Mona Patel, the CEO and founder of Motivate Design, barely had the confidence to call herself a designer in the beginning of her career. Early on, Patel worked in the fields of engineering and psychology, then became the VP of Human Factors International, the world’s largest company specializing in user experience (UX) design.
But while she was doing research and translating those insights into innovative solutions using concept sketches, it took her some time to truly identify herself as a designer. “I think design has been branded as a really scary field,” she says. “You know you’re born “creative” or you’re born artistic. But for me, we were taught if you’re not singing you’re not going to be a singer, or if you’re not painting you’re not going to be a painter. Oh, and by the way if you can’t do those things, you’re not creative.”As Patel continued to unpack what design meant, she called it problem solving creatively. She found results through her sketches that attracted clients, thus increasing her confidence. She had a knack for mentorship and started teaching at Parsons School of Design to show young creatives how to truly understand business and design problems, and to think outside the box to develop effective solutions. She realized if she was going to be teaching at a design school, she had to be a designer. Then she thought, “Well, if I’m a designer, why don’t I design a company?”
Motivate Design was founded in 2009 as a user experience research design company. Two years later, Patel introduced UX Hires, Motivate’s staffing shop. Patel has led her team to work with clients such as MTV, Capital One, Carter’s, and Citi Bank. She has also written Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think, an Amazon best-selling book.
We sat down with Patel to discuss how she made the leap from designer entrepreneur to CEO, transitioned from designing products to designing teams, and how she deals with people in the industry mistaking her success for her husband’s.
You were VP at Human Factors International and Research Scientist at American Institutes for Research before founding Motivate Design in 2009. How and when did you know you wanted to build your own company?
When I had a prospective. A great company is one where you’ve identified the problem and are committed to coming up with a solution. A lot of times people look at it like: I have the solution, let me find the problem. I think when you see the problem and you decide, “I want to commit my work to doing that,” you’re starting a company.
How did you make the leap from designer entrepreneur to CEO?
I left my position at HFI and then I started freelancing as a designer and user experience strategist. I added a few more strategists to my team and then I was pregnant. A lot of people have this misconception that after you have children it’s going to be harder for you to work. I found that it was…
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