UX Research- Remote Mentoring for Juniors
Fostering the Growth of Emerging Talent in the Industry by Facilitating Mentorship and Career Launchpad in a Remote Working Environment.
Problem Statement: Newcomers/ freshers face more difficulty entering the workforce and getting proper mentorship in a remote work setting
Timeline: 2 Weeks
My Role: Solo UX Researcher
Context:
Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, majority of the workforce has been shifted to online working environment, mentoring and grooming juniors has become much more difficult. Companies have no time to invest in grooming freshers and they are in constant requirement of productivity, thus majority of the companies have started recruiting more and more experienced professionals. In such scenario, it has become very hard for juniors/freshers to get a break into the industry.
Scope:
Evaluate the current process of landing a role to upskilling in a remote work environment of junior employees and improve it, so they can get more fruitful career opportunities
Project Goal: To give advice to UXReactor on what are the top 5 ways in which juniors can be helped to start their career in the industry and get groomed.
Research Goals: Formed 3 research goals, to address problem statement.
Research Methodology:
Observation and Findings:
Going through multiple interviews, you arrive to common issues faced by majority of the juniors, seniors and the interaction between them.
Link to complete project!
Recommendations:
1. Improper onboarding and training of juniors
Companies have shortened proper onboarding process and trainings due to remote work challenges. The expectations is, that mentors will take up this responsibility too which leads to improperly trained juniors.
2. Higher Chances of Miscommunciation among co-workers
There is a high possibility if misinterpretation and miscommunication between co-workers working remote. Also, juniors not having worked in an office environment, face difficulty understanding corporate culture.
3. Problem finding support for queries
Juniors don’t have their queries answered properly due to minimal to no availability of seniors causing delay in delivering on work or increased errors.
4. Difficulty approaching and interacting with mentors/seniors
Due to limited or no in-person interaction, juniors are not aware of most people in the organization and how to approach them, and mentors being busy can barely help juniors network.
5. Lack of visibility of Skilled Juniors
Juniors are not getting the kind of visibility they want to in their organization due to remote work
6. Mentoring for Mentors
Many times mentors are not given the right resources to manage, train and encourage their juniors, and not all juniors have faced positive experiences with their mentors.
Liked Recommendation: A platform which organizes hackathons and other group competitive events and continuously showcases employee side projects, contribution to the company was selected
What can I do better:
- Framing research questions better so that they are not leading.
- Identifying more business opportunities
- Conducting interviews for atleast 5–8 people for each persona to find commonalities
- Identifying the scope of the problem better. (I should have considered juniors who are applying to roles and their problems too)
That’s all folks!
Would love to see your comments and inputs! You can view all my projects here: https://gktanmayee.framer.website/