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Product and design teams

A discipline entered almost entirely sideways.

Almost nobody starts in product or design deliberately. Your product managers and designers can explain the sideways routes to people who cannot see them, and get sharper at articulating decisions in the process.

Session length
30 minutes
Cost to the mentee
Free
Reporting
Live
The benefits

What product and design gets out of it.

Practice defending decisions

Explaining a trade-off to a stranger is the core product skill.

A wider talent pool

People who understand the route apply, including ones you would never otherwise reach.

Portfolio and craft feedback given fast

30 minutes of honest review changes what somebody builds next.

Recorded hours for progression

Impact outside the team, evidenced.

What mentees ask

The questions that come up.

  • Moving into product from engineering, support or marketing

  • Building a portfolio without client work

  • Getting past the first design screening

  • Working with engineers well

  • Choosing between IC and management

What your people can teach

Subjects only product and design can cover.

How a product decision is made

Take a mentee through a real trade-off between users, time and cost.

How AI is used in your design and research

Prototyping, research synthesis, copy: what it speeds up and what it ruins.

Critiquing a portfolio honestly

Thirty minutes on their case studies, from a person who hires.

Getting into product or design

Associate roles, internal moves and the work that gets noticed.

How it runs

Four steps, no programme to build.

  1. 01

    Pick the programme

    Give across product and design.

  2. 02

    Invite the team

    One message, no new tooling.

  3. 03

    Sessions are booked

    30 minutes, chosen by the mentor.

  4. 04

    Report it

    Sessions, hours and topics.

Programmes

Three ways to fund it.

Give

Open mentoring across your workforce, funded as an ongoing commitment.

Grow

One cause, one target, one deadline, for a focused internal push.

Redirect

Offer a session to candidates you turn down, so a rejection still helps.

Questions

The things people ask first.

Can designers review portfolios in a session?

Yes, that is one of the most common requests.

Is 30 minutes enough?

With one clear question set in advance, yes.

Do we need to run a programme internally too?

No, this stands on its own.

Ready to put this in front of your product and design team?

Tell us the size of the team and what you want out of it, and we will come back with a price and a launch date.