20 April 2021
My experience as a mentor in Ownpath
It's been more than 8 years since I've started my design journey. I was introduced to Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and the world of design during my college days at a time when my friends were busy preparing to apply for internships.
For the past 4 years, I've been a designer at a boutique design & strategy studio called Obvious where I've worked with amazing folks across small startups, non-profits and big corporates, helping them design e-commerce apps, a gaming platform, new-age information consumption patterns, & much more. Before this, I was part of the core-team at Razorpay, at the time a small startup, working on all things design.
Reflecting on Ownpath & what excited me
Digital product design has gained a lot of popularity with the increase in number of startups and new found understanding of user experience in the industry. Designers, like me, are interested in learning deeper about the craft as well as looking to grow in specific segments.
I've been closely following Ownpath since its inception. Shreyas identified the learning gap for designers and setup the platform to serve this specific need. They conduct workshops & upskilling programs by industry leaders, things I wish I had in my self-learning design journey. They are bringing together knowledge & experience scattered across the design community, helping designers grow & learn together.
Becoming a mentor
I come from an engineering background. Not having formal education in design always left a longing for more knowledge, and I tried to fulfil it through friends and colleagues. Being in Obvious, surrounded by amazing folks who had much more experience taught me a lot. I haven't just learnt from seniors. Similar to how people who teach can learn from students or from the process of teaching itself, I have learnt things alike from peers old and new. Knowledge, I realised, flows across those of us who seek it.
While I was content with my work, I always had this itch to help those who are starting their professional design journey and would be looking for guidance just like I did. In late 2020, when Shreyas approached me to become a part of Ownpath's new initiative, I said yes without thinking twice. This was a great fit, where I could give back to the community in a much more structured way. I was excited to meet new folks and help them in their design journey.
Mentorship in Ownpath
My first interaction with the new batch-fellows happened in an office hours session I conducted, introducing them to JTBD framework (Jobs To Be Done). They were quite keen, energetic and asked a lot of questions. Interacting with them was fun. Discussing about design is something I could go on and on. Honestly, I learnt a lot more about the framework when I did my research and prepared for the session. It gave an opportunity to polish many of my concepts which had faded.
Soon, I got introduced to the team I would be mentoring. Sayani, Jyotsna & Abraz came from diverse backgrounds and were a great team to work along & mentor. They chose a complex problem statement but that didn't let their enthusiasm fade away.
We met every weekend and started our session by reflecting on the past week's work. The team often got stuck in discussions while working and couldn't find clarity on how to proceed. This wasn't new and happens to most of us. I helped them identify the situations, blockers and how could they could move ahead.
In initial research, they gathered a lot going through current methods and conducting interviews. It's easy to get overwhelmed with this new found information. A great way is to synthesise it by mapping the experience and lay down pain points faced by the user. This resulted into a customer-journey map which helped visualise the problem in detail and identify the moments of truth to be solved. I could already see a fruitful change in how the team moved ahead. This was the first time I facilitated a new team to carry out it by themselves, the experience helped me to understand the exercise more deeply and further strengthened my understanding of the framework.
Young designers often jump directly into the tool to work on a design approach. Using tool like, Figma/Sketch which are suitable for high fidelity interfaces deviates them from the real solution instead leading them to visual design & finer details. A good idea is to focus on sketching ideas rapidly and have as many rough iterations. Team was getting caught up in the similar loop in later half of the project. Letting go of the tool and, sketching was liberating for them. They put in large number of ideas in short time. Giving feedback on each other's idea, combining the good parts of multiple ideas led to team collaboration and higher quality output. I learnt this in Obvious and haven't looked back since, then. Seeing them benefiting directly from my experience was a great feeling.
I really enjoyed facilitating similar sessions to help them understand different processes which will help them get clarity, work within a well defined scope and achieve great results at every step. Sharing the way I approach design and how it could work for them has been a great way for me to revisit concepts, approaches and thought processes. The experience of mentoring keen and open minded designers new to this field has been very fulfilling.