of people you list, too — they need to meet people outside of their UX discipline.
• UX at Shopify: All information about UX practices at your company. I included information about how to use our design system Polaris, Shopify’s experience values, and a link to our UX Handbook on methods, tools, and resources for success.
• Important meetings: Relevant meetings that you’d like your mentee to attend, including both weekly and bi-weekly meetings and their commitment levels (optional vs. mandatory). Make sure to cross-reference your calendar so you don’t forget to include any essential meetings that might occur less frequently (monthly, quarterly, annually). If there are any expectations related to these meetings, be sure to include those details as well.
• Slack channels to join: This section of the document was broken into channel categories, such as team channels, general Shopify channels, UX channels, and social channels.

What to do their first week

Your mentee’s first week is when you need to cover all the basics. This includes setting aside time in your calendar for any recurring meetings the two of you will have (including 1:1s and pairing sessions). A “context meeting” should also be done during the first week to help them get up to speed on their first project, separate from any 1:1s. If you’ve gone ahead and created the onboarding document ahead of time, your mentee will be able to find all the relevant resources in one place without needing a huge walkthrough.

Team introductions should also happen during the first week. Ours looked a little different this time since we weren’t face-to-face and we couldn’t walk down to the cafeteria together and chat over lunch with the whole team. The good news is, there are ways around this! You can still set up a lunch hangout or coffee chat with your mentee and team over your company’s videoconference software, and have everyone order lunch together. Doing these things early on will help your mentee start to form connections with other team members they may not work with on a daily basis.

The 30-day checklist

The typical internship at Shopify happens over four months, which is a fairly short amount of time. There’s so much valuable context and information to gather, so it was important to create a structured outline to make each moment count. I prepared a 30-day checklist to help my mentee gather the right context at the right time, though, if you’re mentoring someone who isn’t an intern, your checklist will likely extend beyond 30 days. When categorizing which activities and information I wanted to share, I found it helpful to break down each week into a theme:

• Week 1: Building connections and acquiring knowledge
• Week 2: UX at Shopify
• Week 3: Building empathy for merchants
• Week 4: Self-development and growing your “T”
  *Note: At Shopify, your “T” is defined as the expertise you have in one area of specialization (the vertical line of the T) and your ability to collaborate across disciplines other than your own (the horizontal line of the T).

After deciding on these themes, I created a spreadsheet that was sectioned off by the chosen themes, tasks, tips and resources, completion status, and helpful notes. My mentee would follow along in the spreadsheet each day and assign a completed or in-progress status to each item as the week progressed. This helped both of us keep track of what they learned along the way, and helped to frame conversation topics in our initial 1:1s.

30-day onboarding plan: some examples of weekly themes and activities.

Supporting their goals

Understanding your mentee’s goals

In order for both of you to get the most from the mentorship relationship, you’ll need to put the time into understanding the person you’re mentoring, their goals, and motivations. As their mentor, you should help them become who they want to be, not who you want them to be. You can do this by helping them clarify and develop short-term goals (e.g., presenting their work more often) and long-term goals (e.g., career growth) of their own, instead of creating a list of goals for them.

Allow them to take ownership

Your mentee is less likely to take initiative and form their own opinions if you’re not allowing them to take ownership of the tasks they’re given. Spend time ensuring they understand the “why” behind a task that needs to get done. Why do we need to do this? Why did we choose this task over other tasks? Why is now the right time to do it? Giving more context helps them see the bigger picture and gives them more confidence to work towards an outcome. Once they understand the context, pass ownership onto them by allowing them to choose how it will be achieved and be there to answer questions they have along the way.

Monthly reflections

Mentees should document and reflect on each passing month to better understand the progress they’ve made towards their goals. Maintaining this document will also allow you as the mentor to better understand how to help them in the coming months. Providing questions as prompts will allow them to think more critically and build self-awareness about the experiences they’re having and where they need guidance. I’ve found that using two questions each month allowed for the right amount of effort — here are a few examples:

• What was your biggest accomplishment this month and what did you learn?
• What slowed you down or prevented you from having an impact? How did you handle it and what did you learn?
• Have any of your long-term goals changed as a result of events that happened this month? If so, what are your new goals and why?
• Was there anything you wanted to accomplish this month but didn’t? How can we ensure you achieve it in the months to come?

Making progress

Pay attention to your tripwires

In the beginning, you should create a list of tripwires and share them with your mentee. Tripwires can be a list of actions or inactions made by your mentee that indicate to you a change should be made to get more positive results. An example could be work habits you would like your mentee to avoid, such as struggling to disconnect from their work after hours, or not checking in and updating you on progress throughout the week.

After a few weeks, you’ll start to notice your mentee’s default tendencies and habits. Do they manage their time well? Do they come prepared and organized when you have 1:1s? Are they still struggling to disconnect from their work? You can help them reframe these habits into positive outcomes by using that list as a reference point throughout their internship.

Be transparent

Remember to talk to your mentee about how they’re doing during their internship. The sooner you can provide them with feedback, the sooner they will learn and understand the progress they’re making. This also helps them develop a relationship with you very quickly, and will allow them to be more open when sharing feedback with you. Feedback is continuous and should have a regular cadence throughout the time you’re mentoring them. Highlight where they’re doing well, but remember to not shy away from conversations that might be difficult to have — once roadblocks are identified, you can work on ways to overcome them together. In doing so, you’ll be able to quickly develop a relationship with them, as well as the opportunity to share feedback with you.

Things to keep in mind

Your mentee will teach you things, too

When your primary focus should be on helping your mentee learn as much as possible, it’s easy to forget to treat this opportunity as your own learning experience, too. Mentorship relationships work both ways — each person brings something unique to the table. Make sure to carve out time for them to practice teaching you something new every now and then. This also gives them more opportunities to share what they’re learning and practice their communication skills.

Your mentee is not your shadow

Mentees should not stay in the shadows of their mentor and only observe the interactions they have throughout the day. Always make space for them to speak up — their perspective is just as valuable as yours, as each person can bring something unique to the table. It should be a humbling experience for you to step into a leadership role and provide these learning opportunities for your mentee. Your mentee is not there to do your dirty work. It is your responsibility to enable opportunities for them to own parts of a project and step into the spotlight. Encourage them to take ownership of their work and be confident enough to speak up when they have opinions about problems being discussed. Embracing their ideas and involving them in conversations will provide them with all available opportunities to learn.

What comes next

There are many ways to approach mentorship, and what works best for you might not work best for your mentee. Overall, the key takeaways I had from my first experience as a mentor were:

1. Preparation is key. The more time you put into preparing ahead of time (onboarding plans, documents, etc.), the easier it will be for both of you along the way.
2. Get to know them as an individual. Each person is different and benefits from different mentorship styles. Take time to understand their unique needs and goals, and adjust accordingly.
3. Allow them to take ownership. Allow your mentee to choose how to achieve their project goals, and be available to answer questions and problem solve with them along the way.

As you continue to learn and grow as a mentor, you’ll better understand the best ways to offer support and encouragement to whomever you work with. You may not realize it while it’s happening, but the impact a mentor has on their mentee will stick with them throughout their career. Be prepared, set realistic expectations, embrace ideas, and please, have fun!

Originally published by Amanda Spilchen at https://ux.shopify.com on November 11, 2020.