1-on-1 Professional UX Coaching

Just to be clear, this is not something that is new to me. I’ve been doing it on and off since 2015, but it’s not always very consistent on my part. I think the best way to put it is, I wasn’t exactly looking out for opportunities to help coach/mentor other aspiring UX professionals. It just happened, and I would go with it. If someone were to approach me and ask for help (or needed some mentoring), I would agree to it and we would meet for a few sessions over the coming weeks/months, and I would then share with them what I can in the allocated time over a coffee. That’s how I have always done it in the past.

Just to be clear, when I used to do it, I did it because it is my passion and I wasn’t exactly looking to make a career/income out of it. I already had a job at that time and I was fine with just meeting over coffee.

Professional UX Coaching

I suppose times have changed, and seeing that the industry currently is lacking in UX-related talents and especially those with leadership material, I thought about how I could help to fill in that gap.

While I was contemplating my future as a UX specialist over the recent weekend, I was also having thoughts about the possibility of positioning myself as a professional UX coach/mentor. It made sense, at least to me, that as a certified thought leader in the field, I would be uniquely qualified to share what I have learned, both the insights and foresight into the field with other UX professionals to help them reach their fullest potential.

It is true that I have been open about looking for a career opportunity where I could have the platform to help coach/mentor fellow colleagues. But when I read a comment by Juliana Chan on LinkedIn, I had one of those light bulb moments! Here’s what she said:

General UX Coaching and UX Leadership Coaching

When I think about how this professional coaching services would work, I imagine that it’s very similar to what I have been doing for the last few years of my life. The only major difference is that I’ll be charging real money for my time, and making myself available to the individuals that I’ll be working with to help them reach their fullest potential.

By turning into a professional UX coach, I also see the need to separate who I want to coach. From the perspective of a coach, I see two clear categories of individuals seeking coaching.

1. New UX professionals just entering the workforce post-pandemic, and those with 2-5 years of working experience under their belt. Seeing that the entire industry is seriously lacking in UX professionals with experience and leadership material, it would make perfect sense to help these individuals to reach their potential in a shorter time. Sure, they can certainly opt to gain experience, make their own mistakes, and experience failures along the way. But that kind of “learning” can usually take years, and in today’s context and demand for talents, it’ll just be too long. So by providing professional UX coaching, I hope that it would be able to help these individuals reach their fullest potential over a few months instead of over a few years.
2. Aspiring UX leaders. The second category of individuals I hope to target with my professional coaching services, would be those that already have years of experience working in UX, or UI design, and they are now thinking about taking on a leadership role in UX. Seeing that there is such a huge gap (lack of) when it comes to genuine UX leadership around the world, it made total sense for me to provide coaching/mentoring to these individuals to help them better ease into their potential new roles. It is also possible that those seeking professional UX leadership coaching are already on-the-job.

Professional Coaching Fees & Sessions Frequency

Okay, let’s face it, there are no free lunches. And I always believed that you pay for your money’s worth. In order for me to provide good, solid coaching services, it has to be matched by the amount of money I charge for my time and energy.

Coaching Fees

General UX Coaching (usually 4 to 6 sessions)

In-person Session – S$ 250.00 per session

Virtual Session – S$ 180.00 per session

UX Leadership Coaching (usually 3 to 4 sessions)

In-person Session – S$ 450.00 per session

Virtual Session – S$ 350.00 per session

Session Frequency

So, how often do we need to meet? Looking back on my past experience of coaching/mentoring other professionals, I would say it’s usually once a month. I think for 80% of the folks, that would be the case. There are some cases where I would do the coaching on a bi-weekly basis (that’s every two weeks).

Taking into consideration the world we live in today, and how interconnected we have become, there may be situations where we can’t have an in-person coaching session, so I want to provide the option of a virtual coaching session (via Zoom, Google Meetup, etc). And because it is not in-person, there would certainly be some sacrifice when it comes to the coaching experience, so it’s only fair for me to lower the session fee accordingly.

But as a coach, I genuinely believe that in-person sessions are usually much more productive and useful (according to the feedback of those that I have already helped to coach and mentor in the past).

How Would Payment Work?

I think that’s the very next logical thing to be asking. If you are someone seeking professional UX coaching/mentoring, you’ll want to know how to secure your coaching sessions with me. I’m somebody who believes deeply in making things personal and flexible. That means, in most cases, you can opt to book me for 3 sessions upfront, and then pay for another 3 sessions. Or you can book me for all 4, or 6 sessions upfront. I would also allow the option to pay me per session upfront.

Here in Singapore, payment methods is usually very straightforward. We can just use the PayNow services (or Internet banking). Once we have confirmed on your coaching sessions, I will then provide the necessary details so you can make payment.

Final Thoughts

Alright, I think I’ve pretty much covered all the essential details for now. I’m going to officially kickstart this professional UX coaching service today by sharing this post on my LinkedIn feed. If you are from overseas and you’re reading this post and you are interested in my professional UX coaching services, you can also reach out to me. Sadly though, we would only be able to do virtual coaching sessions, but I think it should be quite sufficient to cover a lot of the topics that you are interested in. For potential overseas clients, we can always do upfront payments via PayPal.

Again, I want to thank Juliana Chan for what she said, and how it helped to reaffirm what I have been thinking about over the recent weekend. Yeah, to be able to help others and then see them say how helpful the coaching/mentoring sessions were, really made my day (when I was doing it previously). It certainly can’t match finding a good, long-term career opportunity, but if I can help others to reach their fullest potential, it can also make me feel like I’m doing something purposeful and even perhaps, making a difference somehow.