UX Tree Mentorship
Becomea Mentor
How it works
Collaboration and creative thinking are at the core of UX Tree’s beliefs. Surrounding yourself with passionate, like-minded individuals can bring about remarkable changes. As a mentor in our programme, you have the power to make a real impact on aspiring UX professionals.
In the role of a mentor, you play a vital part in shaping the next generation of UX designers. By sharing your knowledge and experience, you can inspire and guide mentees towards success. Together, we foster an environment where innovative ideas thrive, and boundaries are constantly pushed.
By joining our vibrant community of mentors, you connect with fellow professionals who share your drive and ambition. This provides an opportunity to grow not only as a mentor but also as a design leader. Sharpen your leadership skills, offer valuable feedback, and set your mentees up for success. Through this process, you also gain the chance to reflect on your own strengths and weaknesses.
The UX Tree Mentorship Programme offers a unique opportunity to give back to the community while enhancing your own skills. It’s a platform to learn, share, and collaborate with other passionate professionals.
Requirements
We will consider Mentors who have:
Minimum of 3 years of experience in UX
Minimum of 8 hours to meet their Mentee during the 4-month program
Based in Ireland or UK, and are excellent English speakers
What should I expect once I become a Mentor?
Once you are selected, you will be matched with a mentee based on their goals and your areas of expertise. We will then organize an introductory meeting to allow all new mentees and mentors to meet virtually.
Your mentee is encouraged to take the lead in driving the relationship and managing it for the remainder of the four-month program. As a mentor, you will assist them with any questions they might have about the project.
Plan and project
The program will be entirely virtual, meaning that all meetings between you and your Mentee will take place via web conferencing software such as Slack and Google Meet. As a mentor, you will be providing your Mentee with feedback and guidance in terms of design, offering them advice and tips to help them hone their skills.
Passing requirements
In order to complete the program and obtain the certificate, Mentors will have to:
Ensure your Mentee is not diverting from the original assignment
Ensure your mentee submits the case study
Upon finishing, provide the feedback on the program by completing an evaluation form
What will I get?
The Programme will be completely free for all Mentors, with the following benefits included:
- Certificate of completion
- Mentor Meetups (attendance not mandatory)
- (approx 3 hours during 4-month period)
- Insightful Group Mentoring sessions
- (approx 8 hours during 4-moth period)
- Access to job opportunities
- Lifetime access to our Community
- Free welcome drink on all our in-person Meetups
- Info about our Events and Conferences
- Opportunity to be a speaker on one of our Conferences
- Swag bag (at the moment available only for Mentors based in Ireland)
42% of our Mentors got promoted in their role during or straight after completing the Mentorship Program in Round 1
30% of our Mentors got promoted in their role during or straight after completing the Mentorship Program in Round 2
Note: Admin fee of €399 for Mentees is applied in order to cover the associated costs of web maintenance, subscription-based online tools (e.g. Zoom, Notion), swag bag for both mentor and mentee, in-person meetups and further development of our products and services.
The UX Tree Mentorship Programme will begin in September 2023 and conclude in December 2023.
1st July 2023
Applications opening date
20th August 2023
Applications closing date
25th August 2023
Selections announcing date
5th September 2023
Programme starting date
Testimonials from Mentors
"It was my first time mentoring with a junior design for a specific project. It was a great learning experience for me as helped me to advice support to another Designer with directly working on a project with them. UX Tree gave me to the space and support to ask questions to my mentee and let them come up with their own solutions to problems. Through UX Tree, I had the opportunity to develop my mentoring skills by providing feedback to Junior Designers in a non-work environment. This allowed me to offer guidance and support to my mentees without being directly involved in their projects. Although challenging, it was highly rewarding as it enabled me to direct and challenge my mentees, empowering them to come up with their own solutions to problems encountered during the programme."
---- Ray O'Neill, Senior Product Designer @ Swrve
"The mentorship program was a wonderful opportunity. My mentee was enthusiastic, and eager to learn and up skill, which I really enjoyed. During the wider milestone sessions, I loved the breakout rooms with the other mentors and mentees. I found these breakout rooms a great opportunity for networking, learning from other mentors, and creating a space for in-depth UX discussions. It was slightly more of a time commitment that I was originally expecting, but overall it was a positive and valuable experience. The support and community provided to mentors is brilliant!"
---- Krystal Mahon, Senior UX Designer @ AIB
"I found the program valuable and still working on giving clear actionable feedback. It was great see how each mentee approached solving the problems they addressed and be part of their UX tree journey.\
---- Aisling Keady, UX Design Lead @ AIB
"I really enjoyed the mentoring program, it was great. It was slightly more of a time commitment than I had originally anticipated due to the lack of a-sync collaboration but that wasn't a big problem! Sometimes it was hard to be on long calls multiple evenings a week so I wasn't able to join them all. I loved the breakout rooms during some of the milestone sessions, I found them really effective and learnt a lot from other mentors in these sessions. How they gave feedback to the mentees, it was helpful to observe and have good conversations on the designs within this setting with the mentees. Thank you for all of your organization and hard work on this program!"
