Product Overview
BRIDGEGOOD is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and empowering creatives. Their mission is to upskill individuals and bridge the gap to help them become future leaders in design and technology. As they expand throughout California and beyond, they remain committed to maintaining a welcoming and inclusive brand.
Our team, FigmaItOut, was engaged by BRIDGEGOOD to conceptualize and design an app that addresses the needs and challenges of their creative users during a three-week design sprint. Throughout the project, we closely collaborated with Executive Director Shaun Tai and the Program Manager to ensure the app met their vision and goals.
Problem
BRIDGEGOOD is working to create a platform to support networking for their users. Emerging creatives face significant challenges in locating and accessing resources and support. The process of finding a mentor who aligns with their learning style and goals is particularly challenging and time-consuming. Additionally, users are often uncertain about what to expect from the mentorship experience and struggle to make meaningful, lasting connections.
Solution
Connect2Grow is a mobile application designed to help emerging creatives find mentors who align with their specific needs and goals, fostering meaningful connections and networking opportunities. The platform enables mentors to efficiently manage their time and connect with mentees whose skills and aspirations match their expertise, ensuring a productive and impactful mentoring experience for both parties.
Target Audience
Emerging Creatives:
New to design and eager to launch their careers, this group includes both design students currently in university recent graduates and individuals making a career shift. They typically range from 18 to 35 years old.
Research
We began our research by conducting 12 one-on-one interviews with emerging creatives to understand their needs, pain points, and motivations. To gain insight into the mentorship perspective, we then interviewed 8 industry professionals, exploring their definitions of mentorship, their challenges, and their offerings.
Additionally, we held a 1-hour focus group with 14 more emerging creatives, incorporating poll questions to gather further user feedback.We also performed a 6-hour observational study to observe interactions between emerging creatives and mentors or industry professionals.
Finally, we conducted a competitive analysis of ADPlist.com, DemocracyLab, and LinkedIn to evaluate existing networking and mentorship platforms, identifying their design strengths and weaknesses.
Key Findings
Through user interviews, competitive research, and contextual analysis, we uncovered key insights that highlighted user expectations, needs, and motivations. These findings were instrumental in shaping all of our product design decisions.
- Emerging creatives often feel overwhelmed and challenged when trying to find the resources they need to enhance and improve their skills.
- Emerging creatives struggle to access the correct guidance from industry professionals.
- Emerging creatives seek genuine connections with their mentors, and want to cultivate lasting mentorship and friendship with their mentors.
- Scheduling conflicts and lack of accountability.
- Frustrations with the availability and quality of opportunities.
- Networking and meeting people in the industry is challenging.
Affinity mapping and data collection from 1:1 mentor interviews and group emerging creatives interview
Defining the problem with HMW statements, jobs to be done and value proposition
Value Proposition
We want to introduce a service for culturally diverse emerging creatives. Emerging creatives are currently struggling with access to and learning from design professionals. They need a way to build their confidence, skills and network by curating the advice they receive according to their personal preferences. Now with an inclusive webapp that connects professionals to emerging creatives, they are able to learn from industry professionals and bridge the gaps they feel they have.
User Persona
Based on our research, we developed a persona and scenario to encapsulate the common user needs, goals, tasks, and pain points identified through user interviews and competitive analysis.
Problem statement: Greta is a culturally diverse emerging creative who needs access to UX design professionals because she wants to build her confidence, skills, and network.
Conceptual Design
We started the ideation process with Crazy 8’s. Each one of our team members participated in Crazy 8’s , where we collaborated and voted, deciding on features that would best suite the web application.
Digital Wireframes
The UI Design throughout the web application has been a complete team collaboration. Based on our Crazy 8’s we each designed a page that was later used as core features of the web application.
Aretha – Search Mentors
Becca – Mentee Profile
Bagul – Mentorship Progress
Will – Mentor Profile
High Fidelity Wireframes
Version 1
Version 2
Core Features
Greta’s profile features a task list, her achievements, and suggestions aimed at helping her relationships for grow.
The Mentor Search function matches Greta with mentors based on their personalities and design skills.
Mentor profiles contain tags and additional information to establish clear expectations, ensuring both the mentor and Greta can approach the mentorship with intentionality and focus.
The Progress Tracker requires both parties to be involved in setting and achieving goals.
Calendar feature allows Greta to schedule sessions with her mentors, including other mentors available now.
Greta receives her monthly tokens and can monitor her usage and token balance. She can also schedule future appointments, track completed sessions, booked sessions, and cancellations.
My Mentors page , where she can view her current mentors, connect with them and view new mentors.
Business Value
Connect2Grow offers significant value for BRIDGEGOOD, emerging creatives, and industry professionals.
Impact:
- Users have the option to donate after every third meeting.
- Connect2Grow expands BRIDGEGOOD’s reach by adding 500 new mentees.
- Encourages a pay-it-forward mentality, with $50 donated per mentee.
- Generates $25,000 annually from mentee donations, which directly supports BRIDGEGOOD.
Next Steps
- Conduct extensive usability testing to refine the web application: Given the rapid pace of the design sprint, we need to perform more thorough testing with a diverse group of users, ensuring a strong focus on accessibility.
- Design the Mentor Portal user experience: Using the valuable data we’ve collected on mentors’ needs and preferences, we will develop a mentor portal that includes essential tools and new pages, ensuring seamless collaboration between mentors and mentees.
- Develop the donation flow for both mentees and mentors: We will streamline the process for mentees to donate after receiving valuable guidance and resources from mentors. Design user flows and screens to facilitate convenient donations from both mentees and mentors.
Inclusive, efficient, and intentional guidance through 30 minute mentoring with industry professionals
The Design Team
Product presentation at Google Community Space, San Franscisco for 80+ Stakeholders.
August 2023
