Trellis - iOS Mentorship App
Project Brief
Mentoring can be a great way to share knowledge and help someone be successful in
their personal or professional life. But many potential mentors are often too busy to commit to regular meetings, or they have a hard time connecting with people seeking help. Design an experience where prospective mentors and mentees can be matched, based on similar interests, location, and availability.
The Problem
Prospective mentors and mentees need a way to be matched based on similar interests, location, and availability in order to find a mentor or mentee that will be a good fit for each other.
The Solution
We want to help Sierra solve the problem of wasting time on wrong candidates and getting tied up in poor planning by creating a platform where the entire process of being both mentor and mentee can seamlessly take place. We are different from our competitors because we offer an all-in-one solution in a progressive web app.
Timeline & Platform
3 Weeks for iOS app
Research
I started the research by checking out what is already out there. Since the scope of my project had to fit the time frame, I chose to proceed with the research of mentoring in the creative field so that my C&C would still hold some great results but also cover a realistic scope. There are some interesting mentorships taking place through these channels but I also realized that there is so much opportunity to create something new.
Interviews
Based on what I started to discover, I was able to put together a set of interview questions with some wonderful participants! Interviews give me a great amount of insight and qualitative data that is vital to a strong UX process.
“ONCE YOU GAUGE THEM YOU ASK YOURSELF “AM I A VALUABLE MENTOR TO YOU?” IF THAT’S TRUE THEN IT’S REALLY JUST FINDING WHAT THEIR CAREER PATH IS AND GIVING THEM RESOURCES AND TIPS ON HOW TO GUIDE THEMSELVES. ”
“A GOOD MENTEE IS SOMEONE WHO INVESTS THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME THAT YOU DO AND HAS THAT CURIOSITY.”
“I’D BE UP FOR MENTORING FOR SOMEONE I BELIEVE IN AND SOMEONE I CAN ACTUALLY HELP. I WOULD NEVER WASTE MY TIME WITH SOMEONE, ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
“I THINK THE MAIN ISSUE I SEE WITH MENTORING IS THE LACK OF PROPER MATCHING. BASED ON MY MENTORING EXPERIENCE ITS ALWAYS BEEN HIT OR MISS.”
Surveys
INSIGHT:
I was surprised to learn that most people who were asked to take the survey, regardless of if they’ve mentored before, have experience in mentoring.
Everyone who has mentorship experience wants to be a mentee as well.
Most mentorships are free.
People are willing to give away an average of a few hours weekly.
A majority do consider that mentoring is fulfilling.
People prefer one-on-ones.
People are very kind and willing to go out of their way to help others.
Affinity Map
INSIGHT:
A mentee should be proactive.
Mentors prefer a casual-style relationship.
Mentors are willing to give away a lot of time and effort to mentees.
A mentor should know what they’re talking about.
Persona & Journey Mapping
Task Flow for New User Journey
Feature Prioritization
MUST:
The scheduling experience being made easy needs to be a priority. (Place and time as well).
The mentee needs to be proactive (finding mentors themselves).
It has to be an all-in-one experience to not use up any extra time on the small stuff.
The mentee should have a way of showing the mentor who they are and also the other way around before committing to a meeting, perhaps they’re not a good fit.
Have a way to oversee everything going on in the platform.
Have mentor tags describing what the mentor is capable of mentoring.
Make it casual but still keep it professional (since most people have mentored their friends and all interviewed mentors prefer a casual mentor style).
Make it re-occurring because the majority of the surveys and interviews see mentorship as a “multiple-session” setup.
Ability to write reviews from mentees and mentors.
SHOULD:
Onboarding should be seamless and detailed.
Have a place to store everything meeting related on the platform itself.
Have a way of going into details and letting others know what their preferences are in terms of timeline and group size..etc.
COULD:
Open up the scope to reach all areas of life.
Allow mentors to hold work shops, lectures ...etc.
Have a way to hold events and even go live on the platform.
WANT BUT WON’T:
Monetize with ads and create a subscription model
Make a small video intro clip for users to go beyond the profile words and experience the person through the more important things like tone, energy, perspective..etc. (since ppl prefer doing “in-person” meetings)
Record meetings and/or transcribe them.
Re-define Problem Statement
When creatives both mentors and mentees want to connect, they go online to find the solution.
Sierra is overwhelmed with the number of platforms out there professionally connecting people. How might we create a space where a creative’s entire process of mentorship is offered in one place so that the time she is giving is being used effectively?
We want to help Sierra solve the problem of wasting time on the wrong candidates and poor planning by creating a platform where everything is in one place. We are different from our competitors because we offer an all-in-one solution that will be built as a progressive web app.
Design
Styleguide
The app is going to be casual and fun while also having a structure to it, making it simple to navigate and inform its users. There is a lot of information on the pages so the design cannot interrupt the space but instead play the role of support.
Paper Prototype
Paper prototypes are extremely useful to me. It takes so little but reaps pure gold in feedback. This is also, usually where I hit rock bottom in my process. That’s exactly what happened here, I had my few moments of just sitting in my chair and staring at the wall trying to figure out how everything is going to circle. This is where my hand-drawn wireframes are torn apart. Thankfully at this stage, changing a feature is as easy as using a pencil to erase and draw a completely new function.
INSIGHTS:
Had my “AHA!” moment here. How are mentors also supposed to be mentees? People are usually both mentors and mentees (the survey results). It’s a lifelong process of being both. The idea here comes out of the simple rule that our parents teach us, “when you come over to someone’s house for dinner, it’s polite to bring something with you.”. This means that since the mentor is also a mentee, the entire purpose of this process is to give and get in return. You can’t just come here and take from everyone. Chances are that you’ve mentored before (survey results) The purpose of the app is to mentor each other and build a community. Maybe you have no reviews and no requests for mentorship, and that’s ok. Just bring anything to the table and that’s enough.
Have a way to follow/connect with someone without having to set up a mentorship session.
Have the ability to make my availability public or private.
Design the app so that it can scale well with events, workshops ..etc.
“I want to see people’s skills outside of their job title". I inputted a flow that allowed the user to open up a potential mentor’s profile and not only see their experience but also go a step further and check out the person’s tags AKA words that capture what they are good at sharing with people. Also, allow users to “like” the tags so that the most relevant ones float to the top.
