Xperi-mentor
Exploring Careers
Year
2022
University
Politecnico di Milano
Project Type
Masters Thesis
Xperi-mentor is a service that empowers adolescents to explore different career possibilities in an experiential manner. It offers an informal network of young mentors in diverse fields and activities that enable experiential career exploration. To ensure support and motivation, the service involves key influencing actors: parents and peers.
Xperi-mentor was developed through the process of co-design with the users. I have worked independently on this project with the guidance of Stefana Broadbent and Martina Rossi.
CONTEXT
What problem am I solving?
In India, career selection is done as early as when one is 12-15 years old. Having to make such an important decision at such a tender age is challenging.
The current situation
01
Awareness of only a few career options
02
Rapidly changing and unfamiliar career options
03
Career guidance services are not popular: low awareness, taboo attached to it, and lack of access (high prices).
Target Audience Demographics
Adolescents in Indian urban cities with, mid-high socio-economic background
METHODOLOGY
Design process that I used
I have followed the UK Design Council’s Double Diamond model (2019) as a guiding framework for this project.
Empathising with the user
RESEARCH PLAN
The objective was to understand the educational and cultural landscape. I conducted desk research to understand the theoretical frameworks of career decision-making and influencing factors. I also conducted expert and user interviews to understand the actual context better.
01
Desk Research
The research was done under the following themes:
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Indian Education System and career selection process
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Factors influencing career selection in India
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Development of career interests & choices; Social Cognitive Career Theory
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The pivotal role of parents
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Decision Theory: difficulties in making a decision
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Career counseling process: Ideal process for making a decision
02
Field Research
I conducted interviews with 12 participants that fall under 5 different categories of involved persons: educators, adolescent students, their parents, mature user group, and a career counselor.
KEY INSIGHTS
What did I find?
01 The stage of career-related exploration is missing
Students do not deliberately explore different career possibilities or self-interests. The choice is made based on the immediate information available.
02 Career exposure is limited to one’s social network
Knowledge of different pursuable career paths is mainly restricted to one’s social network
03 Lack of effective guidance
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An actively recognised problem of lack of affective guidance at the right time.
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Missing connections and opportunities to speak with younger guides
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
What services are currently available?
I looked at existing services to map out the gaps and the opportunity areas. The case studies analyzed have been divided into two sections:
01
Competitor analysis: Analysing the services available in the market that I have chosen to target
02
Other case studies: Cases for benchmarking, in the larger field of EdTech, or the ones not present in the Indian market.
How Might We
empower adolescents to engage in self-governed career explorations, decision-making and designing of the career path?
How can we make the journey experiential?
How to motivate adolescents to explore?
How can we facilitate adolescents' autonomy in the process?
How can we involve parents for providing optimum support and encouragement?
How can we provide a better experience for planning and designing the path?
How can we aid in the process of decision-making?
Outlining the service concept and elements
CONCEPTUALISATION
A service that provides step-by-step guidance to explore, choose and plan career path. It promotes exploration by:
01
Providing access and connecting them to many young guides/ mentors and peers in different career paths.
02
Providing experiential workshops for many different career paths
CO-DESIGN
Defining the service by involving users
Participant type
The mentor category (age 25-35) of different career backgrounds.
Why did I choose this category?
This enabled me to get the perspective of both; adolescents and mentors. They can think retrospectively for adolescents including their experiences and needs, and also currently as mentors to identify motivation.
Facilitating the co-design workshop
Key insights and findings
Exploring careers with
Xperi-mentor
THE OUTCOME
The main aim of Xperi-mentor is to promote career exploration by having a network of young mentors in different fields, having experiential workshops, and engaging career content. It additionally encourages students to make their own career journey with optimal decision-making and planning.
What does Xperi-mentor provide?
SERVICE OFFER AND TOUCHPOINT DETAIL
How does Xperi-mentor work?
SERVICE DETAILS
Online platform Interface
TOUCHPOINT DESIGN
Main elements and possible actions
01
An overview of their journey and their meetings and activities to attend
02
Maintaining a reflective journal with nudging toolkits
03
Discovering engaging career content
04
Finding and connecting with mentors
05
Finding and registering for experiential activities
06
Saving content, interests, mentor names and activities for future reference
07
Receiving notifications and reminders for explorations to do, expeiences to attend or scheduled meetings
08
Connecting with experts and career counselors
BUSINESS STRATEGY
How will Xperi-mentor make money?
Xperi-mentor’s business model primarily caters to adolescent students and their parents. The packages for Xperi-mentor are developed to be flexible for the individual needs of different students at varying stages. There are three main packages: Mini explorer, Super explorer and Absolute explorer. In addition to these, users can independently buy each mentor interaction and experiential activities.
