Bonsai
The Role
I joined Bonsai at its inception as Head of Design and employee number 5. Bonsai was part of an incubator project started by JP Morgan tasked with helping democratize access career success.
The Discovery phase
We were lucky to have the most diverse urban campus in the country, CUNY, as an early ally and resource. Between focus groups, ad campaigns, and one-on-one product testing, CUNY students helped us hone in on our initial product offering:
Bonsai would be a service that helps new professionals find job opportunities.
Our first app failed
After our launch we tested our app with CUNY students and found that though they all loved the design and ease of experience, it didn’t solve their core problem of getting hired to the places they were applying to.
They felt unprepared for interviews, they didn’t know how to write their resumes, they sometimes didn’t know what type of career they wanted.
Back to drawing board
I led a week-long design sprint shifting the focus of our app towards networking and mentorship. To test our new hypothesis we observed 38 mentor-mentee sessions.
Afterwards we interviewed our participants.
Rapid MVP
I created a journey map of what the app would look like along with pain points and research findings.
Figuring out our core products, Meetings and scheduling:
Creating the business logic and architecture for our meetings required lots of detailed work as meetings have a “life span” from the time they are requested to the time they are completed (or canceled).
Art director
Our new app had to feel elevated since we were now targeting both young and seasoned professionals. I created a new visual identity inspired by the works of Miro, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse; a simplified rendering of humans which allows for inclusivity of gender and race.
Onbording
Bonsai had a simple onboarding experience for both coaches and learners.
Exploring connections
You could see other peoples profile and ask them for mentorship sessions.
Managing meetings
As you booked meetings you could keep track of your current and past meetings and keep following up with all your mentors and mentees.
