Over the last few months, I had the opportunity to hop on a couple of mentorship calls as a mentor. Just a year ago, I was the one reaching out to people on LinkedIn for connections and appointments. A year later, I am sitting on the other side, sharing my experiences and tips. How time flies.

What mentorship calls looked like as a mentee a year ago:

What mentorship calls looked like as a mentor today:

Recent Takeaways and Reminders to Self:

• Prepare 2-3 quick general questions to get to know each other, touching upon background info and current status
• My goal is to be 60% listener, 40% responder so it's still a two-way conversation but also gives the mentee the opportunity to talk freely so I can pinpoint their main concerns
• Let the conversation evolve naturally and take us where it needs to take us, every session is unique
• Be as practical and relevant as possible with tips
• If additional calls are requested, be open and specific about it - is it for portfolio review? resume review? or something else?

Interesting how I've actually answered a lot of my own thoughts & questions from a year ago, a year later. Also would be interesting to see how this changes as I continue to hold more mentorship sessions. What I hope to achieve through this experience is to become a better storyteller.

I attended a workshop over the weekend that approached the topic of mindfulness from a neurobiological as well as a practical perspectives. At the end of it, I found this topic very much relatable to UX design so wanted to note my realizations and thoughts.

Key takeaways from the workshop:

How did my understanding of mindfulness deepen pre and post this workshop?

So why is this all important for UX designers?

Attending this workshop reassured what I had written in my about page: Something I have been more conscious about is dynamic between realization (input) and expression (output), both in my day-to-day and in my creative process. I'm glad I came across this workshop as a designer and would love to continue to deepen my understanding of design through mindfulness, as well as mindfulness through design.

During my second and third months, I concentrated on enhancing communication within our design team. Below, I detail the actions I took, the findings, and the impact it brought to the design team.

My Actions:

Findings:

The Impact:

What's Next?

Through open communication, the team's primary challenges have been identified. Once the challenges are identified, it becomes clear what needs to be done. Wait, this is exactly the design process in UI/UX.

Before I forget and get used to my new routine, I wanted to document how my first couple of months went as a "real" designer.

Context:

First Month: I don't know what I don't know

This was a month of me figuring out what systems they are using for what, who my go-to people are, what design processes they go by, catching up with a lot of meetings and notes, understanding their product, while trying to be on top of all the administrative duties. Given the client (including the rest of the design team) and I work opposite timezones, I had a very limited window where I could ask questions, and really for any interaction with the team (our hours overlap for about 2hrs every evening my time).

Despite all that, here are the things I felt grateful for this month. To be grateful for the opportunity: the tech industry has been in a very challenging state for the last couple of months and not everyone is in reach of an opportunity like this. The two designer that I work closely with know what they are doing and am grateful that I have them as a reliable resource. And lastly, realizing that everything and anything does lead to something, as long as you keep going (more on this in a later post).

Second Month: I am starting to know what I don't know

‍By the second month, I had a task to work on so I was more hands-on. I noticed myself voicing out more in meetings, bringing new suggestions to the table and felt more involved as a member of the design team. At this point, I had an idea on which slack channel to post certain questions, a basic understanding of the internal product, their design system which we are still building, lack of structure inside and outside of the design team, as well as the joy and difficulty of designs & being a designer.

Coming to the realization that a small team means lack of structure, but also means room for flexibility and an opportunity to have my voices heard was a big win of the month. Coming from the corporate world, this hasn't always been the case so it definitely feels different and new.

Baby steps. Let's see how the coming months go.

It was the realization that we surround ourselves with design, every day, whether we realize or not. Take your morning coffee cup - it was once brainstormed on a piece of paper (or more like a Miro board) and tested before joining your mug collection in your cupboard. How about your favorite app? You might have more than one. These apps that you open on the daily without even thinking, have done something right to be a part of your routine in a seamless and most natural way. That right there is the power of UX Design.

Every product, whether physical or digital, started with just an idea, and went on a journey of iterations and decisions. This idea of constant cycle of iterations and decisions intrigues me because that's essentially the essence of life. You continue to learn more about yourself through trial and error, all of which becomes a part of your journey. This parallel between UX and life has helped in connecting the dots and crafting the story of why I continue to be inspired by design.

I realized that design, especially UX Design, brings my personal and professional experiences together in a way that is unique. I grew up moving around 6 countries and built the ability to be observant, adaptive and inclusive from an early stage in my life. For example, I was always the new student in school, and being aware of body language for cultural context was something I was naturally practicing. Coming from such a unique upbringing not only nourished my curiosity towards people but also became the drive to be open-mined and self-aware, which are key qualities in design. In terms of my career, my previous roles in Finance and Retail, working in US and Japan respectively, have been an opportunity to learn about customer success, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Not only that, such experiences have given me the ability to see the world through different lenses, which helps in all areas of design, especially in empathizing with the end-users.
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The more I learn about UX, the more I am fascinated by its seamlessness yet the ability to make an impact. It has the power to simplify, streamline, and change people's lives. It also provides space for people to know a little more about themselves, empowering them to take ownership of designing their own lives.