After interviewing 7 mentors and mentees, I learned that while there is mutual interest in mentoring relationships, challenges emerged during the outreaching and matching phases which hindered actual connections.
As I believed that the success of my mentorship app design hinged on a balanced focus on both the mentor and mentee user types, I found it important to interview both groups to understand their mentorship experiences, processes, concerns, and product expectations. My findings provided valuable insights that served as a launching pad for the ideation stage.
Insight #1: Finding Commonality
Participants value personal relatability on top of professional guidance in mentorships. Mentees in particular want someone who they can "vibe" with.
[How Might We] create an open platform that encourages people to discover and connect authentically?
Insight #2: Understand the Need & Ask
When reviewing requests, mentors value the specificity in the ask, in order to assess whether they can help and if it's worth their time.
[How Might We] provide mentors with the right tools needed to engage with mentee requests?
Insight #3: Ease of Scheduling
Participants engage in a lot of back and forth with scheduling until mutual availability is found. Scheduling is more dependent on mentors as they're the busier professional.
[How Might We] automate the scheduling process to streamline availability opportunities?
Insight #4: Breaking the Invisible Barrier
Mentees feel anxious when reaching out to strangers for help. However, this uncertainty is reduced if there are indicators that the person is willing to help.
[How Might We] relieve some of the stress that mentees feel when searching for a mentor?
