Services for Designers
I support designers and managers at all levels. My coaching offers support across your career journey from interview coaching to shaping a vision for your life and career. As a manager and designer at top Silicon Valley companies for over 15 years, I can help you make your current role work for you or shift your work to something new. We cannot control the length of our life but we can do something about its width and depth.
Services
Coaching: Mock Interviews, Career Strategy, Managing your manager, work/life balance, design critiques, getting un-overwhelmed
Portfolio Reviews
Onsite Presentation Reviews
Coaching Call
$100 —One on one guidance on job search, career vision, or your current role to better fit your life.
My coaching offers support for designers, emerging leaders, and managers at all levels. From landing your next job to shaping a vision for your life and career, I can bring my years of management experience to help support your next steps.
Common Coaching Topics
Getting Hired
Interview Preparation
Live Mock Interviews (Whiteboard, Presentation, Critiques)
Offer letter negotiation
Career Coaching
Managing your manager
Making work/life balance a reality
Shaping your career vision
High Growth Management
Balancing quality and speed for your team
Undoing the overwhelm
How it works
Book a time and share a bit about what’s on your mind.
We’ll meet, talk, and work through it together and decide if we should continue meeting.
I will send you an invoice via Square within 48 hours.
Portfolio Review
$100 —Personalized and actionable doc of feedback on the portfolio you send to hiring managers.
Let's make your portfolio shine!
I’ll review your portfolio site and share a personalized doc with actionable and specific feedback so your work showcases your strengths (detailed below). Use me as your thought partner you lean on during projects! With my expertise interviewing and hiring hundreds of designers at Stripe, Mailchimp, Twilio, Faire and Pivotal Labs, I'll guide you in presenting your work in the best light possible.
How it works
Submit a link for review during checkout.
I will email you an invoice via Square and detailed feedback via a Google Doc within 48 hours (excluding holidays and weekends).
That’s it! Though, folks often setup follow up consultation to talk through their next round of iteration.
Best in class Portfolios
Recruiters and Hiring Managers are looking for quality work and great storytellers. Best in class portfolios are most commonly a public website that introduces you and your work, though a Figma presentation is also acceptable. These are typically submitted along with a resume on a company’s job page or directly with a recruiter or hiring manager. I recommend dedicating one page per project and to help reviewers understand your design approach, quality of execution, and how you make tradeoffs in your design decisions. Concise storytelling and guiding the reviewer with clear imagery of your work is key. Remember your site is just as much a portfolio piece as the content.
Presentation Review
$100 —Custom and specific doc of feedback on your presentation of case studies for onsite interviews.
Let’s level up your onsite presentation.
I’ll review your presentation with a hiring manager’s eye and share a google doc of detailed feedback (detailed below). Showcasing your work is a huge undertaking and a big design project but without the typical feedback you’d get from customers or your cross-functional partners. Use me as your thought partner you lean on during projects. With my expertise interviewing and hiring hundreds of designers at Stripe, Mailchimp, Twilio, Faire and Pivotal Labs, I'll guide you in presenting your work in the best light possible.
How it works
Submit a link for review during checkout.
I will email you an invoice and detailed feedback via a Google Doc within 48 hours (excluding holidays and weekends).
That’s it! Though, folks often setup follow up consultation to talk through their next round of iteration.
Presenting your story
These interviews typically last about 45 with about 10 additional minutes for Q&A. Showcase no more than 2-3 projects of your past work. Help interviewers understand your design approach, quality of execution, and how you make tradeoffs in your design decisions. Remember your presentation is just as much a portfolio piece as the projects you’re showcasing. Though not required, 1-2 intro slides to help the audience get to know your career history and personal interests is industry standard.
Nina’s expertise and guidance helped me feel confident and prepared going into my interview. She helped me tie my case stories together in a way that transformed my presentation into a compelling narrative that not only showcased my skills but also told a story.”
Nina is a very insightful leader. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to walk her through my ideas while I was in work transition. She helped me articulate my thoughts in a clearer way and helped me probe deeper in my explanation. Her intuition and design leadership experience makes her very good at helping you get unstuck. Our conversation quickly dived deep and she dropped some mind provoking wisdom along the way. “Whatever you do you’ll end up getting more of that. So do what you love.” It was nice to feel someone understood me so well and also really cared about my success after only our first session!
Coaching with Nina
I'm your go-to ally for navigating the job market. From managing teams at Faire, Mailchimp, and Pivotal Labs to overseeing sub-brands and design systems at Mailchimp, my experience spans key tech hubs like San Francisco, New York, and Berlin.
Having been in the trenches as an individual contributor at Stripe and Twilio, and playing a pivotal role in hiring design team across organizations of all sizes I've honed the skills needed to scale hiring processes across 12+ offices worldwide. I’ve built and scaled hiring processes at most of these companies and reviewed hundreds of portfolios and interviewed designers in my time. I can bring my experience from the other side of the interviewing panel to help you showcase your strengths and craft a story that will show companies how much you have to offer.
I've reviewed hundeeds portfolios and interviewed designers throughout my career, giving me a unique vantage point to help you shine in the hiring process. Let's collaborate to craft a story that resonates with employers and showcases your strengths – making you the standout candidate in a competitive landscape.
Nina Online
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