m.Power

Empowering Immigrants and refugees to build successful businesses

Don’t wait for help. Go after it with confidence.

The Challenge:

How can we find solutions through technology, empowering Immigrants and refugees that wish to receive Expert advice in building a business in Germany?

Project:

Immersion UX Design
Career Foundry

Responsive web app

Timeline:

Feb - Jun 2020

My Role:

User research and Analysis
Persona creation
MVP definition
Wireframes
UX Design & Prototyping
Usability testing
UI Design System

Tools:

Balsamic
Adobe XD
Optimal Workshop

UX Design Roadmap

Research & Problem Definition

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Our Users (Immigrants/Refugees that moved to Germany) need an easy and effective way to get support in starting and running a successful business because it is hard to have the breadth of skills, support and knowledge (especially in a foreign country) needed to do so.

SOLUTION

By creating an App that fosters migrant Entrepreneurship independent of location, where Users and Experts in diverse Business fields are matched after filling in their preferences, and expertise.

Advice can be custom to each person's needs and expectations.

Collaboration with NGO’s and Social Startups will offer extended help and opportunities. Expert rating, industry filter and further info will help Users pick the right fit, with options to call or message and access Educational Information to expand their knowledge. Different membership options give financial flexibility.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Growth Mentor Bottom line:
● Core values: human relationships, active learning and humility.
● Experienced Mentors: All mentors are vetted and have at least 5 years of experience working in growth marketing or technology companies.
● Purposeful Filtering: allows you to find Experts by Objective, Industry, Tools & Technology and Language.
● Clear offering: one main Call Expert Function and pay per minute structure.
● Target Market: Start-Ups

Clarity Bottom line:

Categories: Browse Experts from 8 different categories
Clear offering: one main Call Expert Function and pay per minute structure.
Target Market: Start-Ups
Credibility: Having well-known Experts in different sectors within founding a Start-Up, adds to their credibility.
Weakness: The website has a vast amount of Experts with different expertise and diverse industries, but no easy way to filter and find the right one.

DIFFERENTIATION

Creating a niche Expert offering for new businesses or Solopreneurs founded by immigrants and refugees in Germany, that face different problems and challenges and need someone that understands their market.
The User could be anyone that wants to integrate into the German market.
Needs help from Experts with long experience in their fields of German Law, Finance and Tax, Business management, Sales and Marketing and a track of success of helping non-German Entrepreneurs.
These individuals would find working with people from the tech or Startup scene too overwhelming and not specific to the challenges they face in the country.

Using the Lean UX Method and the BUILD, MEASURE, LEARN
steps I have come to a MVP

MVP

FEATURE 1:

MULTILINGUAL CHAT WITH INSTANT TRANSLATION OPTION

We believe that by creating a Web App specifically for the German Market, with a multilingual chat feature including instant translation, we will give the opportunity to foreigners that have immigrated to Germany to start and grow their business no matter where they come from and which languages they speak.

FEATURE 3:

EXPERT SEARCH WITH FILTERS

By offering search through Industries and with extensive filters, finding the right Expert for Entrepreneurs needs should be simple and intuitive.

FEATURE 2:

CREATE AN ONBOARDING QUESTIONNAIRE TO UNDERSTAND USERS NEEDS AND MATCH THEM TO THE RIGHT EXPERTS

We believe that by creating a questionnaire matching feature, our Users will feel guided and supported, in getting the advice they need from the right expert.

Understanding the User

Looking to understand my potential Users I have conducted three Interviews ( Foreign Entrepreneurs in Germany ) and an Online Survey.

RESEARCH GOALS :

Understand the kind of help a new (foreign) entrepreneur needs when moving/living in Germany.
Understand the best ways they wish to access support ( one on one calls or messaging, a structured mentoring program, flexible online memberships etc)
Which are their biggest challenges, that either delay starting a business or make it really hard in being successful ( financial support, industry knowledge, location, time constraints, language barrier etc).

SURVEY FINDINGS

Survey number: 20 people
Time online: 2 days
User Demographics:
AGE 25 - 45

USER INTERVIEWS & PERSONAS

After completing three User Interviews i have created two main Personas and mapped their User Flows.

USER FLOW FOR JAMES

User Story: As a Small Business Entrepreneur, i want to have easy
access to Experts, so that i can resolve problems quickly as they arise

Entry Point: Home Screen

Success Criteria: Start talking to an Expert

USER FLOW FOR HELENA

User Story: As a Small Business Entrepreneur, i want to have easy
access to my Chats and quick replies when questions arise

Entry Point: Home Screen

Success Criteria: Chat with Expert via Messaging & Pay

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

I have used Card sorting with 7 participants to define the best Information Architecture for the app.

Designing Solutions

After concluding with my Research findings and making small changes to my MVP i have started sketching for my three main features:

An easy to Explore by Industries and extensive filters feature
A messaging and call feature with instant translation
A mentoring program with a matching questionnaire to help Entrepreneurs get the right Mentor

First Low Fidelity Sketch Wireframes for message and call feature

First Low Fidelity Sketch Wireframes for Exploring and Filtering Experts

MID FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

First wireframes of the three features with onboarding, Explore Experts, matching Mentoring program and Chat/Call

“ As a potential entrepreneur I want to go through onboarding to understand what the app offers ”

“ As a new User I want to Sign up with my preferred email address so that my Social media information is not shared ”

“ As a User I want to Browse/filter through different Expert’s skills so that I can find the best person to help me with the subject I need help with ”

“ As a new entrepreneur I want to see the Experts profile with detailed reviews and relevant experience so that I can understand what they are offering and if they are the best match for me”

“ As an Immigrant entrepreneur I want to have an instant chat feature with instant translation so that I can chat with Experts that speak a different language than me”

“ As a new entrepreneur I want to be able to chose the right Mentoring membership and payment plan so that I make the most of what I currently need”

“ As a User I want to be able to have Video call conversations so that I can have real face to face interactions and discussions with the chosen Expert”

Usability Testing

TEST OBJECTIVES:

To observe and understand participants, any issues and challenges in performing the main tasks of the app keeping in mind Satisfaction, learnability, memorability, efficiency and errors:

Explore Experts using Filters
Mentor Program and Questionnaire for matching to the best Mentor
Calling/Messaging and payment completion

METHODOLOGY:
The usability testing was performed using Moderated Remote method since at the moment it was no possible to meet with participants in person I have used Skype where the screen was shared and the participants were recorded performing the given tasks.

PARTICIPANTS:
6 participants from my own network

SESSIONS:
The usability test session lasted approximately 30 minutes. There was time before and after for questions and answers and general feedback.

OUTCOMES

By changing the architecture and interaction design of filters I have seen a decrease of usage of the search bar and increase of navigation through the Industry sections.
The added screens at the beginning and end of a call with a mentor have increased the phone calls made by users.

Design Language System

DESIGN FOR ACCESSIBILITY

Some final adjustments to the high fidelity design to improve accessibility. Colour contrast ratio was checked and labels where added to text fields to certain screens.

High Fidelity Mobile & Desktop Prototype

ONBOARDING UPDATE