Become a personal UX coach today

• Read literature on coaching – see our recommended reading list;
• Learn from other Interaction Design Foundation coaches – e.g., through meetings or online discussions;
• Learn from international professional communities – for example, groups on LinkedIn or Facebook

There is no limit to how many students you can handle at the same time. It may depend on multiple factors, such as

• how much spare time you have every day?

• how flexible is your schedule so that you can adapt to your students' needs (e.g., for Skype meetings)?

• how many career stories do you think you can remember without mixing them up?

When the number of students approaches your limit, you can prevent new students from coming to you by switching off your visibility as an available coach on the Coaching Control Panel.

• WHAT you are going to discuss with your student. Time is limited, so make sure you have a clear agenda
• WHY it is important to discuss THIS subject rather than something else
• HOW you are going to contact (Skype, chat, phone call)

• Start your meetings exactly as scheduled. Do not allow yourself longer than a one-minute delay.
• Set a clear agenda for each session together with your client, keep coaching sessions short and focused.
• Ensure a good internet connection speed. Breaking voice, stuck videos and loading pauses are very disappointing and time-consuming.
• Keep your information organized in such a way that it never gets lost, and you can quickly find and access it. We recommend using the private chat on the Design League Control panel.
• Keep track of your coaching activities and work hours as explained in the answer to “How I should document my coaching work?”. You may extend or format your tracking worksheet upon your convenience, but make sure that it at least captures all the data elements present in the template.
• Record your coaching sessions upon permission of your client. This is not necessary, of course, but later you may benefit from these recordings in many ways. For recording Skype sessions, you can choose appropriate software from this list: https://support.skype.com/EN/faq/FA12395/how-can-i-record-my-skype-calls. If you want to record the session, you must always inform the person that the session will be recorded and have his/her agreement explicitly confirmed.

You will be paid for 2 hours of coaching (including the actual meetings, preparation and emailing with your coaching client). Your personal rate is a subject of negotiation based on your level of expertise and other factors. Payments will be made upon your billing report at the beginning of each month following the month of service.

To simplify things, we suggest using the same format for both keeping record of your work and reporting it. Use a simple tabular format in Excel spreadsheet

• Date
• Student name
• Start time
• End time
• Total time (minutes)
• Billable time (hours)
• Brief description of the activity or the subject(s) of discussion

While you report on your coaching work once a month, we highly recommend recording your activities every day. Usually, it takes no more than 15 minutes, but ensures that you do not forget what you did during the day. If you did not have time to record your activities at the end of the day, start the next day with it.

The decision on whether to record or not each coaching session is totally up to you and the student. It is not a requirement. However, keeping and analyzing such recordings may have many benefits. For example, you can use them to improve your coaching practice, cite in your publications, or to prepare your conference talks. In addition, you will have to have a particular amount of recorded and transcribed coaching session time if will you decide to proceed with certification as a professional coach.

Your billable time is, essentially, the one that is confirmed by your coaching student. Usually, it is a time you spend directly communicating – either on a video conference or in a message chat. If your coaching includes the substantial exchange of e-mails, you can also report the time that you spend composing and reading those e-mails.

The coaching time does not include the time that you spend on keeping your records and the time that you spend, for example, on conducting information research that may apply to other students. It also does not include the time that you spend composing some e-mails, such as the welcome e-mail and the e-mails requesting general information. To make efficient use of your time, we recommend you assemble a collection of e-mail templates, which you can reuse for multiple students.

• Starting date of the period of service – usually, the beginning of the month, unless you started later in that month
• Ending date of the period of service – usually, the last day of the month, unless your service has ended earlier
• Student name – exactly as specified on the student’s Interaction Design Foundation profile
• Spent hours – total amount of time spent on this student, including introductory interviews, planning and preparation time
• Billable hours – net billable time spent on coaching the student
• Comment – brief description of activities and subjects of discussion, as well as any other important information about your service to this student

While this is not an exhaustive list, you might be interested in reading the following.

• Coaching Questions: A Coach's Guide to Powerful Asking by Tony Stoltzfus; Coach 22 Bookstore LLC (December 8, 2013)

This book is great for coaches just starting out or for those that would like an abundance of questions. The questions are organized into specific areas of interest or niches. They are very thought provoking and we recommend that you answer the questions yourself. This way you will have a sense of what your clients will experience.

• 50 Top Tools for Coaching: A Complete Toolkit for Developing and Empowering People by Gillian Jones and Ro Gorell; Kogan Page, Second Edition (September 15, 2012)

This book serves as a great reference on professional coaching tools. It gives clarity on what processes to use when, how to use them and the types of questions to ask.

• Coaching for Breakthrough Success: Proven Techniques for Making Impossible Dreams Possible by Jack Canfield and Peter Chee; McGraw-Hill Education, 1 edition (October 19, 2012)

Written by Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach and Best Selling Author with 500 million copies sold of his book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. The book is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 covers the heart of coaching in 30 principles that explain the role and benefits of coaching. Part 2 explains situational coaching model (SCM) that covers 6 paradigms for success: goals, exploration, analysis, releasing, decision, and action. Part 3 offers many techniques for achieving benefits and overcoming barriers. You can use these techniques with a client or as a self-coaching tool if you need ways to build self-esteem or to get yourself motivated towards making action plans and finally achieving goals.

• The Completely Revised Handbook of Coaching: A Developmental Approach by Pamela McLean (Author); Jossey-Bass, 2 edition (July 23, 2012)

This compendium gives a comprehensive overview of the coaching process. It acknowledges that coaching requires a methodology to allow the coach and client to stay oriented in what can be a complicated human interaction between coach and client. Pamela McLean captures the best current thinking on what makes coaching effective, how change occurs, and the necessary skillsto become a masterful coach.

• Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique by Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry; O'Reilly Media, 1 edition (June 17, 2015)

Since you are coaching design professionals, it is important to understand how to use critique to help them strengthen their designs, products, and services. In this practical guide, authors Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry teach you techniques, tools, and a framework for helping designers to give and receive constructive critique. This book examines the good, the bad, and the ugly of feedback, and suggests strategies for dealing with difficult people and challenging situations.

• Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapyby David D. Burns M.D.; Harper Reprint edition (November 20, 2012)

This book has become a classic on cognitive therapy of depressions. Even though your coaching is not supposed to be a therapy, it will give you a rock-solid approach to overcoming limiting beliefs and emotional blocks of your coaching clients.