The First Problem: "What is the Product?"

     The Community Dreams Foundation [“C.D.F.’], which works to expand access to resources for the growth of the Green Economy, hired me as a User Experience Designer to aid with their new mobile app, dubbed “GreenConnect.” The app was being made to incorporate an algorithm developed by another of C.D.F.’s teams, which could match people based on sustainability-related interests and abilities. The GreenConnect team had rushed to design a product, leading to conflicting visions and no user research at its foundation. I reached out to the Founder of C.D.F., Dion Richardson, whose idea started this project, and who was still overseeing it. We solidified goals for the project and how it aligned with C.D.F.’s business objectives.

GreenConnect - Product Scope

• A mobile app for developing careers in the Green Economy by helping people find experienced mentors in relevant fields
• First Assignment: as quickly and as cheaply as possible, create a prototype to validate this idea with actual users 
• My Role: Design Team Lead and UX Designer, GreenConnect Team
• My Responsibilities: Manage the design team (Researchers, UX Designers, and Developers), understand target users, address user pain points, create an interactive prototype, conduct user testing, and report valuable insights to Dion and the other stakeholders.

The Second Problem: “For Whom Does GreenConnect Create Value?”

     I reached out to other teams at C.D.F. for their previous user research, and ended up discovering our target users’ demographics and motivations for joining the Green Economy. We still needed to learn what a mobile app designed for mentorship would do best for these users. I wrote an interview script, which included questions about mentorship – having a mentor, being a mentor, what practices were most effective, what led people to seek mentorship, what benefits people experienced as a result, and what throughout the process caused pain. Sai Vikas, a User Experience Researcher, then used this to gather feedback.

Target Users

Answering “What is the Product?” - GreenConnect’s Unique Value

Competitive Audit: The existing methods for finding mentors, such as LinkedIn and Handshake, often involve lengthy searches, and using cold introductions to (hopefully) gain contact. The mentorship process itself, once begun, often lacks formality and structure, creating less clarity of action for Mentees than is ideal to them.

Unique Value Proposition [“UVP”]:

GreenConnect provides access to an assembly of mentors with expertise in the Green Economy, and helps its users build fruitful mentor-mentee relationships.

The Third Problem: “How Do We Design an Application That Does This?”

Main User Tasks/Core User Benefits

1. Connecting with Mentors
2. Streamlining Mentorship

User Flows for Main User Tasks

1. Connecting with Mentors

1st: Set up profile

• Setting up a profile is an opportunity for a Mentee to get in touch with their own motivation

2nd: Review available Mentors

• Personalize search criteria (applying filters)
• Bookmark profiles for later review
• View a Mentor’s fundamental information only, or view their full profile

3rd: Connect

• Send a request, with the option to write a short message about your goals (strongly encouraged)
  
• Track the status of your outstanding requests

2. Streamlining Mentorship

1st: Once a Mentor accepts a request, the Mentee is prompted to find a time to meet (show the Mentor’s availability on a calendar)

2nd: The Mentee is then prompted to write a short bullet-point list of topics for their agenda, to be shared with the Mentor before meeting

3rd: Reminders are sent to ensure that both parties are aware of the meeting time

4th: Optionally, can repeat this process after each meeting (set up meeting time, agenda, and meet again)

Qualities of the User Experience

• Efficient
• Organized
• Informative
• Personable

Designing a Prototype

     To gauge GreenConnect’s value as quickly as possible, we limited the prototype to only the process of finding a Mentor. Would users feel that this new process was preferable to their old methods for finding Mentors? Pictured here are some interfaces from our prototype design process. In the interface above, note the option to switch views in the upper-left. When I first met Dion, he expressed interest in modeling the app on Tinder, as he assumed it would create similarly dopamine-triggering interactions, triggering users' pleasure. Originally, I proposed a compromise – allow users to choose between this and a list of Mentors designed for maximum scan-ability. We ditched this feature as the 'single-Mentor' view was shaping up to be satisfyingly scannable, and the 'list of Mentors' was either too complex or too sparse. As for Dion’s idea about Tinder and triggering users' dopamine, user research revealed that the app should indeed encourage motivation and focus, but that apps like Tinder went further than we needed to, trying to give their users more excitement than was beneficial for mentorship.

Gathering & Implementing Feedback

Testing a Prototype

Method: Incremental A/B testing with a small group of users. Given the novelty of this product's potential value, we might have to try several versions of the product before we understood its perceived value to users. Again, stakeholders prioritized our speed of assessment.

Feedback & Iterations

• Some labels were too complex and professional in tone, so we rewrote them to be more simple and unpretentious
  - Some of the “fields of expertise” labels on Mentor profiles were esoteric, especially to people entering the workforce. Simplified language and made labels interactive, so that users can get a simple definition of a term by tapping the label. 
• Users felt that the level of transparency in Mentor’s profiles made personal connections come more naturally, so we searched for more opportunities to respectfully invite users to be open books
• Some users felt uncomfortable with their level of knowledge about what effective mentorship looks like, so we added a bullet-point style infographic to the onboarding process, to share wisdom on best practices for mentorship

Presentation to Stakeholders

     We presented the feedback and our changes to Dion. He determined that the app would indeed be valuable for our target audience and the organization. He assigned us to collaborate with Developers (such as Roopak Srinivasan) to ready the app for launch.

Project Conclusion & Impact

• GreenConnect: Turned an idea into a clear vision, and turned that vision into a valuable product
• Customer Relationships: Research discovered user info that applies to other C.D.F. initiatives
• C.D.F.'s Mission: GreenConnect has increased access to the Green Economy.
       Thanks to our partnership/integration with LinkedIn, GreenConnect has increased awareness of the Green Economy/Green Workforce
• Marketing: GreenConnect design elements include a new visual identity which has clarified C.D.F.’s Mission & Value statements
• Development: Increased efficiency by creating a library of components, design patterns, styles, and guidelines
• Team Efficiency: Developed a product from an idea in less than 3 months