According to the study of Khabr specialists who worked with a mentor are ready to repeat the experience in 68% of cases. At the same time, IT specialists put mentoring in the fourth place in terms of the effectiveness of development tools – after self-study, an individual plan and pet-projects.

We use various methods to train and develop employees. We decided to find out from colleagues how effective mentoring was for them.

Mentors and mentees shared their impressions – how their meetings went, whether this method of development was useful and what results they got. Their fields of activity, approach to knowledge transfer and topics differ.

“Let’s break the ice”: the experience of Zhenya and Lyosha

Zhenya is a system analyst at Naumen SMP, working on a mobile application. He and the team built the development processes, and now he is adjusting the processes within the team. Lyosha is a product manager at Skorodzin, works with new business areas and is responsible for the entire discovery process in the product.

When I started studying the processes in the team, the question arose about working with hypotheses. I could not fully build a logical chain, and my ideas did not give a tangible result – I began to hit the ice and think that I was going in the wrong direction. I wanted to get help from more experienced colleagues.

I came to the mentor with several requests:

• Working with hypotheses: How to formulate and package hypotheses.

• Working with metrics: how to correctly build a metrics tree and start working with data inside the product.

• Unit economy: hard to figure out. Courses, books, and online resources have not helped.

I admit, it was worrying to go: what if they suddenly say that I am stupid? And if it doesn’t help me or I can’t cope? But I thought that I am not losing anything and it will be useful to listen to what is happening there in other products.

The first meeting was instructive: we understood that we would work together, and drew up an approximate plan of work. Meetings were held once a month, from June to October. They got stuck on the first topic, because in my situation they focused on the processes. But Lyosha expressed his thoughts and agreed with my logic.

In working with metrics, we have reached a result. The mentor told how their work is organized and gave advice on collecting data from related products. For this, it was necessary to convince various LPR to provide analytics, but it seemed to me that it was “somehow inconvenient”, because communication was not established. Here Lyosha and I solved cases, did “homework” and in the end I dared: let’s break the ice! The cases really helped in this task. They were practical – together with the mentor, we formulated tasks, discussed solutions and stages of work, worked out possible obstacles. As a result, I collected the data, it turned out to be easy, and now I actively use it in my work.

Lyosha was well-versed in the topic of unit economics and was able to pass on the expertise to me. Of course, I have not developed super skills, but at a primitive level I can now analyze. It is good that a mentor is not a teacher, but an interested interlocutor. He shares his way of thinking. That’s why we tried to approach solving problems comprehensively. Lyosha did not give me ready-made answers, but only a vector and moral support.

A mentor is not a teacher, but an interested interlocutor. He shares his way of thinking.

An unsmiling look was valuable, like a breath of fresh air, prompting reflection. Sometimes the mentor talked about his decisions at work – these turned out to be the paths that I walked on my own. Gave me confidence that I was going in the right direction.

This experience is much more useful than books or conferences – because the mentor has already gone through the path of researching information and can share it with you “without water”. I was also so inspired that now I myself became a mentor.

Zhenya came with a request about the metrics tree. This is a profile story for me, so I was happy to share my experience and systematize my knowledge. I believe that it is important for the mentor and the mentee to catch a match with each other, otherwise nothing will work. Zhenya and I just happened to have it.

Talking to a person from a team with other business processes is like going to scout another company: understand what the problems are, how they solve them and try them on your product. Complete “mentor experience”. And I also like to share my experience. I always remember that it is important for a mentor not to be afraid to make mistakes. Because the responsibility for the implementation of decisions rests with the mentees and can guarantee success.

It is important for the mentor and the mentee to catch a match with each other, otherwise nothing will happen.

We planned the meetings like any other project. It’s great that this is a curriculum and a dynamic story. We followed the goal: “Now we are at point X, but we need to get to point Y. What needs to be done for this?”. When the result is reached, the meeting is over.

As a mentor, I did not give a specific solution. And I wouldn’t be able to, because in analytics, every situation is unique. The task was to teach how to think within a specific framework and to give confidence in the mentee’s abilities. And for this, we solved cases together.

Mentoring is good training to become a manager. And to get away from the routine. It’s like I worked part-time in a new team.

“There is no magic pill”: the experience of Anton and Dasha

Anton works in the technical presale department of Naumen Contact Center: he helps customers understand the product, clarify expectations and agree on the scope of work. Dasha is a team lead and product in another product, Naumen Business Service Monitoring. It forms an ecosystem of infrastructure solutions and develops products.

I saw in the mentor’s questionnaire that Dasha has a super ability to show the client a product so that he wants to buy it. I was interested in how other products are sold: how they deliver value, what they emphasize, and how they answer questions.

I came to Dasha with a clear request: what can I improve in the demo with customers? One meeting was enough to discuss everything.

We shared expertise and discussed challenges in product sales. It turned out that our experience is quite comparable: sales is a daily painstaking job of conveying values ​​to the client.

Yep, I didn’t get the magic pill… because there isn’t one! This was my insight: you can’t “do something differently” and instantly get a cool result. It was useful to see how sales work in another industry and systematize my knowledge. And I also realized that I was on the right path and received support from a colleague.

I realized that I was on the right path and received the support of a colleague-mentor.

I believe that mentoring is a valuable tool where you can exchange experience and get a vector to achieve your goal. It is difficult to get this information on courses.

I like to be useful, so I got into mentoring. But in addition to the “selfless goal”, I wanted to cheer up the impostor syndrome 🙂 Sometimes I think that I can’t do anything, and feedback from colleagues just helps to disprove it.

I told Anton about how I conduct demos and shared cases – what requests clients came with and how we formulate value. I was interested to hear about Naumen Contact Center, because before I rarely managed to cross paths with guys from another product. The benefit was also practical — it confirmed that we had chosen the right path in sales. If another team came to this method, then we are doing everything right.

I think mentoring helps to come to great decisions, because you are not in the position of “teacher and student”, but on equal terms in the dialogue. If you have polar opinions, it’s cool to listen to the interlocutor’s arguments and argue a little. And the truth is born in the dispute.

In mentoring, you are not in the position of “teacher and student”, but as equals in dialogue.