Teacher to UX designer: A roadmap

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A starting place for those with experience in education looking to transition into UX practice.

Originally published on LinkedIn.

To be a classroom teacher is an honor, privilege, and great responsibility. It is one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs out there. We should see many more “Designer to Teacher” headlines. At the same time, I know sometimes teachers are ready to play a different role on the education team or mix it up and refresh altogether. For me, I wanted to pursue the work done behind EdTech products that so heavily influenced my own classroom.

I hesitate to put these thoughts into writing because I feel like I am only beginning my journey. I am certainly no expert and my experience in UX does not stretch into years and years of solid practice. However, at the same time, what I have experienced and sifted through may be of use for those on the precipice of a new journey. I would love to help in any way that I can.

You can think of this piece as a starting place. A roadmap skeleton of sorts that is ready to be filled out as you research and discover more things. The roadmap includes the following areas:

• Surveying the Land (Building Your Map)
• Choosing Your Study Path
• Owning a Tool
• Projects and Portfolio
• Community Support and PLN
• Staying Connected to Education
• Enjoying Today

I am writing with K-12 teachers in mind. However, this could apply to anyone with a background in education and really, any career changer out there.

The following areas are things that you should dive into more thoroughly. My hope is that this article can give you a big picture “bird’s eye” view of what you are heading out to do. Please dive deeper into the items of this article.

Where to start?

👀 Surveying the Land

Is UX and product design for you? What is it like to work in this career? Before fully diving into your pursuit, it is a good idea to get a general sense for what this is all about.

WARNING: As soon as you start searching and clicking, those ads will mysteriously start popping up. The UX Bootcamp package of your dreams will appear in your Instagram. I like to encourage people to wait at least one month if possible before purchasing anything. I have a couple reasons in mind.

• You may find out from some free resources that this is not what you want to pursue.
• You might find out that you have learned enough about this area that you want to drive your learning in a different direction than a well marketed bootcamp. (More on this later.)

So this will be fun. Take a month diving into UX. You will be happy to find the open-source material out there is deep and wide. I’m not affiliated with any of these, but some interesting places to look include:

• Free, self-guided class by UX Collective
• A comprehensive list of UX design methods and deliverables
• Google Primer App: UX Mini-Course
• Google UX Design Specialization on Coursera (which can be audited for free)
• Interaction Design Foundation has a lot of free literature.
• Blogs and webinars. Search Medium and YouTube for days-in-the-life. Again, FYI the ads and funnels will start coming.
• Bootcamps often offer free email courses, blogs, and webinars to introduce UX. These are interesting and don’t feel compelled to talk to a recruiter immediately or buy anything yet. Just lookin’ and learnin’ here!

I will note that taking a month here is a win-win. Yes, it may help you decide on a new pursuit. But design thinking and empathic approaches can enhance just about any other industry. As a teacher, you may find that it totally upends your approach to the classroom. Win-win.

August 2022 Update: I am not affiliated but I would also recommend the following options. Though they are not free, they are affordable.

• Shift Nudge: An excellent visual design and user interface course
• Memorisely Courses: Small cohorts with live teaching and great completion rates
• Figma Academy: Not a beginners course but will really help you level up if you know the basics already

📘 Your Study Path

So once you’ve got a lay of the land, you may want to move forward in studying UX in some kind of way. Maybe it will lead to a more research focused path, design focused, or even swerving into product management or your own entrepreneurial idea. You aren’t sure yet but you want to study further. There are typically three main routes or some hybrid of them.

• University
• Bootcamp
• Self-taught

Let me immediately state several things on this sometimes controversial topic.

• This section could be book length.
• I know people from all approaches who have succeeded.
• Different people have different learning needs, as a teacher would know.
• Veteran practitioners, employers, professors, etc. do not seem to come to a consensus on what learning route they want from newcomers. (There is consensus on some other things they want but more on that later.)

You are an educator. In some important ways, you are a learning expert. I am confident that you will be able to assess yourself and determine what route would be best for you. How do you decide? Research and self-assessment.

• Medium, YouTube, and Reddit. There are loads and LOADS and loads of reviews. Say what you want about Medium, but there are tons of diamonds in there.
• When people ask for advice I usually point them here. 👉 Some of my best advice is to listen to someone else, haha! I have conducted podcast interviews of former teachers who transitioned into UX with a specific focus on EdTech. At this point, I think I have spoken with people from all the main bootcamps and some university-taught. I have talked with seasoned practitioners in this environment and it truly is insightful to listen in to their story and work.
• Perhaps, reach out to a recent “grad” from the route you are most considering (only after you do the work of research and it wouldn’t hurt to go over best practices for cold messaging).

A quick note on bootcamps. In case you are taking this journey more solo, alone on the computer, falling into the marketing funnels made by design, let me say something you may not hear often. You can be successful without a bootcamp. You don’t have to take this route to make it. Their website will not criticize itself, so do research on the reviews. That being said, you can be successful with the bootcamp. It might be the perfect route for you. I know others where it has been for them. There are some brilliant instructors and mentors at bootcamps. Confused?

An extra note on the “self-taught” route. It is a bit of misnomer because what do we have that was not given to us, really? But piecing together a curriculum is doable. Finding mentors and your own cohorts is doable. Going out and getting experience and making capstone projects and getting feedback and correction… it is all doable. It is possible to make all of this happen in a nonconventional way. People have shared their guts all over Medium on how they went about this.

