Mentorships

Sign-up to be a mentee and/or mentor by clicking the link above - The application form will be continually available, however, the Fall Cohort applications close September 10, 2024.

Whether you sign up as a mentor or mentee, the mentorship program is designed to help you grow in your career and learn from others in the community. As a mentor you’ll have the opportunity to help the next generation of product professionals grow and develop, and contribute to strengthening the Product Hive community. Many mentors also report they’ve learned valuable insights from their mentees through their conversations and questions. If you’re being mentored, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from someone with real world experience, and who can help you reach your goals with relevant insights and advice

The Product Hive Mentorship program doesn’t work without mentors! If you’re early in your career you might think you don’t have enough experience to be a mentor. However, the most effective mentorships happen when a mentee is paired with a mentor who is just a few steps ahead of them in their career. This ensures that the mentor can relate to the mentee, and can draw on recent experience to help their mentee get to the next step in their career. The most important skills you need to be a good mentor is the ability to listen, and to ask questions. We encourage anyone who is interested in helping others grow in their career to sign up to be a mentor. We will match you appropriately, based on your role and experience.

The mentee is responsible for showing up prepared and ready. Mentees are responsible for reaching out to the mentor to schedule sessions, for thinking through what they want to accomplish over the course of the cohort, and for being proactive in helping their mentor help them reach their goals. The mentor is responsible for making themselves available at least every other week to meet with their mentee, whether that be over a call or a face to face meeting. The mentor commits to being attentive, present and supportive during each session

For each cohort, our volunteer Mentorship team evaluates mentor/mentee applications based on the information provided in the signup forms. Accepted mentees will be granted access to view available mentors. Mentees will then be able to browse and request to be mentored by the available mentors. Mentors will be able to see the mentees who have requested mentorship and then decide whether there is a good match. Mentors and Mentees will be limited to a pairing in order to maintain focused attention with the mentee.

Mentors are the heart of this program. Our volunteer team works to be available with support and resources for our mentors. We share a number of resources upon signing up as a mentor, and there is a Slack channel (#mentor) in the Product Hive workspace where you can ask questions and get help. If you have additional resources you feel would be helpful, we would love to see them and possibly share them with the group!

The Product Hive Mentorship Program is free. No financial remuneration should be requested/suggested by mentors, nor should it be offered by mentees. This is an entirely altruistic endeavor, in support of changing the world through personal connections, building meaningful relationships, and accelerating individual professional growth.