Mentorship from Anywhere

Mentors can be anyone—investors, employees, people you mentor, even interns—stay ready to learn

Dylan Field
Figma's CEO: Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups

Mentorship from Anywhere

"Mentors can come from anywhere. It can come from the community, all of you. Mentorship can come from the people you hire. It can come from folks that you actively seek out as investors or explicit mentorship and mentors. It can come from people that call themselves coaches. And what's interesting too is it can come from people you mentor as well." - Dylan Field

What It Is

A mindset that expands the definition of mentorship beyond traditional hierarchical relationships. Rather than seeking a single senior mentor, you remain open to learning from anyone in your network—including people junior to you.

Dylan Field went from being an intern at three companies to running a thousand-person organization. His learning came from everywhere: investors, employees, coaches, the community, and even the people he mentors.

How It Works

Sources of Mentorship:

  1. Traditional mentors - Senior people with more experience in your domain
  2. Investors - People with pattern-matching across many companies
  3. Coaches - Professionals focused on your development
  4. Employees you hire - People bring expertise you don't have
  5. The community - Users, customers, and industry peers
  6. People you mentor - The mentoring relationship flows both ways
  7. Interns and junior employees - Fresh perspectives and new approaches

The Reversal Effect:

Dylan notes a specific pattern: you give someone advice, they apply it, years pass, and then they teach you something new:

  • They repeat back advice you gave them (reminding you of your own wisdom)
  • They've grown and developed new frameworks you haven't seen
  • They've encountered situations you haven't

How to Apply It

  1. Stay in ready mode - "You really have to have a ready mindset and just always be ready to absorb new information." Active receptivity enables learning.

  2. Let go of hierarchy - Don't discount insights based on the source's seniority or role. New founders taught Dylan things he'd "never thought about."

  3. Create learning structures - Dylan built early Figma relationships by doing user research with designers, not just selling. Each conversation was a chance to learn.

  4. Make mentoring bidirectional - When mentoring others, stay curious about what they can teach you. The relationship isn't one-directional.

  5. Reach out to heroes - "Reaching out to your hero sometimes works." Dylan cold-emailed designers whose work he admired. Many said yes and became mentors.

Examples from Dylan's Journey

  • Tim Van Damme - Started as a designer Dylan was "fanboy" tracing icons from Dribbble. Dylan reached out, learned from him, and eventually Tim joined Figma.
  • Payam - Provided extensive feedback through a user research session (with a bottle of wine due to slow text editing)
  • Shishir Mehrotra (Coda founder) - Has been "a mentor for a long time to me and many people on our team"
  • New founders - "A lot of times when I talk with new founders, they teach me things that are totally things that I've just never thought about"

When to Use It

  • When you feel you've "graduated" from needing mentors
  • When building your professional network
  • When hiring people who seem intimidatingly talented
  • When mentoring others and wondering what you get from it
  • When feeling stuck in your learning

Source

  • Guest: Dylan Field
  • Episode: "Figma's CEO: Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups"
  • Key Discussion: (39:51) - How Dylan has learned and scaled as a leader through mentorship from many sources
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

Back to Career