menTOR

A mobile application connecting student mentees with their dream mentor. With a focus on personal compatibility and goal alignment, menTOR empowers students to find meaningful career mentorship.

My Role

User Research
Usability Testing
Prototyping
Wireframing

Team

Alexis Zhang
Jessica Tucker
Sriteja Erra
Yvonne Zhan

Tools

Figma
Balsamiq
Mural

Timeline

3 months
// THE PROBLEM

access to mentorship

8 out of 10 prospective mentees find it difficult to access career mentorship. University students often struggle to find mentors that are aligned with them personally and professionally. How might we improve access to career mentorship and facilitate more compatible relationships between mentees and mentors?
// USER RESEARCH

survey + interviews

We surveyed 38 university students and conducted 8 semi-structured interviews. Participants included prospective mentees, current mentees, and current mentors. This data was used to understand the challenges faced with accessing career mentorship.

key findings

  • Searching for mentorship is frustrating.
    56% of mentees cited awareness of opportunities and lack of personal connections as challenges to finding mentorship.

  • Personal compatibility is essential.
    96% of mentees highly value personal compatibility with their mentors.
    It is a major factor in both mentor selection and mentorship satisfaction.

  • Misaligned expectations leads to disappointment.
    57% of mentees are concerned about having misaligned expectations w/ mentors and can often be the reason why mentorship ends.

creating the persona

The qualitative and quantitative data collected was synthesized into a persona to illustrate the story of a representative user for our future solution.

journey maps

Using our research findings, we mapped out our persona's current reality to break down how users seek mentorship and identify the key pain points. After mapping our the current as-is scenario, we reimagined what the future could be if we addressed our user's pain points.

reframing the problem

With our knowledge of the current reality, we reframed our understanding of access to mentorship. Access exists at the intersection of compatibility and availability.

Because of this, mentees need a unified place to access available opportunities that account for their goals, personality, and interests.

// IDEATION

ideation + prioritization

After identifying the pain points and needs, we started to ideate. Each idea was evaluated by its impact on the user and the feasibility of its implementation. We settled on ideas 1, 2, and 3.
// USER FLOWS
developing
user flows
(Finding a mentor from "My profile")
(Scheduling a meeting and creating an agenda)

// USABILITY TESTING

formative evaluation

Conducted 5 usability tests with UofT students who were prospective mentees interested in career mentorship. This was done to obtain insights on the initial solution and inform our iterations as we moved into high-fidelity prototypes. Here were our key insights:

  • Create profile depth.
    Users wanted to show off their skillsets and interests beyond written descriptions.

  • Use labels that reflect functionality.
    Users frequently mentioned that the "Home" label did not clearly represent its function of browsing for mentors.

  • Simplify workflows.
    At times, users were frustrated with the length of time it took for them to schedule a meeting with their mentors due to overcomplicated agenda creation.

iterations

Based off of our usability testing findings we refined our designs to the following screens. We have highlighted key changes to the following screens below:

// THE SOLUTION
menTOR
menTOR is a mobile app that matches university students with their dream career mentors. The goals of our solution were to achieve the following:
  • A single platform to connect.
    Eliminate the need to scavenge social media and school websites for mentorship opportunities. menTOR provides a list of industry mentors curated to mentee interests.
  • Facilitate the perfect match.
    Empower users to express who they are, what they do, and what they are trying to achieve. Once both parties have agreed to a match, each person will have a deeper understanding of the other and what future interactions might be like.
  • Make the most out of mentorship.
    Create discussions that are intentional through enabling mentees to proactively plan mentorship discussions. This way, mentors can ensure that discussion are aligned with the needs of the mentee.

// THE SOLUTION

introducing menTOR

menTOR is a mobile application connecting student mentees with their dream mentor. It is a unified platform to connect with a curated selection of mentors. menTOR empowers users to share their unique stories, interests, and work to facilitate more meaningful and compatible mentorship relationships.

project goals

A unified platform for mentorship
56% of prospective mentees cited lack of personal connections and awareness of opportunities as a barrier to finding mentors. Creating a unified platform will make it easier for mentees to access relevant opportunities.

Facilitate compatibility
96% of prospective mentees are worried about personal compatibility with their mentor. Our product needs to focus on providing both parties insight into potential compatibility and support them in aligning on mentorship outcomes.

Make the most out of mentorship
Mentees don't always know the right questions to ask. We wanted to create a way to support users in making the most out of their mentorship experiences.

Compatibility-Focused Profiles

Profiles focus on facilitating compatibility through prompting users to share about who they are, what they are looking for, and their interests.

  • Profile videos enable users to provide and receive greater insight into personalities beyond just written descriptions.

  • Creative writing prompts support users in sharing their personal stories, interests, and aspirations.

  • "My Work" enables users to showcase their skills / interests.

Curated Mentorship

menTOR's mentor curation and matching system is promotes mutual alignment of goals and personalities before committing to a match.

  • Curated list of mentors based on editable interests increases accessibility of relevant mentorship opportunities.

  • Mentorship profiles support users in sharing their personal stories, interests, and aspirations.

  • Mutual matching ensures both parties feel aligned on their outlook for mentorship and potential compatibility.

Virtual Meeting Assistant

menTOR offers seamless assistance with meeting creation. This way, both parties can come prepared to engage in meaningful discussions.

  • Integrated scheduling allows mentees to instantly see mentor's availability after matching and schedule a session.

  • Agenda creation supports users in planning their session so that both parties are prepared to make the most out of the session.

// SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
validating the solution
I conducted 3 usability tests with UofT students interested in career mentorship to perform a summative evaluation of our designed solution.
What did users like?
  • Informed decision making.
    3 out of 3 users commented that menTOR would increase the effectiveness of finding compatible career mentors.
  • Guidance and support.
    2 out of 3 users felt that menTOR's ease of scheduling and assistance with creating an agenda would help them to get more out of mentorship.
What could be improved?
  • Emphasize the importance of videos.
    3 out of 3 users would be hesitant to record a video for their profile. Highlighting the impact of videos could encourage video creation
  • Explore mentor incentives.
    ‍    Users brought up concerns around how mentors would be incentivized to participate in menTOR. As a two-party service, exploring how to motivate mentor participation and onboarding is critical.

// KEY TAKEAWAYS

lessons learned

  1. Test designs with users throughout the design process.
    Usability test as much as possible to continuously validate and optimize the solution.
  2. Products are not released in a vacuum, they exist within an established ecosystem.
    Always consider the technical and cultural landscape in which a product will exist.
  3. Do not take user suggestions at face value.
    It is essential to distil the root cause of user feedback before continuing to iterate.