We all know how beneficial mentorship is for designers at any level. But it also leads to many more amazing opportunities and even friendships that you weren’t expecting😆. Last summer, I stumbled upon Minjun Chen’s Medium article, How to Build a Successful Design Mentoring Relationship. I highly recommend you to check it out if you have not already, especially for people who are new to mentorship. I was so fascinated by her diverse experience and candid perspective that I connected with her right after reading this article. At the time, she was living in Seattle working at Amazon and I live in Vancouver attending grad school. We set up regular video calls and exchanged many photos of her cat and my dog🐱🐶. Minjun has helped me tremendously during my career change to UI/UX design. Fast forward to the beginning of this year, Minjun moved to Vancouver to join Microsoft as a Product Designer. I had the pleasure to continue our mentorship and friendship in person. I was also able to finally meet her adorable cat, Kirby.
I’m beyond excited to share her story with you!
Favorite Emoji: 😂
Favorite Podcast: New Layer & Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain
Go-to drink: Latte & Oolong Milk Foam with Bubble
Desk Setup:
I’m currently a product designer at Microsoft, working in the multimedia team on the Bing search. I just joined Microsoft a month ago. Before Microsoft, I was working at Amazon Prime, designing also the consumer products for Prime member growth and engagement. And prior to Amazon, I was working at Wayfair designing the enterprise tool for the warehouse staff. Most of the products I designed at Wayfair were basically very internal and enterprise, like data dashboard and scanning tools. So it was very different from what I’m working on at Microsoft and Amazon. Before these work experiences, I got my master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction Design at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Haha, so that is a question I’m asked a lot because my college major is Chinese Literature and Language. So it was completely different from Human-Computer Interaction Design. The reason why I wanted to get into UX design was because of two things. The first is my first ever Apple product, the original Apple iPod Touch that I got during high school. I was so impressed by the overall design of these Apple products. So I was wondering how I could become a designer who designs these kinds of elegant interfaces in the future. Around the same time, one of my alumni from high school studied abroad in the U.S. During her summer break, she went back to China and told me about this major called Human-Computer Interaction Design after hearing about my interest in designing interfaces for mobile phones. She also told me this will be a great career choice for international students because there are a lot of job opportunities in North America. So because of these two reasons, even though I didn’t know too much about HCI, I had this gut feeling that this is something I want to pursue in the future. And now looking back, I’m glad it all worked out perfectly!
One thing I learned for the past few years is that everything has pros and cons. Life is like a box of chocolate. It’s full of surprises and you will never know what comes next. And especially because the pandemic makes everything more uncertain, focusing on my current goal and living in the moment is very important to me at the moment. Even though I still have long-term goals that I want to achieve eventually, I’m trying to not think too far into the future.
Also, I think staying healthy and fit is very important not only for your own good but also for achieving your goals. I have this joke with friends. If you are healthy and can live longer, you will become a principal designer eventually.
Latte art☕️ and boxing🥊!
After spending probably too much money at coffee shops, I finally bought an espresso machine. So I have been really enjoying making latte art at home. And I also picked up boxing during the pandemic. It’s a great way to work out and release your stress.
I’m really passionate about designing products for people who are underserved by technology. For example, I was very proud of the warehouse tools I was designing for the warehouse staff at Wayfair. Because during the pandemic, the warehouse is always busy with the high volume of online orders.
It’s really fulfilling that I can design something that makes their job much easier in such a challenging environment.
I’m also trying to make an impact by giving back to the community and helping other designers to jump-start their careers. I’m able to do so by hosting mentorship sessions on ADPList. I have talked to so many younger designers and helped them revise their resumes, review their portfolios, and prepare for interviews. Seeing their progress and improvement is one of my biggest highlights during the pandemic. It always puts a smile on my face whenever I receive messages or emails from my mentees about them landing a new job.
🤨 Tell us about a time when you didn’t know if you would make it and how you overcame it.
