Jessica Squires - Starting your mentorship journey, common ground and self-care
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Jessica is a Lead UX Architect for a large media organisation. Day to day she oversees projects, gets hands-on with wireframes (and more), collaborates with her talented UX team, and mentors’ people inside and outside of her work. She truly enjoys mentoring, not only does she get to meet lots of wonderful people, she helps them to expand on their current knowledge, or maybe set them on a path to switch careers but she’s improved her UX practice and skillset along the way. She talked about how you can get into mentoring, empowerment, setting boundaries and more…
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Jessica Squires - Starting your mentorship journey, common ground and self-care
- 5. Why?
- 9. How?
- 14. Ahhhhhhhh
- 22. NO.
- 24. APRILI JUNEI
- 25. Key takeaways
- 26. Thank you
- 27. Questions?
Notas del editor
- Hey I’m Jessica I go by Jess or Jessica Pronouns are she/her 15 mins maybe more Questions till end Can you all hear me okay? Here to talk you today about mentoring Mentees Personal experience being a mentor and mentee My journey How you can get into it Self care First I’m going to tell you a little about me
- I’m a Lead UX Architect Currently working at a large media org Q: Put your hand up if you’re a UXer? Q: Keep your hand up if you didn’t start out in UX and started in another industry. Q: Shout out what did you start in. I have not always been a UXer Started off in print and digital design Tried out a load of different design roles And landed on UX! Way more interesting than the others
- Outside of work I spend most of my time Buying plants artwork I don’t have space for tiny highly combustible flat
- Rest of my time is spent walking, in rain, mud, snow or shine! Christmas -20 gloves Walk between 150 and 200 miles a month 1 mile to 30+ miles a day Yes I was tempted to walk here today but 47 miles is pushing it a bit!
- Why mentoring? What inspired me to mentor?
- Secondary school Looked mostly same Without realising I had a great mentor in the form of one of my teachers discover subject most passionate about Graphic Design Shared knowledge and really inspired me. I went onto study graphic design at uni Once I entered the world media company in the ‘baby shard’ next to the actual shard in London one of the PM’s took me under her wing I learnt so much, From business lingo, connecting me with people, learning about product lifecycle Without these two people I would not be where I am today
- On that subject for people that have inspired, encouraged and empowered I had to mention these three women. My great grandmother, my grandmother and my mum. My great grandmother born in the early 1900’s, rode motorbikes, explored the globe taking boats from her home in Argentina, to the UK and over to Australia. My grandmother raising three children solo, running the local youth club, having kids from that club live with her when they were not able to live at home I include myself in that list And my mother, who did everything for the three of us, including being my dyslexia cheerleader, fighting the school, spending hours helping me with incomprehensible written homework. She is also dyslexic 5 people are the reason that I mentor. set examples, inspired, encouraged and empowered and person I am today. A mentor is not always someone in your workplace Not always formal You may have a mentor or mentee without realising
- By coincidence all the people mentored are women All more junior level or starting their UX journey In all lack of confidence and self belief being their cheerleader believe in themselves as others have done for me confidence grow is amazing future they inspire others Q: What inspired to start mentoring journey
- So you might be wondering how did I get into mentoring? And to be honest I was trying to remember myself… I was trying to recall all of the experiences that lead up to me officially calling myself a mentor.
- old school, come back talk to the kids 1:1 about my job how I got there. Guide them on what they could do. And how they could get there. uni set up an internship programme in 2017/ 18 those interested in UX and UI in for a week shadow me programme for them to follow tasks to complete. paperwork and conversations fully paid summer internships enjoyed helping people learn and grow People find hands on experience relationship building Invaluable to me
- mentoring programme in early 2020 facebook group I’d been part of for a while. Very quickly had a couple of lovely mentees! working for 10-20 years looking for a career change. When my first mentee got their first UX job I was over the moon.
- people started coming to me! This was the first person. connected over dyslexia took it from there more people connected with me, before I knew it I had a whole group of wonderful mentees!
