The org chart isn’t what it used to be. As hierarchies flatten and teams are stretched thin, the traditional mentorship model (where wisdom flows from senior to junior) is shifting.

Maybe you find yourself as the most senior person in your function, surrounded by brilliant colleagues who work in completely different disciplines. Or maybe you’re managing a team while still figuring out your own career trajectory. The old playbook of “find a mentor who’s two levels above you” doesn’t apply when there are only three levels total.

We spoke with three product professionals navigating these workplace realities to gain a deeper understanding of what mentorship looks like today. From their perspective, mentorship isn’t disappearing. It just takes a little creativity to find these days.

Their stories show that finding mentorship requires intention and a willingness to look beyond your immediate team. And those who crack the code on developing in a community with a mentor, despite flat, resource-constrained environments, see higher job satisfaction and better retention.

A great mentor understands your why

If you’re lucky enough to have a manager with expertise in your discipline, managers can be a great source of mentorship, but according to Brittany Lang, UX Research Manager and proud mentor, growing talent can be an overlooked aspect of management. “ I think a lot of times there’s just not a lot of energy put into growing people,” says Brittany. “It’s extra effort, but it’s important if you wanna keep people.”

For Brittany, her approach to growing people starts with understanding their “why.”

“It's the most important thing to do as a research leader—to understand who my people are and what they want out of this job.”

Understanding her team members’ driving purpose helps her keep her team motivated to cross the finish line.

“If I'm asking them to do something and I can't give them an explanation of why or how it connects to those goals they have and their ‘why,’ then I'm losing them—and they're losing out. It's a lose-lose, and it should be a win-win situation.”

Beyond understanding their why, Brittany ensures that each team member has had opportunities to grow by keeping track of what they've accomplished and what they still need to do. It’s a part of how she keeps her team motivated. And the way she sees it, when her team is intrinsically motivated to do the work, it’s mutually beneficial to the company and the employee. “That's the dream,” she says.

Manager ≠ mentor

Not everyone is so lucky to have a manager like Brittany.

Sumita Paulson, UX Designer & Strategist, who has been both a mentor and a mentee throughout her 15-year career, says not all managers are mentors. “In a period of 15 years, I’ve only had two real mentors,” says Sumita.

Sumita notes that while it might be your manager's job to make sure you have work, “they don’t always make it their job to make sure it’s rewarding and tee you up for your next big success.” Whether due to the time pressures of their role or the lack of organizational structure to support it, managers don’t always see it as their job to tend to their employees’ careers.

“It’s not often that you find someone who aligns with your goals and wants to help you get there. A mentor is someone who is first amenable to and interested in helping you grow, then takes a proactive role.”

Sumita has found that managers who have taken a proactive approach understanding her goals and interests are the ones who created fertile ground for a mentor-mentee relationship. “Being interested in you as a person is the key thing.”

To spot a potential mentor, Sumita advises paying attention to who shows earnest interest in your goals.

“If they’re asking broader and more intentional questions beyond the job, that’s a sign that they want to get a better sense of who someone is as a person and what is interesting to them. They are starting to invest in your story.”

Mentorship can come from anywhere

Managers sometimes demonstrate a willingness to mentor. But where should you look for mentorship if your organization is relatively flat?

At one startup, Data Analyst and UX Researcher Anton Krotov was the sole research expert among a team of experts, without a research manager. “I was working with people outside of my field completely. So I was a senior person, and there was nobody else with a more senior expertise to ask advice from.”

Anton found himself as the sole researcher among a team of extremely talented and senior colleagues whom he needed to confidently serve—developers, product managers, designers, etc. That’s when he embarked on finding mentors outside of his company.

He leveraged outside mentors to help him upskill on new methodologies related to his role and to understand the ethical considerations of working with children.

“When I started to work with educational products oriented for very early school-aged kids, like primary school kids, I needed to do some in-person research, like focus groups. But I came with experience mostly in usability studies with adult people who articulate their wants and needs very differently. So what I needed to do was to find an anthropologist-slash-psychologist who was working with kids and could really explain to me how to do that right.”

Key to that relationship's success was working with a mentor who gave him homework, which Anton explained “could expand their value beyond our 30-minute time slot.” The value went beyond education and included accountability and reflection.

“That real value person-to-person mentorship gives to you is reinforcement. You come back to your mentor, bringing the results of your first try, second try, and you discuss that. That is the most valuable tool in upskilling.

I haven't found anything yet that would've beaten mentorship in terms of result, return on investment, confidence, and the feedback of my colleagues who saw me now more capable than before.”

Making mentorship work—in any org structure

Whether you're a manager looking to develop your team or an individual contributor seeking growth, mentorship might mean finding creative places to establish and develop relationships.

Mentorship doesn't have to look like the traditional model. It can be cross-functional, external, or even peer-to-peer. What matters is the intentionality behind the relationship and the commitment to growth on both sides.

Developing talent isn't just about individual growth; it's about organizational resilience. As Brittany noted, when team members are intrinsically motivated and growing in their roles, everyone wins.