KAT TAKE
WOC Design Leader in Tech
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Coaching & mentorship

Kat is a Women of Color design leader in Tech. She provides 1:1 coaching to working professionals to help grow their career and mentorship for design students.

 

COACHING & MENTORSHIP

Over the last 15+ years, I’ve transitioned my role from Graphic Designer to Product/UX designer and to Design management. As my role transitioned, my working environment changed along with it. In my path, I’ve freelanced as Graphic Designer, worked as Web Designer in a museum, served as Interaction Designer at Huge and UX Designer at Microsoft and now as UX Design Manager at Amazon.

WORK HAVE BEEN FEATURED ON

Kat was a godsend during the most challenging time of my career when I lost my job after a decade. Not only did she encourage and guide me about preparing for big design interviews, but she also helped me see my blind spots by giving honest and actionable feedback, which propelled me to grow as a designer. — Amrinder

My encounters with Kat were amazing. She is wise, patient, genuine, and really cares about supporting young designers and the design community. She's provided me with very good advices, and one conversation with her was not enough. I'm looking forward to talking with her again! — Yiwei

DESIGN COACHING

60m Deep Dive

In a 60 minutes deep dive coaching session, we will work together to uncover your area of growth and create an actionable plan together. In these sessions, we’ll create measurable goals and set check points accordingly.

Coaching topics include:

  • Resume & Portfolio review deep dive

  • Presentation master coaching

  • Design thinking master coaching

  • STAR method master coaching

  • Stakeholder management master coaching

  • Project & Time management master coaching

Mock Interview series 

UX Design interviews loops are typically formed with a 45 - 60 minute Portfolio Presentation, Whiteboard exercise, several 1:1 behavioral interviews that can include a mobile app critique. This mock interview series is a 3 60 min sessions designed to help you practice each type of interview format during 1 hour. In each 60 minute session, I will act as your interviewer and proceed as if you were in a real interview. You will receive feedback on your performance at the end of the session. Schedule each session as you are ready, recommend to complete the series within 1 month.

Choose 3 out of 4 Interview types:

  • Portfolio presentation

  • Whiteboard exercise

  • 1:1 behavioral interview

  • App critique

“Kat is simply amazing and a great listener. I did a mock white-boarding session with her for an upcoming interview and it was super helpful for me. She gave me constructive feedback and very actionable insights which eventually helped me in getting the role I interviewed for. Highly recommend :) Thanks Kat!”
— Dhara
“Kat is awesome! I had mock interviews with her for an upcoming interview. She was patient to run through the entire presentation with me and gave me very actionable insights and constructive feedback. I’m thankful for all her advice and mentorship.”
— Janice

Kat guided me in the right direction with my early career path and post-grad job search. From our portfolio critique to career advice, she provided many insightful high-level as well as detailed feedback and tips. Not only knowledgeable in her field, Kat is also kind, patient, and all-around an amazing teacher. Her honest feedback and guidance have helped me land my first full-time role in this difficult time during a pandemic. Anyone would be fortunate to have Kat as their mentor.

— Duyen

DESIGN MENTORSHIP

I am a volunteer mentor at ADPList. I allocate a limited time a month for mentorship and open to discuss the following.

Design discussion includes:

  • High level portfolio review

  • Transitioning to UX/Product Design

  • Career advancement

  • Design leadership

“At some point during my journey as a mentee, I realized I was seriously lacking in female mentors. I was on the hunt for a strong female design leader which is how I stumbled across Kat’s profile and I’m so glad I did. I’ve always struggled to find my place within the work force as a WOC and Kat has provided valuable insight on how to approach these situations and the challenges she’s faced herself. She also has amazing insight on what it’s like to work in an agency setting versus working in house. I recommend booking a session with her especially if you’re a WOC like me :)”
— Ann
“I feel very lucky to talk to Kat. She was an active listener and gave valuable insights into my career interests. Also, she helped me with a portfolio review, which was super helpful.”
— Ya-ching
“Kat provided me valuable feedback in terms of providing a different perspective on storytelling for my portfolio. She also checked up on me after my interview which I appreciated greatly. Super helpful! Thanks again :)”
— Daljit

BITE SIZE TIPS ON INSTAGRAM

Get actionable design tips and advice, follow @kat.take.design on Instagram.

Portfolio presentation is to show your storytelling skills. When you put together your portfolio presentation deck consider the following: • Who are you as a designer? • Who are you as a person? • What was the problem? • What role
Every project that comes through has its story of origin. Unless you started the project from scratch, there has been someone who has thought about it for a while before you. Always try to understand why they made the decisions they did even if you d
I know we are itchy to get started with design. But wait. Have you done your due diligence on research about what you are designing? . Be it a logo, a product feature, or even an entire product, I’m pretty sure someone has done something simila
One of my mentees asked me once, "When you don't have time, do you cut corners? Because I have a lot to do." My answer was "No, you just need to learn how to be scrappy." . As you grow to be more senior in your design role, you wi
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