Service design · Academic project · 2023

Design Connect

Mentorship is not an introduction. It is a service relationship.

2023 · Individual academic project

Role: solo designer & product manager

Participants: 10

Outcome: prototype + service model

A mentorship service that helps Latin American designers navigate Toronto's job market through relevant people, guidance and continued support.

Problem

Newcomer designers were not simply missing information. They faced a fragmented support ecosystem: informal communities, generic institutional advice and limited access to local professional networks.

My role

Solo designer and product manager: interviews and surveys, service blueprinting, a high-fidelity prototype, and the proposed service model behind it.

Context

Individual academic project, 2023. Research surfaced three needs: understand local workplace expectations, receive tailored portfolio and interview guidance, and build a relevant professional network.

Scheduling screens — date and time selection

Results — the system that was designed

From information to a system.

The central design move was to treat mentorship as an ongoing service relationship, with visible support before, during and after a session — not as a one-off introduction.

participants across research and prototype testing

stages in one end-to-end journey: Discover → Connect → Mentorship → Grow

journeys blueprinted — the mentee's and the mentor's

artifacts delivered: prototype, blueprint, stakeholder map, business model, roadmap

Stated plainly: not launched — the prototype and the model are the evidence. Figures in the original plan (downloads, NPS, conversion) are future targets; a live pilot should measure match quality, completed sessions, retention and perceived career confidence.

Process

How it got built.

InterviewsSurveysService blueprintingPrototypingStakeholder mappingService model

Research the ecosystem

Interviews and surveys with newcomer designers showed the problem was not a lack of information: it was a fragmented support ecosystem — informal communities, generic institutional advice and limited access to local professional networks.

Interviews · Surveys

Frame the service

The initial frame — help newcomers find information — became a service frame: connect the right people at the right moment, with continued support. The interface helps people find and schedule a match; partnerships, resources and feedback loops keep the relationship useful after the first meeting.

Discover

Find the service through community partners.

Connect

Review a relevant mentor match.

Mentorship

Schedule sessions and use shared resources.

Grow

Track progress and remain in the community.

Blueprint the system

The service blueprint separates what participants see from the operations required to support them — two journeys (mentee and mentor), backstage operations, support systems, and the emotion line that runs from Lost & Hopeful to Rooted. This makes the concept more than an app idea.

Service blueprint

Prototype the touchpoints

Mentor discovery, matching and scheduling were prototyped in high fidelity and tested with participants — the visible frontstage of the service: profiles, matching, scheduling, shared resources and feedback.

High-fidelity prototype · Testing

Define the model

Together, the artifacts explain both the participant experience and the organization needed to deliver it: stakeholder map, business model and product roadmap, plus the measures a live pilot should track — match quality, completed sessions, retention and participants' perceived career confidence.

Hi-fi prototypeService blueprintStakeholder mapBusiness modelProduct roadmap

Process · My work · Result

The work, in images.

01 · Process

The service blueprint

$Service blueprint$

One system, four stages. Evidence, mentee and mentor actions, backstage and support systems — down to the emotion line: from Lost & Hopeful to Rooted.

02 · My work

Mentor discovery

The first service touchpoint. Best-ranked and new mentors, searchable — a relevant match, not a directory.

03 · Result

Scheduling the session

The prototype, end to end. Date and time selection for the first mentorship session — the frontstage the blueprint operates behind.

participants in research & testing

stages, one supported journey

journeys blueprinted: mentee + mentor

artifacts: prototype to roadmap