Building Brave

Jun 5

Overview

Building Brave creates a network of mentorship opportunities, empowering companies to better support the women in their organization. As they began a full redesign of their platform, they wanted to focus on increased engagement and reassuring users of their privacy and safety.

My Role

Lead Designer
UX Strategy
Prototyping

Challenge #1

Since their model relies on corporate partnerships, engagement on the platform was lower than you might expect with a platform where users signal intent by signing up directly. Our research told us that many users would check in only once or twice a week, and many felt intimidated about starting their own thread or responding to another user’s comment, knowing their bosses and colleagues would see their content and wanting to contribute something valuable.

Solutions

Small Groups

With the team wanting to increase engagement, we had to find a balance between asynchronous and synchronous interaction. The idea of a forum came up, but as it was still an asynchronous approach and creating a forum post might feel like a big, formal commitment, I didn’t think it offered any benefit beyond the existing feed model. Instead, I came up with the idea of Small Groups, where users could share thoughts via messenger with others interested in the same topics, whether inside or outside of their organization. Creators of these Groups (typically Mentors in the community) could “green-light” the groups for one or more communities and user types to ensure safety and relevance.

Small Groups are time-limited and built around a specific topic, adding a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

These Groups could also have the added benefit of allowing users to connect with others outside of their typical organization in order to gain a wider perspective, and a creator could also opt to allow for anonymous engagement, lowering the barrier to entry.

*Concept of “green-lighting” Small Groups for various communities and user types*

Robust settings allow a Small Group creator to assign organizers, determine how members join, assign topics, determine which communities and users have access, set a limit on how many members can participate, and more. Once created, Small Groups go through admin approval to ensure they are safe for the community.

Sooo…did it work?

We’re awaiting final metrics…but in the meantime, the outlook is good! 🎉

Challenge #2

Privacy, safety, and anonymity are at the top of many users’ minds. The platform encourages sharing of personal and sensitive issues with the goal of professional growth, but users may shy away from more sensitive topics, knowing their colleagues are reading. Because the platform also welcomes male members, it is essential to put more control in the users’ hands when determining who can see the content they post and engage with them on the platform.

Solutions

Clear labeling

We added clear and prominent labels to different kinds of posts, and made clear throughout the experience that someone is an Ally or Mentor.

We also added extra privacy settings and exposed clarity around what settings are enabled, and added clear messaging around who can view your activity in Groups, as an extra reminder that while Groups offer a wider perspective, your contributions will be seen by a community larger than just your own.

Challenge #3

This challenge is a good one to have: the Building Brave team liked working with us enough to sign up for a Phase 2! We had a short timeframe (roughly eight weeks) to turn around 56 remaining screens. To meet this challenge, it was imperative to build a solid design system and component library that could be shared among a team of six designers with minimal version conflict and explanation. Because the Building Brave team was working fast, development was underway as we worked through the remaining screens, underlining the need for a clean, thoroughly annotated system.

Solutions

Design System and Style Guide

A solid design system and style guide were crucial to the success of this phase, both for sharing work and communicating interactions to developers. Because developers were working in tandem with us, a clear system for version control was imperative.