So when I just graduated from grad school and because I’m not a native speaker, I was afraid of presenting my portfolio to a group of designers and design managers. So I always questioned how I can just talk about my portfolio for an hour with a group of strangers. After a lot of practice and revisions on my portfolio presentation, now I’m so much more confident about presenting my designs with interviewers or just anyone from my team.
My previous manager from Wayfair once told me that “no one knows about your design better than you”. So every time, no matter if it is a design review or interview, I always keep what she said in my heart and it makes me so much more confident.
So when I just graduated from grad school and because I’m not a native speaker, I was afraid of presenting my portfolio to a group of designers and design managers. So I always questioned how I can just talk about my portfolio for an hour with a group of strangers. After a lot of practice and revisions on my portfolio presentation, now I’m so much more confident about presenting my designs with interviewers or just anyone from my team.
My previous manager from Wayfair once told me that “no one knows about your design better than you”. So every time, no matter if it is a design review or interview, I always keep what she said in my heart and it makes me so much more confident.
A lot of mentees come to my session seeking advice for job search and job interviews. So I wish I can offer more sessions about how to improve soft skills like communication and collaboration. If you are working at larger companies, pushing the pixels and designing is just a small part of being a designer. A lot of time we need to make sure that all team partners are aligned on our design solutions. So how we communicate design and how we make alignment with cross-functional partners is very crucial. I’m hoping that I can offer more about these kinds of topics. Another element that I’m trying to incorporate in my mentorship session is product thinking as designers. Especially junior designers, they tend to mainly focus on the design process and methodology without thinking about the business side of the project. Like what kind of metrics are we trying to improve?
Showcasing your product thinking skills is crucial in job interviews.
That’s why I’m trying to incorporate more topics around product thinking and strategy in my mentorship sessions.
1. How did you get into UX design?
I usually craft my story based on different audiences. For example, students most likely want to hear about how I applied for HCI programs and how I got my first job. And early-stage designers would want to hear about how I navigate in companies like Amazon and Microsoft.
2. What is the best strategy to help me stand out from other candidates during design interviews?
My top three strategies are practicing as many times as possible, talking to different mentors to get different perspectives and feedback, and most importantly being confident. Confidence can go a long way. Most companies and design teams are looking for someone who can justify design rationales with confidence. And they are also looking for someone with a growth mindset and curiosity to learn.
3. What is your advice for junior designers who just joined a new company or landed their first job?”
It is important to find external and internal mentors.
Learning doesn’t stop when you start working. Having multiple mentors with different expertise, like design and product management, will help you grow tremendously as a designer.
And don’t be afraid to ask questions! Especially for junior designers, it is a great time for you to absorb knowledge and ask as many questions as you can while you are still new. Lastly, document your design work. I’m definitely guilty of not keeping up with my design documentation. It’s really important to document the key design decisions and questions you have after each review. It will save you so much time when you are updating your portfolio.
💬 If there is one thing you could tell every single mentee you meet, what would that one piece of advice be?
Focus on one goal, and everything else follows!
The reason why I always give this piece of advice is that we are often distracted by many different things and information on social media and LinkedIn. For example, someone you know just got a job from a FAANG company. We all probably have been somehow affected by those LinkedIn posts. And it derails us from our own personal growth.
But I think this is a great time for us to ask this question, “what is your goal?”, “ What is the single goal you should be focusing on?”. For me, it is to become a better product designer. If this is the goal that you care about the most, anything else is not important at this point. So try to focus on your own personal growth and personal goal by doing the right thing for yourself. Other things like working at your dream companies or becoming a senior designer will naturally happen when you are determined toward that one goal. And also like I mentioned earlier, if you stay healthy and you work hard, you can work at any company you want.
Check out ADPList and book a mentorship session with Minjun today! And stay tuned for her future group sessions. Thank you so much for reading this article! Until next time👋
