Assist Pro
A Mentor and Mentee experience
Project Timeline:
1 month: May 2020
Project Typology:
A passion project
Project Focus:
The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework for design
Mentee uploads a goal to be matched with the perfect mentor
Mentors will accept the mentee requests depending on skill sets, expertise and goals
Mentee schedules an introductory session with the mentor based on availability.
Mentor mutually prepares agenda for future meetings and ensures progress.
Join learning groups and attend meetups for a peer-to-peer mentorship experience
What story is data telling us?
70%
of fortune, 500 companies offer mentoring programs.
No evidence of impact
50%
responded they were mentored. Only 25% were formally assigned. Most organically.
Marginal mentoring
Mediocre mentoring: The majority of Mentors in a formal setup are too busy, disinterested, dysfunctional, and lack competence. Mentorship is often seen as ad-on duty and a thankless distraction from actual work leading to pay and advancement.
Harvard Business Review
Design Sprint
Personas
Mentors
Team Leader
Leaders and Managers within orgs who take up charge for career growth of reportees. Org mandate.
1:1 sessions, Group Discussions
Emails, Internal meetings
Achiever Pal
A friend/acquaintance who is looked upon for career advice. Friendly conversations. Comfortable to share goals. Informal.
1:1 sessions
Linkedin, Facebook
Knowledge Creators
Self-motivated individuals who are excited to share knowledge with wider audience audience and get recognition. Increase circle of influence and expand their network. Empathize deeply with audience.
Webinars, Podcasts, Blogs, 1:1 sessions
Linkedin, medium, Conferences, workshops
Professional Mentor
A leader interested in setting up subject matter expertise for social and financial gains (fair for their time spent). Structured
Webinars, GD, 1:1 sessions
Linkedin, airmeet, hellomeet
Mentees
Navigators
Experienced professionals who know how to leverage their network to advance in their careers
1:1 sessions, Group Discussions
Emails, Internal meetings, Linkedin, conferences
Shy Seekers
Professionals who feel awkward in initiating conversations with potential mentors and struggle to drill down on their goals
1:1 sessions
Linkedin, Facebook
BOOST Mentors
encourages - openess to change, innovation and risk taking. making leaders out of employees
CRUISE Mentors
Cruise team ensure mentees work become widely recognized, mentee is on track for promotion.
LAUNCH Mentor
help launch a mentee’s career by making sure that he or she meets short-term milestones.
What are those Individual Goals?
JTBDs - Jobs to be done framework
How does a mentor and mentee think to achieve it?
Mind Map
Assumptions & Constraints
Who are we solving for?
Mentors: Team leader & Knowledge creators
Mentees: Shy seekers
Generally traditional mentors are considered to have 5-12 years more experience
relative to mentee. But knowledge creators can be anyone!
What is the preferred mode of mentorship?
Virtual 80% Anticipated (Pandemic Bias)
Offline 20% Anticipated
Chat happens to be the preferred 1st interaction mode for users - before meeting 1:1 over physical, video, or call.
Preferred size of mentee group?
- 1:1
- Group
Solving for both 1:1 connection and webinars. Focus on 1:1
​
“The more mentees you take on, the less help you can be. They key is to choose just a few people who you can invest in and provide a lot of value to” - HBR
Scope of mentorship?
- Assuming product aid to internal org only (office mentorship program) with exceptions of guest mentors
- Not making for professional mentor with financial angle and making intent to mentorship simpler by targeting Enterprise mentorship needs
- Career (somewhat personal) coachings
How to make mentorship more effective and less marginalized?
- Feedback gathering
- Intelligent matchmaking
- Goal - Expertise matching
- Negative Mentee Conundrums to Positive Outcomes of Mentorship
Social Influence of mentors
- Influencers: Some mentors have high organic following (natural)
- Scholars: New Mentors learning skills to be a better mentor
Product aims to take both into account equally. Influencers can start getting requests early whereas learners can engage in Quora like groups to create influence and share knowledge...
Matchmaking Parameters:
1. Time availability match
2. Time commitment match
3. Goal to Expertise Match
4. LinkedIn Auth Data (OPT.)
5. Interests Match
6. Domain Expertise
7. Search Queries
8. Reactive inputs
​
“A lot of mentees go in believing that they’ll ask someone to be their mentor, and then that person will ride shotgun with them throughout their career” - HBR
Wireframing
Mentor Flow
Mentee Flow
Prototyping & Testing
Wireframes#1 + Test = Wireframes#2
Testing
2 Mentees + 2 Mentor
Mentor
1. Make UX copy more friendly
2. Flow tutorials
3. Creating goal templates for consistent goal copy aiding ML learning - matchmaking engine
4. Adding more personal bio pointers to fill - Reactively
5. Optionts ‘add to waitlist’ for busy mentors
6. Appropirate quick actions on homepage itself
Mentee
1. Make UX copy more friendly
2. Not publicising the goal to wider mentors but selected mentors - better suggested mentors
3. search experience for learners to find coaches
4. Assist mentees in chat messages to strike the right cord
Solution Flow Diagram & Sketches
Solution Flow
Wireframes for Mentor User Journey
These wire frames were made on Whimsical and tested with 5 users. The trends and pain points were analysed for creating final user journey.
Wireframes for Mentee User Journey
These wire frames were made on Whimsical and tested with 5 users. The trends and pain points were analysed for creating final user journey.
Onboarding to the platform
These wire frames were made on Whimsical and tested with 5 users. The trends and pain points were analysed for creating final user journey.
User Story #1
Coach enters free time and books slots in the system dedicated to mentorship and uploads their expertise and other interests - finally putting the long due plan into action!
User Story #2
Mentees upload clear career and other goal(s) to be seen by desired potential mentors.
User Story #3
Smart matchmaking automatically suggests suitable coaches based on several key factors and shared interests. Mentees can also search for a desired mentor and send them a coaching request.
User Story #4
Impressed by mentees prep, the guide accepts the coaching request. And not to worry, mentees are matched to a new mentor if the acceptance is delayed!
User Story #5
They quickly learn know-hows and tips to be a mindful mentor and mentee on the platform. They interact on a proactive chat platform and set up an intro session using book slot feature.
User Story #6
Post intro, they mutually prepare and record agendas for future meetings and ensure progress on the platform is recorded.
User Story #7
Once complete they can rate their experiences and post testimonials (sometimes even anonymously) and help each other grow.
User Story #8
Mentors can access their stats on the profile and mentees can upload more learning goals on the platform to pursue. An essential aid to your performance review, yes we think it is.
Mentors can even initiate online webinars and workshop shoutouts on the platform in a way keeping track of all their mentoring sessions in one place.. and can offer mentorship to a group.
For new users, discovering helps them engage in their respective community and causes and engage with the audience.
Design System
With more time...
What could have been done better with more time?
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Better understanding and research of best mentor and mentee practices
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More case studies to find synergies - New-gen + Traditional
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A deeper understanding of mentor-mentee typical flow and variations
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More inclusive to try all other mentee and mentor personas - esp. Academic
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Survey - Avoiding Statistical bias - open-ended Questions
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Map primary flow: Limit bias from the pandemic in choosing an online journey
Next Steps
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Learning modules for mentor and mentee
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Copy can be tested to test out friendliness and other factors
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Icon and logo for assist pro
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Consumer Version from enterprise version
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Pricing Module for Paid mentorships
