Paire

Collaborative craft mentorship for solo designers

This is your time

Solo designing is a perfect recipe for stunted growth and burnout. Back in the day, designers worked together in creative studios. You could start as an apprentice and get humbled by a critique from the pros. Today, feedback comes in as async comments, often with little context, and no peers to jam with.

I built this mentorship program for designers who want level up their skills with a seasoned designer in their corner. Someone who has been through the trenches and cares about you.

Paire is grounded in hands on-work. We’ll focus on getting in the file, refining your craft, and developing you as a leader. You’ll see your progress in real time, aligned directly to your growth as a designer and leader. Let’s paire.

Meet your mentor

Nina Mehta designed and led teams at early Stripe, Mailchimp, Twilio, and Pivotal Labs in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia. As the founder of Bitteschön Studio, she specializes in building design teams from the ground up and developing talent inside high-growth startups. She is focused on advising founders, coaching designers, and recently worked with Designer Fund, a premier design-first investment firm. Nina lives in Brooklyn where she is training to be a licensed psychoanalyst.

What you get

We’ll roll up our sleeves and work on whatever’s in flight right now. Over time we’ll build a shared context to level up your craft and shape your career trajectory.

  • 1:1 Craft Sessions Weekly sessions focused on the work through critique, design pairing, or white boarding directly in the design tools. You set the agenda, together we critique, sketch, design something new, and advance your craft.

  • 1:1 Growth Sessions Every ~6 weeks zoom out on your development as a designer and leader on a career track. We’ll we’ll work through challenges and growth opportunities like you might with a design manager.

  • Continuous Insights Expect warm, honest, and highly contextual feedback. We’ll connect your daily decisions to long-term impact, performance, better sleep, and overall well-being.

My work offers guidance for folks who typically work in the Design Org, especially emerging leaders and new managers.

  • Solo designers, founding designers, or emerging design leaders

  • Designers working embedded in startups without a full design org

  • Writers, product managers, engineers, and other folks who want to develop their craft, leadership, and careers in-the-file (or code!)

Who it’s for

Ready to get started?

Book a free 25-minute session with Nina to vibe check our chemistry and outline focus areas or write to her at nina@bitteschon.co.