DonDimal

01. Problem Background

During my university years I was approached my man students asking a very similar question. It's always regarding an issue they faced a lot.

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I did a little bit of digging and found out that there is a issue to be solved.

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The Problem

01. Students have no way of reaching out to other students with diverse skills to help their projects.

02. Students have no way to reach out to others to offer their skills for pet projects.

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The Goal

My goal in this project was to define and ideate a solution addressing the problems defined and test the solutions to create a more refined solution.

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02. Why group projects are important?

University projects are some of the most important points where a student can score to gain a competitive edge in the current job market. Most students tend to do more projects on their own than the ones assigned by their university to update their cv or portfolio.
Even though a student might have done many projects, most employers value projects that are completed with the collaboration of group of students, because team work and collaboration is an essential part when working for a company.
The problem arises when students are unable to find good teammates to support their brilliant project idea or then a student wants to join a project team to improve their and showcase their skills and knowledge.

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03. User Research

To understand the mindset of the users I did a user research to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Therefore I collected data under 2 methodologies.

01. Survey

02. User Interviews

First I conducted a survey to gather data on problem validation and potential user demographics. Then based on data analyzed I conducted interviews to gather more qualitative data

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I was able to gather following insights from the user research.

It was mentioned that socialization between peers played a significant role when finding group projects to contribute. Introverted students had difficulties when reaching out to their peers to join their pet projects or related group projects.
Students who lead project groups wanted skills and knowledge from other students outside their own university due to the specificity and uniqueness of the skills needed. Finding students with such skills is a frustrating process.
In most group pet projects, members wanted to collaborate with students of the same academic level. They showed a reluctance to collaborate with highly skilled professionals.

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