Automated mentor-matching tool

[IMPACT]

There are many opportunities and roles that exist within Catalyst. For someone newly joined, it’s a steep learning curve to get to a position where they are able to understand the ecosystem and how they can involve themselves in the various opportunities available. 

What’s more, it is a rapidly changing and growing ecosystem with lots of opportunities and knowledge that is evolving and undocumented. Much of the valuable insights and nuances of how things work are gained through experience and held by people. 

Mentorship is a proven tool for opening up specific and relevant pathways for individuals by providing access to knowledge and networks. OneUpOneDown (“OUOD”) is an AI-powered mentor matching platform to support individuals to access knowledge, networks and to transition into pathways that might have otherwise been inaccessible.

We propose developing a network matching pool to generate mentor-mentee matches between experienced and new members within Catalyst. 

We will leverage OUOD’s existing matching process, which facilitates 3-month long matches and uses an automated matching model to create the best matches within a network. 

Once we have an established pool of Catalyst mentors, this pool can be a source of knowledge and networks for new users or organizations who wish to create pathways into the catalyst community through the tool of mentorship

OUOD’s mentor-matching solution is designed to build trusted relationships, based on cross over between the mentors current skills, both personal and professional, and the mentees desired state. The matching logic is based on a concept called ‘near-peer mentorship’, which means the mentor is a couple of steps ahead of the mentee in a specific area of development. This means the learning gap is wide enough that the mentor can add value to the mentee, based on their experience, but not so wide that the experience is no longer present and relevant for the mentor. This create a value exchange that is valuable for both the mentee and the mentor.

Through effective and engaging mentor matches, new Catalyst members can receive the guidance they need to access the opportunities that are most relevant to them, gain confidence in their ability to participate in roles, take on more responsibility and deepen networks within the community.

This proposal covers the product development work required to build out the pool functionality and to run a Catalyst pilot mentor-matching program for three months. 

Our solution will provide the following components:

• Mentoring platform powered by a machine learning matching engine
• Automatically proposes high-quality mentor matches
• Administrator dashboard allows program managers to make and monitor matches
• User dashboard for updating profile, preferences and responding to matches
• Best practice mentoring tools are built into the platform to support mentors and mentees in roles
• Catalyst mentoring pool, promoted to the Catalyst community and discoverable for OneUpOneDown users

OneUpOneDown's programme is designed so users can be matched on an ongoing basis. Once mentors and mentees finish their 3-month match, they can be matched again to provide ongoing support through mentorship. It supports the development of deep networks within a community.

Once we validate the suitability of our matching system within the CatalystEcosystem, we plan to build a mentorship DAO upon the Cardano blockchain, enabling the flow of tokens to reflect the value provided within the mentorship network.

The main risk is not getting enough mentors signed up to the programme. To mitigate this risk we will promote the benefits of being a mentor and recruit through Catalyst channels, groups and our networks. We also have the support of Catalyst School. OUOU's programme is designed to be manageable and enjoyable for mentors, which supports mentor recruitment efforts.

[FEASIBILITY]

Action Plan: 

• Step 1: Build Catalyst Pool functionality so Catalyst members can select this pool when they sign up 
• Step 2: Recruit experienced Catalyst members as mentors. 
• