Mentoring for UX and product designers

Mentoring for UX and product designers

Mentoring for UX and product designers

Get personalized design career advice to get unstuck and speed up your growth

Get personalized design career advice to get unstuck and speed up your growth

Get personalized design career advice to get unstuck and speed up your growth

The caller in the other video call is a young Latina woman and designer. She’s light skinned and has bleached straight hair with dark roots and rainbow-colored highlights. She’s wearing glasses and a soft smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Latina woman

Call with Isabel

The caller in the first video call is a young Black woman and designer. She’s dark skinned and has her hair in medium-size dreadlocks that fall to her shoulders. She’s wearing glasses and a big smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Black woman

Call with Senait

The caller in the other video call is a young Latina woman and designer. She’s light skinned and has bleached straight hair with dark roots and rainbow-colored highlights. She’s wearing glasses and a soft smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Latina woman

Call with Isabel

The caller in the first video call is a young Black woman and designer. She’s dark skinned and has her hair in medium-size dreadlocks that fall to her shoulders. She’s wearing glasses and a big smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Black woman

Call with Senait

The caller in the other video call is a young Latina woman and designer. She’s light skinned and has bleached straight hair with dark roots and rainbow-colored highlights. She’s wearing glasses and a soft smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Latina woman

Isabel

The caller in the first video call is a young Black woman and designer. She’s dark skinned and has her hair in medium-size dreadlocks that fall to her shoulders. She’s wearing glasses and a big smile
Samanta, the callee in the video call with the Black woman

Senait

I help designers from all experience levels and company sizes

A laptop shows Samanta in a Google Meet video call. She's a Latina woman with light brown skin. She has voluminous, curly hair to her shoulders and wears glasses. She has a big smile on her face and Is wearing a bright color lipstick.
A laptop shows Samanta in a Google Meet video call. She's a Latina woman with light brown skin. She has voluminous, curly hair to her shoulders and wears glasses. She has a big smile on her face and Is wearing a bright color lipstick.

Your cheatsheet to the design career that you want

Hi, my name's Samanta and I'm a design lead passionate about helping other designers grow.


With a career spanning 12 years, I've worked in many different organizational landscapes — from startups to large tech companies in both B2C and B2B products across 4 different countries, 100% remote and otherwise.

What's making you feel stuck?

Unsuccessful job search

Lack of guidance at work

Lack of design peers in my circle

Lack of confidence in my design process

An overdue raise or promotion

A specific challenge in a project

Burn out

A difficult work environment

Difficulty finding work abroad

I've helped many overcome their hurdles

Kayli B.

Product designer

Talking with Samanta not only gave me the confidence to ask for a raise, but also very practical tools and strategies I could use to back up my request. Talking about money is always hard, but I felt so much more equipped to have the conversation once I implemented Samanta’s suggestions. After talking with Samanta I felt so energized. She gave me strategies and ideas to implement immediately to solve the problems I was feeling in my role as a design team of one. I’m very thankful to have found Samanta and I will be coming back for more mentorship.

Amina K.

Service designer

I truly enjoyed speaking with Samanta because her insights and recommendations come from a genuine place acquired after years of hard work and diligence. Her advice was practical and straight to the point with lots of takeaways.

Aytan E.

UX researcher

I was feeling down and exhausted due to my unsuccessful job-hunt when I approached Samanta. During the meeting, we discussed feedback I usually get from companies on my UX case presentation skills. She gave me valuable advice and shared techniques that I can use to improve my presentation skills which I believe will affect my job-hunt immensely. More importantly, I left the meeting more confident and hopeful. I feel more prepared for my next interviews and believe that I will rock next case presentations thanks to Samanta

Betty

UI/UX designer

She inspired me to create actionable steps in order for me to solve my problems and to see more clearly which direction I should take in my future development. Her honest stories of her experiences have been of great help and inspiration and made me feel less lonely as a young designer in this field.

Kangmi L.

Senior product designer

Talking with Samanta was very good. She gave me helpful advice for my on-going project and portfolio. Also career advice as how to approach to hiring managers. Her comments were so practical and accurate! I wrote down a lot from this session and will definitely apply on my case in the future.

Vimu L.

Lead UX designer

I want to thank you for the mentoring session we had and some valuable tips and tricks. I finally got an opportunity to relocate to Europe. I’m joining Booking.com as a UX Designer. Your support was really helpful. Thank you 😍

Fred A.

Product designer

Samanta helped me a great lot when designing my portfolio and showcasing my work by explaining how portfolios are reviewed by the different stakeholders in a hiring process and how I could optimise the design and writing for it. In just an hour I got enough feedback and guidance to take my portfolio to the next level!

What kind of help do you need?

Coaching Package

$350

or ~3 500 SEK

We'll have a total of 5 one-on-one sessions at 45 minutes each. You'll book our first call now (by clicking the link below), where we will discuss your goals and craft an action plan together for the following sessions.


At the end of each session we'll schedule our next call and set clear action items for both of us. You can expect access to templates, examples of real world design deliverables, live collaboration, and more.

What others use my coaching for

– Get recurring, practical help at your job

– Get help leading your first design sprint

– Get help leading your first user research project

– Get support and accountability as you work on a case study or personal project

– Get additional guidance while completing a course or bootcamp

After [coaching] with Samanta I gained more confidence in the design process and could take on more leadership in my role.


This is the biggest thing my colleagues said I have improved on, taking on leadership.

Joel W.

UI/UX designer

General Career help

Starts at

$45

We’ll chat about a specific question or challenge you're facing and I’ll offer relevant advice or help based on my lived experience as designer with a 12-year career

Book 30 min session

$45

Book 1 hour session

$90

Portfolio review

$45

(30 min)

Are companies and recruiters not responding to your applications? Not even an intro call? We need to work on your first impression. I'll do a live user test of your website or portfolio and provide feedback. And review your resume, cover letter and/or LinkedIn

Mock interview

$100

(1 hour)

Are companies and recruiters not moving you forward after your portfolio walkthrough? We need to work on your presentation skills. I'll be your mock audience and evaluate your overall presence, provide feedback on the content, structure and storytelling of your presentation and help you prepare for questions

Design jam

$70

(45 min)

We’ll deep dive into an actual design problem or project that you’re working on. I’ll offer feedback and advice on how to iterate and move forward, and we'll brainstorm together to generate solutions. Consider this a mix between a "design crit" and a working session

FAQ

What if I can't afford your sessions?

If you're currently employed, employers often set aside an education / professional development budget for employees to spend on courses, training, workshops, or conferences that they think would help them progress in their current role. Here's a template you can use to ask your manager to use some of it to cover mentoring sessions.

Can you be my mentor for my bootcamp?

Some bootcamps ask you to find a mentor to meet recurrently during the program's duration. For this I recommend you check out my coaching package.

Can you mentor me for free?

I reserve some time to offer free sessions to people who can't afford it (e.g. those unemployed, studying, or living in a developing country), because I wholeheartedly believe that access to mentoring early and often in your career accelerates your career progression. I wish I had access to it sooner!


Check out my availability on ADPList to get a one-time free call. But note that we won't meet more than once and availability is often weeks from now.

Who is best suited for your mentorship?

The types of designers who often reach out to me include:


Solo designers: People who are the only designer in their team or company and wish for more guidance and collaboration at work.

Job switchers: People looking to change jobs.

Advancement seekers: People with ambition and their eyes set on their next career milestone.

Transitioners: People looking to get into tech or design for the first time.

Recent grads: Graduates of design programs and bootcamps looking to land their first job.


But the bottom line if that the fact that you are here tells me you are a driven problem solver who's not willing to leave their future to chance, and I want to help you beat whatever obstacle is in your path.

Are you the right mentor for me?

Picking the right mentor is key. Look for someone who has similarities to both who you are today (e.g. PoC, woman, product designer) and who you want to be in the future (e.g. works in the type of company, product, industry, country, or role you want for yourself).


If you're looking for a mentor super gifted in visual design, you'll benefit more from having a different mentor. I'm a generalist and while I'm skilled in UI design my strengths and passion lie in workshop facilitation, problem definition, design strategy, interaction design, career progression, salary negotiation, and building a career abroad.


Check out my LinkedIn, my UX content on Instagram, and the many reviews on my ADPList profile to make a decision.

This site is being built in the open, bit by bit, while watching TV and cuddling my lagottos. Check later this week to see what I've managed to add.

This site is being built in the open, bit by bit, while watching TV and cuddling my lagottos. Check later this week to see what I've managed to add.

This site is being built in the open, bit by bit, while watching TV and cuddling my lagottos. Check later this week to see what I've managed to add.