Google Mentors
2020
Helping young talent find career guidance by seeking mentorship from experienced professionals
A platform where prospective mentors and mentees can be matched, based on similar interests, location, and availability. This project was done as part of Google Interview process
Skills
Research
UX & UI
Prototyping
Industry
Information Technology
Scope of work and timeline
The exercise involved understanding the problem landscape through research and creating a design solution based on research insights
Discovery
Research Analysis
User Experience
User Interface
Discovery
The exercise involved understanding the challenges and gain insights from a mentor's and mentee's perspective through primary and secondary research methods
Problem landscape
70%
of young professionals are clueless about who to approach when they want advice on their career path
70%
of professionals in their early 20’s and 30’s say they are keen on seeking advice on their next career move but do not know where to go for answers
Types of mentors
01
Traditional Mentor/Buddy
A high performer in your organisation or at a competitor who usually has slightly more experience than you
02
Peer Mentors
Someone who has the same level of experience but a much advance skill set that you wish to learn
03
Senior Mentors
Someone who can advise you on more strategic decisions of your career
Places to find mentor
In School/University
At workplace
At an event/workshop
Online channels
Re-framing Problem Statement
Design an experience where prospective mentors and mentees can be matched, based on similar interests, location, and availability.
Research Analysis
Analysing the primary and secondary research to create persona of the target audiences motivations, pain-points and jobs to be done.
Primary Research
08
1:1 User Interviews Conducted
06
Months work experience
(Mentee)
28
years work experience
(Mentor)
15+
Needs & Challenges discovered
Discovered Challenges (Mentors)
01
Finding right mentee
Mentors believe that they would mentor someone only if they can align with their goals and add value.
02
Making it real & personal
Online mentoring makes it challenging to develop a personal connection between mentors and mentees.
03
Understanding aspirations
Understanding the aspiration of mentees before meeting them has been a challenge that needs to be solved.
04
Finding time to connect
Connecting regularly for effective mentoring becomes a challenge for both mentor and mentees.
05
Understanding intent
It becomes challenging to provide effective mentorship if mentor fails to understand the needs and expectations of mentees.
06
Self doubt
Many mentors face the problem of self-doubt when it comes to guiding mentees and providing direction.
Discovered Challenges (Mentees)
01
Finding right mentor
Finding a mentor that can match mentees requirements is not easy online.
04
Creating value
Understanding what value mentees can add to mentors has been a point of confusion.
02
Approaching people
The first hurdle for mentees is to approach people online and ask them for mentorship.
05
Keeping track
Keeping track of the goals and vision set by the mentors become a challenge in day to day life.
03
Building trust
Trusting the intentions of a person they met through an online platform remains a challenge.
06
Finding time to connect
Connecting regularly for effective mentoring becomes a challenge for both mentor and mentees.
User Experience
My aim was to to deep-dive into the problem landscape through primary and secondary research activities. This enabled me to map existing challenges people face while finding mentors or mentees.
UX Themes
01
Genuine and trustworthy
Trust is an essential factor while establishing a relationship between a mentor and a mentee.
04
Clear and transparent
Enabling mentors and mentees to have clarity of expectations and being transparent about their goals is important for success.
02
Easily approachable
Breaking the inertia and approaching a potential mentor is the first hurdle in a mentee’s journey.
05
Ease decision making
Since finding the right match is a hassle for both mentors and mentees, helping them in decision making becomes crucial.
03
Personal yet professional
Establishing a personal connection between a mentor and mentee is crucial for a successful mentorship.
Information Architecture
Activity
I did open-card sorting to come up with relevant pages and build a relation between them. Once card sorting was done, I mapped the outcome digitally.
Outcome
High-level information architecture that established the basic navigational structure.
Click image to magnify
Workflows
Activity
I selected the key features of the product and created workflows for them to understand different steps in the interaction process.
My intent was to create efficient workflows to get tasks done in minimum steps.
Outcome
Defined workflows
Click image to magnify
User Interface
Going from ideation sketches to user-interface design to demonstrate key features of the proposed solution.
Help people to know you better
After successful registration or sign-in, the first step is to setup a profile.
The profile aims to let people know you and your interests. It is helpful for mentors and mentees to identify their common interests and aspirations.
The profile also gives you the ability to convey what your intent is for using the apps and the kind of people you want to connect with.
Discover Mentors & Mentees
The app matches profiles based on location, experience, availability and interests.
Suggestions for potential mentors and mentees are given upfront. Past work and mentoring experience is given more importance than other criteria while suggesting mentor or mentees.
Building connection and trust
Building trust is the first step of a successful relationship between mentor and mentees.
With the help of the app, the user can see the location of the suggested mentor along with their introduction.
User can also know the mentor’s interest, and filled chips represent the matching interests. Verified profiles are represented by green check next to the username.
Accepting requests
Users can go to the contact tab to see the requests sent by potential mentees. They can also see the message sent by mentees and understand their interest in connecting.
User can view the profile of the potential mentee and look for matching interests, location, past experience and comments by their past mentors.
Outcomes
The outcome was an in-depth understanding of the problem space and a solution that addressed the gap that existed in the market.
The clickable prototype helped me to showcase my ideas and final solution to different stakeholders.
Learnings
There were several learnings during the 12 days of doing the exercise. I had to prepare a plan and set milestones for myself.
A lot of learnings came from speaking to both mentors and mentees and I understood the scale of this problem. During this time I also read extensively on material design and accessibility which helped me in my final designs.
© Shubham Khatkar 2024