This past week in ISM I finally got a mentor! My mentor is Ms. Lena Quach and she is an Experience Design Researcher at Capital One. She was the fourth professional that I interviewed and I liked all of the testing and user research methods that she mentioned and how she had experience within Capital One as well as her current role through working on different projects such as Capital One's AutoNavigator app. I’m excited to have a professional that is willing to work with me through everything and aid me with my Original Work, and I cannot wait to observe and record details in a professional workspace.
The whole process of getting a mentor and reaching out and contacting individuals on my own has provided me different outlets to use when contacting individuals through Linkedln, email, and phone. I gained a lot of beneficial skills such as learning how to be prepared with my interview questions, willingly putting in the time and effort to find professionals and keep in contact with them, while also learning to open up and working on my interview and soft skills. The skills that I gained throughout this interview process will serve as stepping stones in terms of developing empathy and learning to present my information clearly and concisely for both the business and user to understand the objective of this design project.
This past Monday, I had a phone interview with Mr. Jose Gonzalez, a Senior UX Designer at 7 - Eleven. Through our phone conversation, I gained a lot of useful tips in terms of designing for the user in mind, analyzing user patterns when testing, and learning to connect both the business and customer side in regards to my design project. Although I already have a mentor, this informational interview has allowed me to connect with another professional as a possible advisor to continue to share my research and gather more insight for my final product.
