Coaching

You own your skills. You get to decide who gets your value.

I’ve been coaching and mentoring people, new and old to the worlds of research and design, since 2009. Whether formally through people I’ve managed, or informally over “how do I break into UX” coffee.

Approach

How I can best help you will be based on what you are trying to achieve. We’ll spend the first couple of sessions figuring this out. I want to help you, not EVERYONE, which is why this is real-time conversations, not you watching 12 hours of talking head recordings.

Topic Areas

  • Getting into UX (and related job titles)
  • Growing your skills as a Researcher of Designer
  • Growing as a Manager, Director, or VP

Specific Topic Keywords You Might Be Looking For

  • Basics of Research: Creating a study, talking (listening) to people, collecting data, synthesizing data, and presenting your data in such a way as to affect change within an organization
  • Basics of Design: Feedback on the work you are currently doing, tips to improve interactions, workflows, and outcomes for users/customers, and absolutely nothing about tools (other than to say, low fidelity for the win)
  • Basics of Leadership: What to do now that they made you manage people’s careers, how to build a practice, how to build a department.

Let me help. Especially if you are wandering through your career like a … I dunno. Something. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Schedule time to talk about coaching

Testimonials

“It’s rare that you meet someone who’s passion for making the complex simple. Its even more rare to find a person who combines that passion with the ability to communicate not just the what and how, but the why of their direction. Matthew has these gifts and more. During the time we worked together, he taught me a tremendous amount about both product management and user experience. If you ever have the chance to work with him, do it. He’ll improve your team, your company, and your product.”

-Carl Smith

"Matthew is rad to play D&D with. And, it turns out, if he learns the party Druid is struggling to find a job IRL, he will make it his mission to fix that. Matthew helped me not just completely rewrite my resume, but rethink how I present myself and my design experiences. He also connected me to the company I'm now working at, so another 100 XP for networking!"

—Cassie Barden

"I met Matthew at a session he organized through Studio VO to help improve UX designer portfolios. I found his way of suggesting improvements and changes to be unlike the standard hard-ass coaches out there. Somehow he's mastered the art of making you feel good about yourself, but at the same time still point out ways you can improve. He's been an instrumental mentor in my career, making me realize my value, strengths, as well as how I can improve, and 95% of the time, I'm smiling or laughing my way through meetings with him. He has a knack for presenting new information without making me feel stupid for not knowing something."

—Ildikó Tóth

"Matthew has guided me through many challenges during my career in UX. When I started, he helped me see past tools and methods and understand problems underlying designs. As I grew into my career, he connected me with the broader design community. And when I became a manager, he showed me how to lead other designers. He has seen everything; twice. There’s no better person to help you find your way in UX."

—Peter Russo

Pricing (USD)

While I’m always up for receiving a coffee or a beer for my time, I believe coaching and mentoring are a professional service and money should exchange hands. Below there are three tiers for pricing.

We’ll talk about which one is best for you during our first session.

Initial Session (30 minutes)

We’ll talk about your goals and how I can help.

  • $200 if you’ve got professional development money (your company will reimburse you)
  • $125 if you’re independent (you are a company of you)
  • $25 if you’re strapped for cash / extreme currency exchange (I won’t ask for proof)

Basically, we should see if we’re a good fit for each other.

Ongoing Sessions, per session (up to 50 minutes)

If you need nothing more from me beyond what we can accomplish by chatting:

  • $150 if you’ve got professional development money (your company will reimburse you)
  • $100 if you’re independent (you are a company of you)
  • $25 if you’re strapped for cash / extreme currency exchange (I won’t ask for proof)

If you need feedback on deliverables, documents, or anything I’ll need extra time to review between sessions:

  • $600 if you’ve got professional development money (your company will reimburse you)
  • $400 if you’re independent (you are a company of you)
  • $25 if you’re strapped for cash / extreme currency exchange (I won’t ask for proof)

All sessions are via Zoom (or similar service), or over the phone. A 20% discount is applied if you pay for 10 sessions in advance.

Schedule an initial session

© Copyright 2016-2022 Studio VO Ventures and Opportunities, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Based in Portland, Oregon.
Projects worldwide.