15 years of design mentorship experience, distilled into 100 Q&A entries covering portfolios, career navigation, collaboration, leadership, and navigating the design industry.
No gatekeeping. No $200 coffee chats. Just frameworks, honest advice, and practical guidance.
Pick the mode that works for you:
Read the knowledge base directly
Perfect for: Skimming topics, searching specific questions, understanding the structure
Chat with AskJoyline - no setup required
Perfect for: Quick questions, tactical advice, getting unstuck fast
- One-click access: poe.com/AskJoyline
- Free tier: ~28 messages/day
- Powered by Claude Haiku 4.5
- Good for: "How do I write a handoff doc?", "Should I specialize?", "Portfolio tips?"
Deep coaching in your own Claude Project
Perfect for: Ongoing conversations, personal context, multiturn coaching
- Requires: Claude Pro subscription
- Setup time: ~5 minutes
- Uses: Claude Sonnet/Opus (better quality, unlimited messages)
- Good for: Career transitions, stakeholder challenges, ongoing growth
The real thing
Perfect for: Bringing your own reflection and context into a real conversation
- Requires: Signing up for coffee chat
- Availability: 30 minutes once a week (strictest usage limit)
- Good for: Situations where you've already done the thinking and need a real conversation to go deeper. Bonus points if you've already used Joyline to think it through — that's what makes the 30 minutes count.
100 curated Q&A entries organized into themes:
- Career Navigation - Transitions, promotions, growth paths
- Mindset & Growth - Burnout, resilience, learning
- Portfolio & Interviewing - Case studies, presentations, interview prep
- Collaboration & Influence - Working with PMs/engineers, stakeholder management
- Industry & Trends - AI, tools, market shifts
- Design Strategy & Vision - Roadmaps, trade-offs, defending decisions
- Org Design & Ops - Team structure, reviews, succession planning
Each entry follows this structure:
- Context - Why people ask this question
- Reframe - What the real question is
- Lesson hook - The principle or mindset shift
- Answer - Frameworks, examples, level-specific guidance
- Lesson - Explicit takeaway you can apply
- Junior designers navigating their first few years
- Career changers transitioning into design
- Mid-level designers trying to level up
- Senior designers considering leadership
- Anyone wondering if UX is right for them
This is mentorship guidance, not:
- Therapy or medical advice
- Professional career coaching for specific workplace situations
- Resume writing or portfolio reviews
- Promises of job outcomes
- Job referrals
5-minute setup:
- Sign up for Claude Pro ($20/month)
- Create a new Project in Claude
- Copy the contents of SKILL.md into the Project's custom instructions
- Upload knowledgebase.md as Project knowledge
- Start asking questions!
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
What this means:
- ✅ Use it freely (personal, educational, commercial)
- ✅ Modify and adapt it for your needs
- ✅ Build tools and products with it
⚠️ You must credit Joy Liu and link back to this repo⚠️ Derivative works must use the same license
In plain English: Don't be a jerk. If this helped you, say so. If you build on it, share back with the community. Don't copy and pretend you made this.
If this helped you land an interview, feel confident in a tough conversation, or navigate a career decision—let me know. That's the biggest reward.
- Submit feedback: Via this form
- Drop a comment on LinkedIn
- Star this repo ⭐ if you found it useful
- Open-sourced full knowledge base
- Published Claude Skill setup (Pro Mode)
Made with ☕ and 15 years of design experience