In May 2018 Roxana Cociorda and Anouschka Scholten joined the mentorship program started by Ladies That UX Amsterdam as mentee and mentor. This 3-month program ended up to be very valuable for both in work and even in their personal life, the mentorship continues. Roxana and Anouschka share their experience and why it's such a powerful relationship: it boosts creative confidence and challenges the system:)

1. October 22, 2018
by Anouschka Scholten & Roxana Cociorba
The Power Of Mentorship

2. Mentor
UX Change Agent
Independent sr. Interaction Designer |
UX Consultant | UX trainer en coach
Mentee
User Experience Design | User research |
Design thinking |
Event organiser Ladies that UX Amsterdam
Roxana Cociorba Anouschka Scholten
! Hi! We are…

3. Make people’s lives
better.
As a designer you have the tools to change behaviour.

4. Women representation in design and tech

5. GRL PWR

6. Mentorship Program – May 2018

7. My drive being a mentor
• Committed to something bigger than me – make a change
• Building and maintaining a sincere relationship
• Interact in the now
Help embrace creative confidence
• Experiment, make mistakes
• Say yes to opportunities
Be the change - empower girls and women

8. PREPARING…
10 tips to enjoy the mentorship
“Will the match work out?”
“What do I actually know about mentoring”
Ladies That UX Slack community
Mentorship Kick off
Starter questions
“Where to meet”
“How to schedule effectively”
Mentorship contract
“How do I prepare for goals and expectations?”

9. Who am I?
What if I’m not good enough?
#ImposterSyndrome raises its ugly head

10. hold on…
Worked almost 7 years at Informaat, a leading UX
company, in the beginning of my career 20 years ago…

11. Every employee
A coach
Every 4-6 weeks
Independent from your daily work
Geared to personal development
Long term relationship

12. and working life experience…
Consultant
Teamworker
Design thinker and do’er
User researcher
HUMAN CENTERED
100+ projects and assignments
Interaction Designer
UX trainer
Sparring partner, coach

13. 1 on 1 conversation | Open and Respectful | Meeting on
regular bases | Mindful with time
MENTORSHIP

14. Over to Roxana and her story…
which she presented before at an other occasion, so it’s in a different format

29. … back to Anouschka

30. Help people to have personal and
professional success
Be the change…
What if we all could be a coach or
mentor?!
maybe practising 1 skill can have a huge impact…

31. ASSUMPTIONS
SUCCES

32. mentee
Old and wise UX saying…

33. Observations
Asking questions & listen
Doing
Thinking
Source: mbstudio
Asking the right questions
Foundation for UX insights … ánd for mentoring, coaching

34. Mentoring questions tips
1. Open questions
2. Be deliberately quiet
3. Be open to every answer
4. Listen with attention
5. Listen, summarize and ask a follow up question
TipsThe mentee is central, not you
AND don’t forget: your behaviour and body language – be warm,
harmonious, friendly, open, respectful, interested, curious, caring

35. Listen with your mouth shut
35

36. TWO
gether
Everyone a coach or mentor

37. A small exercise listening
with the one sitting next to you, in pairs
A mentor/coach
Asks 1 (open) question
I’ll state the subject, the mentor/coach translates
this in an open question.
After you formalated the question, you are quiet.
A mentee
Answers for 3 minutes
Keep talking, no matter what happens.

38. 1 on 1 conversation | Open and Respectful | Meeting on
regular bases | Mindful with time
MENTORSHIP

39. Succesful mentorship
Beyond professional goals and competencies
Also includes things such as work/life balance, self-confidence, self-
perception, and how the personal influences the professional.
A commitment - building a relationship
It requires time to learn about one another and build a climate of
trust that creates an environment in which the mentee feels secure
in sharing the real issues that impact her success.

40. Mentorship POWER
1 on 1 =
Empower yourself and others
Be the change – Just do it
Challenge the system

41. In restrospect

42. Want to get into mentoring?
Check out the Ladies That UX Slack
community for initiatives or the next
mentorship program (yes, also for men J):
http://bit.ly/join-ltux-amsterdam
Ask a colleague or someone in your network
to be your mentor
Start a discussion about it at your work or in
your network - volunteer being a mentor

43. Tips on asking questions and
selling UX
Funny and so true article about interviewing, 13 things Louis Theroux
can teach us about user research: https://medium.com/fluxx-studio-
notes/13-things-louis-theroux-can-teach-us-about-user-research-
c80762d41583?source=linkShare-bc4fbf08a80-1540418541
About convincing stakeholders to do user research, The ROI of User
Experience by Susan Weinschenk Anne Vroegop
recommended: https://youtu.be/O94kYyzqvTc
And an other powerfull article about this topic: The $300 Million Button
by Jared Spool (follow his UIE newsletter for more)
https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/

44. A monthly meet up that creates a welcoming,
transparent community of women that work in UX,
who positively promote and teach each other.
Ladies that UX started in Manchester England in 2013 by two women and now is an
international social enterprise with chapters in 55 towns all over the world: Sao Paulo,
Sydney, Washington DC, Budapest, Singapore….
LTUX-AMS (2015) - almost 2400 members
LTUX-UTR (2016) - almost 800 members
Check out this article: https://uxdesign.cc/ladies-that-ux-on-women-in-design-and-
diversity-f668e469e127