Apr 21, 2023

Noam Segal: How teaching a course can accelerate your career

By Wes Kao

Co-founder of Maven

Summary

Noam Segal led UX research at Meta, Twitter, Intercom, and Airbnb. Discover how teaching boosted his career, made him a better leader, and provided an additional income stream.

Noam Segal’s track record is impressive: UX researcher at Meta, Twitter, Airbnb, Wealthfront, Intercom, and he has a PhD in Psychology. He continues to create momentum in his career by doing this:

In October 2021, Noam launched his course, Missing Foundations of UX Research, to teach research storytelling. Noam recognized there were gaps in traditional education when it came to UX research. Junior researchers were well-trained on the technical research methodologies, but weren’t able to persuasively communicate their findings.

He saw an opportunity to teach this skill. And teaching led to surprising results:

Noam himself became a better manager, coach, and leader at his full-time job
Pushed the boundaries of his craft by questioning best practices
Earns $50,000/year teaching on the internet

Noam says teaching is the ultimate career booster. It transformed the way he showed up at work. It forced him to constantly learn. And it elevated him as a professional.

Key takeaways from Noam’s story:

1. Develop your spiky point of view. For example, Noam hates NPS and thinks it’s useless. (Don’t worry, he suggests alternatives). This makes prospective students perk up and attracts others who think, “Finally, someone who thinks this way too.” Ask yourself: What’s something you believe about your area of expertise that others might disagree with? What do you wish more people in your industry understood?

I have no shortage of spiky points of view. For example, I am very much opposed to TL;DR. When we use it, we're not leveraging well-known mechanisms to capture people's attention.

2. Build what you wish you had years ago. Teaching is an incredible financial opportunity because you get to craft the business you want. You get to set your own agenda, and you get to build the course you've been dreaming of. For a growing number of in-house operators, teaching is a path to more impact and more freedom.

Teaching on Maven is an incredible financial opportunity. You get to set your own agenda and build the courses that you've been dreaming of.

3. Practice explaining your ideas to others. Teaching forces you to learn more deeply. Noam has considered himself a teacher all of his life, and chances are, you’ve already taught in different forms, including informally. Mentoring, coaching, and teaching allow you to amplify your influence beyond your immediate sphere–and impact the next generation in your field.

Teaching on Maven has made me a better manager, mentor, coach, peer, researcher, and research thinker. That's what teaching does to you. It levels you up on every single aspect of your work.

PS If you work full-time, teaching a course is an additional income stream and helps you accelerator your career. Noam graduated from the Maven Course Accelerator, a free 3-week program on how to build a successful course.

Enroll here (it’s free)

When you start earning on Maven, you keep 90% of your course revenue minus Stripe fees. On average, instructors earn $20,000 in their first cohort. Plus, you own your IP and content. Our goal is to help you launch and grow a course you’re proud of.