Why a mentor?

How can a design and UX mentor help me? When should I talk to a design and UX mentor? Why should I talk to a mentor rather than just take a course? Why should I trust GrowthMentor’s mentors?

All your questions about mentorship, answered

How can a design and UX mentor help me?

There’s one big problem with great design: it’s invisible to the untrained eye.

Sure, almost anyone can recognize a bad design when they see it. But it’s hard to know what makes the best designs great.

If you’re gifted with a keen visual sense, you may be able to pick it apart. But most of us aren’t so gifted.

Plus, beyond the rules of good visual design, great product design requires understanding user psychology and the principles behind great user experience. Not to mention you’ll need a great grasp of user research as well.

A UX and design mentor can walk through every flow and interface of your product or website, providing specific advice on elements to move, change, remove, and ways to streamline your design to reduce user friction even further.

They can also coach you on how to conduct great user research to streamline your designs.

And because a mentor takes a “done with you” approach, they’ll teach you how to see the world through a designer’s eyes.

Every time you see a product, you’ll understand what UX elements are at play and which user psychology principles the designers are utilizing. You’ll learn how to take inspiration from other products and use it to improve your own designs.

When should I talk to a design and UX mentor?

If you’re in the early stages of building your product or website, you likely don’t need a UX or design mentor quite yet. There are other areas that will yield more ROI for you.

But if your startup is more mature, it may be time to consider talking to a UX and design mentor. A mentor can help you when:

  • You’re seeking funding and need to present a polished, intuitive product
  • Your user activation rates are lackluster and you want to improve them
  • You’ve received consistent user feedback about needing UX refinements
  • You’d like to start with design-focused user research and don’t know where to start
  • You’ve found users have difficulty using your product in tests

In all of the above cases, a design and UX mentor’s keen eye can pinpoint improvements. They’ll help you figure out exactly where to focus your efforts and how you can take your design from good to great.

Why should I talk to a mentor rather than just take a course?

Courses and blog articles can teach you best practices for design and user experience. But, ultimately, the visual element of UX and design comes down to a matter of taste and repeated practice.

Which you can’t learn from a textbook or course. You can only improve through feedback from someone with experience.

Our mentors aren’t fluffy theorists. They’ve been in the trenches and been hands-on with the work. They’ve seen fantastic successes, spectacular failures, and everything in between. They know what works and what doesn’t.

So, you could spend hundreds of hours reading articles, taking courses, and still making designs that look amateurish.

Or you could shortcut all the frustration by talking to a mentor who has walked the path before. And therefore get the feedback you need to make your UX and designs look flawless.

Why should I trust GrowthMentor’s mentors?

Excellent question. After all, the “mentorship” world is full of high-priced consultants, armchair analysts who have never done the work themselves, and outright snake-oil salesmen looking to make a quick buck.

But, there are plenty of experts out there who want to share their experience and knowledge. At GrowthMentor, we’re lucky to have 700+ of those experts.

The secret comes from our vetting process. We not only double-vet all of our mentors so only the top 3% make it through our process, we also look at their soft skills. Because no one wants a mentor who’s a snob or a jerk.

On top of that, 85% of our mentors don’t charge an extra fee. Why?

The short answer: Because they want to help people.

The long answer is because…

  • They enjoy sharing their knowledge
  • They learn from their mentees
  • They want to be a “force for good” in the business world
  • They want to pay it forward

But don’t just trust our word on it. Hear from the mentors themselves.