International Women's Day Hackathon 2021 challenged participants to propose digital innovations for women's empowerment and gender equality in the workplace.
My team proposed WoMentor, a tailored networking and career advising platform for women in STEM industries to come together in small-sized meetups to gain experts’ advice, share feelings and support each other.
After winning first place, I collaborated with the original cross-functional team of six to revamp and ship the mobile app design."
Hackathon: Mar 2021
Revamp: Aug 2021-Mar 2022
iOS App
Product Designer
PROBLEM
Early-career women in STEM lack the necessary network to find career advice and support.
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
WoMentor, a career advising and professional networking platform, pairs female professionals with peers and industry experts to support each other and grow together.
USER INTERVIEW
“As the only female engineer I feel left alone in a male dominant team. I wish I know someone who could offer the help I need and share feelings with”
Firza Newton,
Mechanical Engineer
We interviewed 10 women in the STEM field to understand their challenges and the help they need. Key insights are summarized below.
Lack of connection to relevant help
Female role models’ skill and availability are unknown to those who need the help
Lack of empathy and emotional support
Users can't find female peers who are in the same spot to share feeling with
PERSONA
Focusing on early-career women in STEM
Based on the research insights, our team decided to focus on early-career women, “the learner” as our primary users, knowing that it's harder for them to find support, while the experienced female professionals, “ the expert “ who can share their experience will be our secondary users.
For the brevity of this case study. I will be focusing on presenting the design for “the learner.”
COMPETITOR RESEARCH
The current marketplace lacks a product that satisfies the needs for both career guidance and emotional support from peers
Comparing various competitors gave us inspiration on potential solutions and let us understand what is missing in the market. We realized that each competitor fulfills only a part of our target users’ needs.
Design Goals
Pair the user with experts and peers who can offer the help she needs
Focusing on the solving primary user’s problem, we came up with the following design goals that define the core experience
Match users to the relevant advice and support
Facilitate engaging conversation with experts and peers
Initial Prototype
For the 2-day hackathon submission we came up with the design of a group mentoring web app
Guided by the design goals we proposed a prototype. WoMentor, an online mentoring platform that help early-career women find both career advice and peer support in small group mentoring programs:
1. The user first searches for a mentorship program with the topic she prefers
2. The user joins the program to engage in weekly discussion sessions with mentors and other peers
Our project won first place and was highly praised by judges.
Initial Testing
I thought a long-term mentoring program could provide a more effective outcome, but the commitment it requires and the formal format gave users a lot of pressure
I spent a week testing our initial prototype with 8 women at the junior level and also showed it to experienced people for opinions. The feedback surprised the team
Insights from " the learner "
Introverted people feel intimidated about joining the formal program with strangers
“ I like this small group setting but I feel a little nervous because I don’t know these people “
Insights from " the expert "
Long-term group mentoring program requires too much time and effort
“ This is like teaching a class. I can only spend 1-2 hours per week advising people. I also don’t have the energy to prepare presentations.
PIVOT
How might we revise the design to lower the barrier to entry for an engaging conversation that requires less effort and feels more encouraging?
Design Change
We decided to switch to mobile experience that increases the flexibility for access and accommodates casual chat.
Knowing that users don’t have time to meet every week and want to feel less intimidated to join, my team decided to reduce the time commitment of the session and increase the sense of belonging with a better introduction of the common ground among members.
Highlighting Key Updates
Change from long-term mentorship program to one-time meetup for casual conversation
Reduce the effort and time commitment so that more experienced people are willing to join as experts to share their knowledge and experience
Build familiarity and reduce anxiety by showing the common ground
Provide a better introduction to other members with highlights of common interests or background will generate a sense of belonging thus encourages more people to take the first step
Sketching Out Core User Flows
Set up user preferences during onboarding
During onboarding, learners are prompted to select industries and topics they are interested in. Signing up with their current social media accounts takes advantage of established user data to provide better matching.
Recommend meetups and experts based on user preferences
Based on the user’s inputs at onboarding, the system recommends meetups, experts, and topics that match her profession and subjects that interest her
Search helps users find specific needs
The search feature allows narrowing down on experts and meetups based on availability, industry, topics, and more.
Highlighting the shared interest and background
Finding peers and mentors from the same background for mutual support is a big ask from users. The “Highlights for you” section indicates the common ground between the user and other members to convey familiarity and reduce hesitation before joining a circle.
Meetup for casual video chat & group message
This small group meetup lead by experts provides the learners with an engaging conversation to discuss obstacles, ask for advice, listen to diverse opinion, share stories and get inspired
