thoughtbot helped MassChallenge rethink how entrepreneurs in their accelerator discover mentors. By conducting a two-week design sprint packed with usability tests we honed in on an experience tailored to entrepreneurs' needs.
We worked with Mike and Jaclyn from thoughtbot, working with them was a pleasure. They are highly professional and were able to facilitate a very productive design sprint, and getting feedback fast. I would highly recommend the thoughtbot team. – Omri Baumer, CTO MassChallenge
Outside of the thoughtbot offices it was a cold February day, but inside the project team was nice and cozy. The team of two thoughtbot designers alongside the CTO and Product Manager from MassChallenge were ready to get to business.
We began the design sprint by taking a day to understand where MassChallenge was coming from. We dove into the research and initial work they did prior to our engagement. During this time we talked about the pain points of using their platform to find mentors. We also looked at some examples of search experiences MassChallenge liked. This helped us plant some ideas for later in the week when we started to sketch solutions and interfaces.
It was clear from the beginning what challenge the team was trying to solve:
We want MassChallenge entrepreneurs to discover relevant mentors in our network so they can grow their business
Then, based on that goal, we mapped out how that experience might play out. We used the typical users of MassChallenge's platform.
The rest of the week followed a typical sprint pattern and by Friday we arrived at a low fidelity prototype based around the targets.
Central to our solution were four ideas:
- Show entrepreneurs mentors based on their industry or prior searches
- Make it difficult for a search to dead-end
- Show that MassChallenge staff members know the mentors inside and out and can help to make a relevant match
- Show entrepreneurs mentors’ histories so they can make better decisions
- We cue entrepreneurs to find a mentor with an actionable email
- We provide groups of content relevant to the entrepreneurs' business
- Once an entrepreneur is in the search its overall layout is reminiscent of an ecommerce experience.
- The card for mentors contains their home program and reasons why they match the current search
- We also came up with the idea of "squads." These are groups of mentors created by MassChallenge staff members
- To keep entrepreneurs within their search results we display more details inline
On a mentor's page we show even more detail:
- We include similar mentors
- We repeat staff created lists to keep the search going
- We also created a clear, actionable, way to book office hours with the mentor
The first round of testing on the previous Friday revealed some great tidbits. We weren't too off the mark with our original assumptions, but we had plenty to act on to improve our prototype. During the second week we scheduled two more rounds of usability tests. It was exciting because each round brought us closer to meeting entrepreneurs' needs.
Based on our usability tests we made the design easier to parse and act upon by using an obvious search entry. This was important to the entrepreneurs we spoke with because they needed a quick starting point. We also clarified what lists were and that MassChallenge staff created them. That lent them a sense of credibility and value.
- Obvious search entry
- More clarity around lists
One of the most important things we discovered was that entrepreneurs wanted to see a mentor's availability. So, we brought it straight into the search results. Now an entrepreneur can see whether a mentor is available for office hours, new to the accelerator, or only had a few advisory spots left.
We also kept hearing from entrepreneurs that they wanted to judge a mentor's fit quickly. Our final solution surfaced any content containing a search term in context from the mentors’ detail pages. We also highlighted the search term to allow the entrepreneurs to quickly glance around the page.
- Mentor's availability
- Highlighted search terms
The entrepreneurs we tested with helped us redefine the content of the details page. Our changes focused on providing the highest value information to aid in their search. This meant we:
- Showed more detail on the office hours widget, including their subject and location
- Lost the inline detail screen altogether, because it didn't offer anything over the card view
- Refined the design of the previous mentors section to show if they were winners or not
- Made the recommendations at the bottom of the page more relevant to the current mentor
- Showed more detail about the companies the mentor was currently advising
- Provided an easy way to navigate to the next mentor without leaving the details page
- Updated office hours widget
- Updated navigation
- More detail around a mentor's previously mentored companies
- More relevant suggestions based on search data
In the end, MassChallenge gained valuable insights and validation of an improved way for entrepreneurs to find mentors. We accomplished this in just two weeks' time and didn't accrue any technical debt. Working with low-fidelity prototypes is key for this. Most of product design is about providing and framing the right content on the page for the user. This sprint exemplified that. Now MassChallenge has a confident starting point to improve their platform for entrepreneurs.