---- Amy O'Dea, Product Designer @ Twilio
"I found the Programme incredibly useful. It’s great to hear from a diverse mix of designers, the problems were really interesting, and it’s always good to get some distance from the day-to-day design work of a demanding UX role. I get a lot from mentoring. It helps me sharpen my coaching skills and also reminds me of the fundamentals. "
---- Samuel Payne, Head of Content Design, UX @ Google
"I really enjoyed it, wish I had a bit more time to give (its has been a busy few months) but I felt I got a lot out of it and met some great people that I hope I stay in touch with. I know I'll be able to give a lot more next year, now I know how it all works."
---- David Jackson, Co Founder & UX Director @ The Friday Agency
"I have definitely learned, tried not to let imposter syndrome get in the way (being young lead start to question myself sometimes or not feel confident in giving the advice) feel my mentoring skills improved rather than giving the solution, getting them to ask the questions."
---- Sarah Murray, Design Lead @ AIB
"It was definitely a benefit. I gained skills in mentorship and reviewing / providing feedback on creative work in a UX capacity. It was also a great networking opportunity and a positive experience overall."
---- Eric Lynch, Senior UX Designer @ Deloitte Digital
"Great kickoff - really enjoyed meeting with the other mentors and mentees. I thought the smaller group sessions were successful, I think we should aim to shuffle these so that people get the chance to share their project ideas, some mentees projects I didn't get to see until the end. I loved being able to connect with mentees and be able to reflect on my own practice - particularly, giving the talk was something I hadn't done in ages and really gave me a fire to begin thinking about the state of design."
---- Jamie Ryan,UX Designer @ SIM Local
"The mentorship program was a wonderful opportunity for both myself and my mentee. While the specific task of the program was to create a UX case study, I was able to get to know my mentee of the past few months and work out their career goals and hopefully set them on the right path in UX. I also got to work on honing more of my leadership skills along the way. Great experience. Already seen the benefits with mentees getting roles off the back of the work outputs."
---- Eoin Smith, Product Design Manager @ Genesys
"I think it was quite beneficial in learning how to navigate certain challenges with being a mentor. Exposure to the situations has given me tools to move forward and forming a good foundation of what to do and what not to do next time."
---- Maverick Andaloc, Product Designer @ Formidable
"It was a great first-time experience mentoring. The support and community provided to mentors is fantastic and I've learned a lot about how other designers work across different companies."
---- Rob McLoughlin, UX Designer @ Brown Thomas
"I learned a lot about how to be a mentor and help/guide someone under you. It gives you a sense of responsibility and planning skills. It is definitely going to benefit me in my career as I grow and have junior designers under myself. This is like a crash course for mid level designers who are going to be senior designers. It is brilliant." "I have been with UX for 2 semesters now so its been a year and honestly, it has helped me tremendously in my personal growth as a designer as well as in my career. It gives you a fresh perspective every semester when you meet new mentees and how things in design field are changing outside you 9 to 5 "
---- Pranjal Singh, UX Designer @ Microsoft
"I really enjoyed the program, it is a great feeling to be able to give people advice and encouragement to get to the next step of their career. I found it really difficult when I started in UX and ended up doing lots of courses just to get my foot in the door so this program is perfect for people who are starting in UX design. I was a little disappointed with the level of commitment my mentee had with the course, it was a shame because he has a lot of potential but was just busy with work. This may have been due to him already being employed and not being as motivated as others who were looking for work."
---- Colin Sharkey, UX Designer & Developer @ Hertz
"I really enjoyed giving feedback and advice to my mentee. I learned some interesting tips from her about XD and prototyping."
---- James O'Brien, Senior Product Designer @ TestReach
"The UX mentorship program will bring a mentor close to someone (re)starting their career now. I remembered the difficulties of getting the first UX job. It helped me empathise and, in a way, challenge/question/refresh my way of thinking."
---- Mike Markoglou, Product Designer @ Buymie
"The UX Tree Mentorship Program helped me a lot. It made me open my previous research, study again to be prepared for any questions my Mentee would have and observed how the other Mentees worked through the process. I was so impressed of the other Mentees's UX research, procedure and design!!"
---- Mary Ioannou, Freelance UX & Graphic designer @ Ultimate Fintech
"UX Tree is the platform that pairs junior designers with seasoned professionals like myself who bring all of their experience to the table. If you’re looking for a UX design course that will build a strong foundation for the rest of your career, UX Tree might just be the right place!"
---- Katarina Hrgovic, Senior UX Designer @ Bord Gais
"I really loved being a part of the program. It felt great to meet designers in different industries and I loved working with my mentee. After having recently gone through the job search process myself, it gave me a huge amount of happiness trying to help someone who is in the same position that I was in. The whole experience was super well organised and planned, Valentina had really thought of everything! From the kick-off calls, to the milestones, to the communication channels! It was an amazing experience :) One suggestion I would have is potentially creating resources for the job search and applications. With my mentee we touched upon CVs and interview techniques and l think it can be super insightful information."
---- Harriet Atherton, Product Designer @ Radically Digital