MentorUp--
Better Mentorship for STEMs

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01 / Background & My Role

When I joined MentorUp, there was no product, no flow, and no design system — only a vision:
help early-career designers and job seekers find meaningful mentorship.As the first and only designer, I was responsible for everything from defining the MVP, mapping user journeys, creating the entire design system, and shaping the 0→1 product experience.Working closely with the founders, I became the bridge between business goals, user needs, and technical feasibility — setting the foundations for a product that could actually launch.

02 / Problem Space

Most mentorship platforms fail for two reasons:
Users can’t find the right mentor, and they don’t trust what they see. From early interviews, I discovered three recurring frustrations:

  • Mismatched expectations

    Mentees often don’t know how to describe their needs, while mentors struggle to clearly present what they offer.

  • Trust gap

    Users hesitate to book a session because the platform doesn’t communicate credibility or personality.

  • Emotional needs are ignored

    For juniors and job seekers, mentorship isn’t only about knowledge — it’s about encouragement, confidence, and support between sessions.

03 / Problem Statement

How might we design a mentorship platform that not only matches mentees with the right mentors, but also builds trust and provides continuous emotional support throughout their job-seeking journey?

Key Words

-PM & Founding Designer
-Product Strategy
-0→1 System Design
-AI Feature Empower
Visit MentorUp

After defining the problem space, I translated the insights into a focused MVP flow . The clear, end-to-end path allows users to browse mentors, articulate needs, build trust, and book sessions.

But as the first designer on the team, I quickly realized that even a simple MVP requires many supporting flows behind the main journey to make the product truly work end-to-end.

With the core user journey defined, the next challenge was ensuring the product could scale with clarity and consistency. This led me to build MentorUp’s design system from the ground up.

After defining the system, the next step was applying it consistently across the product — reflected in the following high-fidelity screens.
But, we need to design for both mentees and mentors. And their needs are sooo different.

Easily tell by w/wo the "Become a Mentor" CTA----->

Yet once the MVP launched, our usage data surprised us.

User Insight01---- About 68% of early users accessed MentorUp through Mobile. Since our marketing relied heavily on social media channels, most users clicked directly from their phones rather than desktop.

This insight made mobile responsiveness an immediate priority in our design roadmap.

Responsive Mobile Design

With the core user journey defined, the next challenge was ensuring the product could scale with clarity and consistency. This led me to build MentorUp’s design system from the ground up.

User Insight02---- 7 of 7 interviewed users mentioned that they often engaged with MentorUp during stressful or uncertain moments — between applications, after rejections, or late at night. This emotional context highlighted a gap our product wasn’t addressing. Users need guidance, reassurance, and someone “on their side.”.

Between job applications, late-night doubts, interview rejections, and moments of deep uncertainty, many mentees felt alone. Human mentors were incredibly helpful, but they couldn’t be there 24/7. And that emotional gap between the sessions was where anxiety grew the fastest.
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So we reimagined what “mentorship” could mean. Instead of building just a smarter FAQ, we created something more human:

FAQ Chatbot

AI Mentor

AI Consulting

Just-In-Time Assistance

Behavior-Driven Tooltip

Every user comes with a different story, so the AI adapts to theirs (a junior doubting their abilities, a new grad facing interview cycles, a long-term job seeker fighting burnout). Each receives a different tone, different style of encouragement, and different suggestions, the AI Mentor adjusts.

Results

MentorUp successfully launched as a 0→1 mentorship platform, validating both the core mentorship flow and the extended AI-supported experience.
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Within the early launch phase, the product onboarded 500+ early-stage users, confirming a real demand for accessible, guidance-driven mentorship.

Reflections

Being the first and only designer meant designing more than screens.
I shaped the product logic, design system, and experience strategy from the ground up.

  • Even an MVP requires many invisible supporting flows to truly function

  • Trust and emotional context matter as much as usability in mentorship products

  • AI is most effective when it complements human connection rather than replacing it

Most importantly, I learned how to make thoughtful tradeoffs — moving fast without sacrificing empathy.

If given more time, future iterations would focus on deeper personalization and long-term support.