Are you an ambitious UXer who wants to improve your confidence, skills and career? The UX Brighton mentorship program has been created to support and inspire you on your journey.
Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the community.
What the event is for
The Mentorship Launch is the first in a series of events as part of the UX Brighton mentorship program. Use this event to get inspired and gain clarity on what you want to achieve from your mentor/ee relationship. Hear from a group of speakers with mentorship hints and tips to prepare you to get the most out of the program.
Attend the launch to meet other UXers broadening their horizons. This is where you can get ready for pairing up with your new mentor/ee at the next UX Brighton mentorship evening in August at the speed-matching event.
Starting your journey, common ground and self-care – Jessica Squires, Lead User Experience Architect
Slides: Starting your journey, common ground and self-care
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 will talk about how you can get into mentoring, empowerment, setting boundaries and more…
Holy Shift! Learnings in UX Research over the years – Shrut Kirti Saksena, Senior Experience Researcher at Adobe
Slides: Holy Shift! Learnings in UX Research over the years
Shrut is a Cognitive Scientist and a UX Researcher with 6 years of combined experience in academic & product research. Currently, she is a Sr. Experience Researcher for Adobe’s Creative Cloud & Emerging Products team, shaping and driving the next evolution of the Creative Cloud(CC) suite of products. In the past, she has founded & led the UX Research operations @Lollypop Design Studio(Bangalore), where she set up the UX Research function from scratch & mentored a team of UX Researchers on 30+ exploratory, evaluative UX research projects across diverse domains.
Her research expertise lies at the intersection of emerging technologies, global UX Research & operations, and cognition and behavioral sciences. She has been awarded numerous design awards such as A’design Award, Interface Red Dot Award to name a few. She is an inclusion & accessibility enthusiast, and mentors aspiring UX professionals, and emerging UX research teams @ADPList.org.
In a recent survey looking at 100 Experience Researcher job postings in the US in 2021, it was found that collaboration (84%) and business acumen(scoping, translating business requirements, & influencing product strategy) were the most sought-after requirements, other than the expected requirements of designing and conducting research studies (84%) for a UX Researcher. Also, it is no secret that there is now more demand for user insights than there are UX researchers in the industry.
Shrut’s talk highlights the emerging demands of the industry from a UX Research role, elucidates why a change in perspective of mentorship & learning is required to meet these demands & how one could benefit from this perspective shift to grow into an experienced researcher: amplifying the impact of UX research and leveraging research soft-skills of collaboration, communication, connection, and influence to empower product teams & stakeholders.
Building effective mentoring relationships – Lewis Nyman, UX, Design & Research Freelancer
Slides: Building effective mentoring relationships
Lewis Nyman is a UK senior public sector contractor in UX, Research, and Service Design. He’s worked with the NHS, The Cabinet Office, GDS, hackney Council, and The Crown Prosecution Service. He’s also the founder of electric campervan hire company Wild Drives. He’s been a UX mentor at Springboard for 2 years.
A mentoring relationship is beneficial for both sides, Lewis is going to be presenting research that outlines how to create an effective mentoring relationship.
Growing your career with (or without) a mentor – Peter Winchester, Head of Design at Madgex
Slides: Growing your career with (or without) a mentor
Peter is a designer and design leader with over 12 years of experience. He’s worked for a SaaS startup, a large marketing agency, and for corporates in travel and finance. During that time he’s designed products for MoreThan, Nationwide, Argos, Durex, Philips and Adidas. He’s now head of Design at Madgex, a career technology company in Brighton.
Working with a mentor is a great way to help move your career forward. But not everyone will find the right person, at the right time. Peter’s going to talk about some potential alternative ways you can continue to progress your career.
Support
This event is supported by Silicon Brighton
Any questions?
Send Annie-Marie Page a message on the UX Brighton Slack, or email [email protected]