- Might be wondering… how do I get into mentoring? Or find a mentor? There are loads of different ways. I will mention three UX Brighton speed matching event in a few weeks. Q: Who’s going? online networks, connecting people from all over the world. Slack groups, facebook groups… opportunities within your current company? Have a look around you Do they may have a mentoring programme? If they don’t have one, could you start one? Or mentor one person in your company and go from there. Have a think Are you already mentoring Without calling it mentoring?
- I’ve got a mentor/ mentee what do I do now? Firstly don’t panic, it will be fine (ha)
- Secondly get to know them. Spend 30 mins, have a chat. If the dynamic does not work for you either one or both Or you are not able to offer what they are looking for That is FINE! Use your network, I will talk more about this later Fave example of this Someone approached me through a mentoring scheme They has a project where they wanted to set up a website They were not interested in UX just my help in setting up their site Unsurprisingly I turned them down
- I’m interested in helping people who really want to learn Who want to try out UX, understand what it is Looking at making a career move Or expanding their current knowledge Empower people So once both parties mentor and mentee want to go forward and work together What do I do?
- As I always say to my mentees everyone has different ways of doing things Weather that is in UX practises Or a mentoring approach I like to listen to them Recap and reflect back the notes made in your 30 min chat Understand if you need to start from the beginning Or if they have a little UX knowledge Is there an area they would like to learn about first? How do they learn best? Listen Give advice Let them make decisions Do not push or force down a certain path Support and empower In their journey Set a period of time Until they get a job? Or another target Time box? How often would they like to meet?
- Golden rules of mentoring ALWAYS have the next date in Don’t leave it open, or it will never happen
- Your network, USE IT! As I mentioned earlier Is the mentor/ mentee not right for you? Is there someone in your network who might work well with them? Do they want to learn more about other areas connected to UX? Connect them to others I’ve often set up a 30 min chat with Product Managers, UI, Researchers, Devs Help them understand how all of the dots connect
- Lived experience I mentioned earlier One person I mentor is dyslexic She approached me after an event on Dyslexia wonderfully neurodiverse identify and share coping mechanisms alternative techniques And this really does add so much more to our mentor/ mentee relationship And I cannot tell you how much I have learnt about myself, and dyslexia generally after mentoring her
- My mind was literally blown when I realised most people don’t think in 3D If you do share something in common with your mentee it is awesome Validate No it’s not just you Treated differently Workplace Spoke to someone senior Nothing of it They had not experienced Again is there someone in your network Who might be able to identify with them For a one off session or co-mentoring Source: https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/thinking-in-3d/
- No is a complete sentence Boundaries! Are you mentoring enough people for now? Connect them with someone in your network. As much as you may want to help them If you cannot give them the time or you so not have the head space that is not fair on either of you Learning when to say no is hard And until recently I was awful at it. That is why I’ve currently got 5 mentees Not taking on any more Beyond number of mentees So many other boundaries Mentor more junior people Help them to understand boundaries Within the work place Work/ life balance Contact outside of catch ups Happy to contact every day of the week? Set expectations Drop email at weekend I’ll get back next week
- Something that helped me realise this was walking I am still very much on a journey Actually and metaphorically. This is a map of the best borough in London (ha) Wandsworth These are the roads I’ve walked, I’ve completed around 60% There was a point where I was going out before and after work, walking 15-25 miles a day. So I could complete the borough as quickly as possible When I got to about 50%
- Self care is important I was fed up, it kinda happened over night But I know it had been building up for a while APRIL I was going out and completing as many roads as I could The journey did not matter it was the destination And that was so true of how I was approaching mentoring I want to help as many as I could JUNE Completing roads And walking in green How many help and do a good job whilst continuing to develop and improve myself Don’t get me wrong I learn so much through mentoring people BUT My learning could be accelerated if I were to have a mentor As a result I would be able to pass this knowledge onto my mentees
- Look back Reflect Who mentored you What impact did they have? Do you want to have the same impact? Why do you want to mentor? Have you Mentored in the past Can you build on that? If not Recommend UX brighton speed-matching Mentoring Advise Without pushing Set a timeline Something in common Use your network Connect them Set boundaries Look after yourself Have fun Help others Grow yourself