The Techstars Mentorship App
Platform
iOS & Web app
Role
Lead designer
Timeline
2020 - 2021
The opportunity
With the entire world going online due to a global pandemic, Techstars' portfolio company founders were having difficulty connecting with mentors to help them grow their businesses.
Talking to customers & stakeholders
What we knew from previous research, is that founders ranked mentorship as the deciding factor when choosing whether or not to join a Techstars accelerator. You can get funding from anywhere, but access to our network is our main differentiator.
In speaking with founders we found that they evaluated mentors based on their industry & experience. Typically the engagement with mentors was either a one off quick question or a deeper, ongoing relationship.
We then spoke to several mentors to understand why they mentored in the first place and opportunities to improve the communication process with founders. The indicated that they genuinely loved to help, however the pain points they faced included getting buried with mentor requests in their emails, and founders not being specific in what they needed help with.
Defining the vision
Based on our research, we saw a massive opportunity to improve the current mentor matchmaking process with Technology. There was a perception that covid-era virtual solutions were "less-than" stop gaps that augmented real life connection. We disagreed - one major benefit we saw was opening up founders to the totality of the Techstars mentor pool, instead of just limiting them to the mentors in their specific class.
In the end, the long term vision for what this would become was a streamlined mentor matchmaking app that allowed users to find mentors by company, accelerator, industry or skillset. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of time on our side so also had to design an MVP solution while working towards the larger vision.
We built a lightweight app that allows founders to search, filter and sort mentors by what is important to them. Once a founder has sliced and diced the data to end up with a customized list, they can share the restults with their co-founders, or bookmark for later. This also allows our corporate partners and managing directors to manage their own lists as well.
The long-term solution
We took learnings from the MVP solution and baked them into the experience for this native iOS app. We designed features that include a much more simplified search flow, in-app messaging and the ability to keep a running list of mentors that you're working with.
Results
The results of this project are confidential, but the overall response to the new designs were positive. Founders, mentors, and other stakeholders appreciated the improved ability to connect - truly a win-win for everybody involved.
The Techstars Mentorship App
Platform
iOS & Web app
Role
Lead designer
Timeline
2020 - 2021
The opportunity
With the entire world going online due to a global pandemic, Techstars' portfolio company founders were having difficulty connecting with mentors to help them grow their businesses.
Talking to customers & stakeholders
What we knew from previous research, is that founders ranked mentorship as the deciding factor when choosing whether or not to join a Techstars accelerator. You can get funding from anywhere, but access to our network is our main differentiator.
In speaking with founders we found that they evaluated mentors based on their industry & experience. Typically the engagement with mentors was either a one off quick question or a deeper, ongoing relationship.
We then spoke to several mentors to understand why they mentored in the first place and opportunities to improve the communication process with founders. The indicated that they genuinely loved to help, however the pain points they faced included getting buried with mentor requests in their emails, and founders not being specific in what they needed help with.
Defining the vision
Based on our research, we saw a massive opportunity to improve the current mentor matchmaking process with Technology. There was a perception that covid-era virtual solutions were "less-than" stop gaps that augmented real life connection. We disagreed - one major benefit we saw was opening up founders to the totality of the Techstars mentor pool, instead of just limiting them to the mentors in their specific class.
In the end, the long term vision for what this would become was a streamlined mentor matchmaking app that allowed users to find mentors by company, accelerator, industry or skillset. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of time on our side so also had to design an MVP solution while working towards the larger vision.
We built a lightweight app that allows founders to search, filter and sort mentors by what is important to them. Once a founder has sliced and diced the data to end up with a customized list, they can share the restults with their co-founders, or bookmark for later. This also allows our corporate partners and managing directors to manage their own lists as well.
The long-term solution
We took learnings from the MVP solution and baked them into the experience for this native iOS app. We designed features that include a much more simplified search flow, in-app messaging and the ability to keep a running list of mentors that you're working with.
Results
The results of this project are confidential, but the overall response to the new designs were positive. Founders, mentors, and other stakeholders appreciated the improved ability to connect - truly a win-win for everybody involved.
The Techstars Mentorship App
Platform
iOS & Web app
Role
Lead designer
Timeline
2020 - 2021
The opportunity
With the entire world going online due to a global pandemic, Techstars' portfolio company founders were having difficulty connecting with mentors to help them grow their businesses.
Talking to customers & stakeholders
What we knew from previous research, is that founders ranked mentorship as the deciding factor when choosing whether or not to join a Techstars accelerator. You can get funding from anywhere, but access to our network is our main differentiator.
In speaking with founders we found that they evaluated mentors based on their industry & experience. Typically the engagement with mentors was either a one off quick question or a deeper, ongoing relationship.
We then spoke to several mentors to understand why they mentored in the first place and opportunities to improve the communication process with founders. The indicated that they genuinely loved to help, however the pain points they faced included getting buried with mentor requests in their emails, and founders not being specific in what they needed help with.
Defining the vision
Based on our research, we saw a massive opportunity to improve the current mentor matchmaking process with Technology. There was a perception that covid-era virtual solutions were "less-than" stop gaps that augmented real life connection. We disagreed - one major benefit we saw was opening up founders to the totality of the Techstars mentor pool, instead of just limiting them to the mentors in their specific class.
In the end, the long term vision for what this would become was a streamlined mentor matchmaking app that allowed users to find mentors by company, accelerator, industry or skillset. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of time on our side so also had to design an MVP solution while working towards the larger vision.
We built a lightweight app that allows founders to search, filter and sort mentors by what is important to them. Once a founder has sliced and diced the data to end up with a customized list, they can share the restults with their co-founders, or bookmark for later. This also allows our corporate partners and managing directors to manage their own lists as well.
The long-term solution
We took learnings from the MVP solution and baked them into the experience for this native iOS app. We designed features that include a much more simplified search flow, in-app messaging and the ability to keep a running list of mentors that you're working with.
Results
The results of this project are confidential, but the overall response to the new designs were positive. Founders, mentors, and other stakeholders appreciated the improved ability to connect - truly a win-win for everybody involved.