Now that I think about it. Who better to make their own curriculum and piece together all the important hands-on tasks of learning than a teacher? (BTW, if you stay a teacher, be proud. Teachers are some of the best out there.)

I am trying to say the things that I didn’t hear as often. I know we love to hear clear-cut answers on important things like these. The best I can say is to give yourself some time to do the research and do what is best for you and your priorities.

It should also be emphasized that the learning never stops. Even if you study and train in the most robust manner, you really are never finished. It takes years to build up experience and skill and really there are always new problems and waves that will surface.

🔨 Own a Tool

Jump in! Don’t need to wait a month to do this either. The world of learning is glorious right now in that you can find all the tutorials you need on the internet. If you want something specific, pick up Figma and dive into YouTube tutorials and make some stuff! It should be noted UX is not just for digital products, but if that is what you are looking into, get after it.

Dive into some of the design methods and deliverables listed in the links above.

[Aside: I am a Figma Community Advocate for Educators. Again, maybe you won’t transition into UX but will take some of what you learned back to the classroom. Maybe you are a UX practitioner and additionally want to teach design or any subject more creatively, collaboratively, and foster more engagement. Secondary teachers included. Reach out if that is you. Would love to learn from you and collaborate.]

💼 Projects & Portfolio Immediately

This is the fun stuff! Try to do the work. It is okay if it is not great because you will learn from it. We like to say “fail fast!” Don’t do work in a silo but get feedback. If you took the “self-taught” route, you will need to arrange feedback from those ahead of you. As teachers, this is a great time to practice what we preach on “growth mindset.”

What do most employers care more about than your educational path?

• Portfolio
• Experience

I am just summarizing the many interviews, 1x1’s, and reviews I have read about the job hunting and job interview process. Again, research how to put together a portfolio. Look up UX case studies. Consider past experiences and the problems you have faced. For me, I took a lot of time considering the problems I encountered using EdTech tools in the classroom.

🔺 Community Support & Network (PLN)

As you begin this journey, try to identify someone in your life who can be your champion and cheer you on. Most likely, there will be some major highs and lows in this journey. One moment you are feeling like you are on a good track, the next you might feel like a heap of awful. It is helpful to have someone safe in your corner who cares about your overall well being.

By community support, I mean that person or people that will help you in your journey and who cares about the YOU beyond your career. For me, my faith and my husband played a key role in helping me see all of this was possible when I had my biggest doubts. Our evening walks often consisted of me unpacking my highs, lows, and ever-flowing ideas for the future. At the time, my baby boy on the way was also a huge factor and continues to be today. More on my story another time. Point being, finding your support will help you and will allow someone else the rewarding experience of helping and serving. Expect difficulty to come. Hence, support needed.

Secondly, in my little opinion, your professional learning network (PLN) also seems to be crucial for growing and finding work in this WFH world. As I write this, many are still on pandemic lockdown. The world has shifted to being much more open to WFH long term or permanently, and this means you may have more opportunities to get connected with others who you may not have normally had access to prior.

Take some time to research do’s and don’ts of cold messages and approaches. There are lots of articles and people sharing how to get more connected on LinkedIn and other places. For some this comes more naturally and for others, I just wanted to gently nudge you. You really should get on this.

🍎 Don’t Have to Say Goodbye to Education

I have come across a lot of teachers that want to specialize in education products in their transition. I resonate with that and have come to see it like playing a different role on the education team. I know for me personally, I didn’t want to leave the education realm. We all know products heavily influence what is done in the classroom. It also seems like an ideal situation for a former teacher who used that company’s product in the classroom would then transition and work on the other side of it. It can be a little bit of a fantasy but also a real possibility. I think there are some pros and cons to this approach.

The pros of niching down could be that it allows you to specialize and stand out in some manner. It may narrow your focus and network. It could be a great entryway into the field and you can move laterally across industries later if desired.

A con can be that it is hard to specialize in the beginning. Some argue that honestly, you are a generalist as you first learn. For example, you may be learning and practicing both design and research. You will notice that usually job titles specify between the two and expect different things, especially at larger companies.

Another con may be that by niching down you narrow your job market significantly. If you limit yourself to EdTech roles, there are simply less roles to be had.

Another approach could be that you look for companies that seem like they are doing good design work, no matter the industry. You can learn a ton from the experience and maybe make your way back into the education realm later.

There is no one best route here and you will find people with a variety of stories.

😊 Enjoy Your Kiddos

As you are considering this whole road and perhaps pursuing it, you may still be teaching. Enjoy being with students. Depending on your role in the future, there is a likelihood that close interaction with students will be much harder to come by and you might miss it. The jury is out on whether there is something as rewarding as being a teacher.

Maybe you can find ways to stay connected to classrooms in the future. But enjoy today as well.

🐦 Bird’s Eye View

Hopefully, there is something helpful here for you to consider as you approach this whole topic. It can be overwhelming and so I thought it might be helpful to share a bird’s eye view and outline you can fill out based on your priorities and situation.

This could be a book series and every one of these topics needs more research from you. I am rooting for you!

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👉 Let’s connect!

👉 I also have a short 1-week email series that explores UX in education from different angles. It is basically a round-up of some resources in this space. It is a work-in-progress but feel free to try it out and give feedback. If I find additional resources, I will send them your way.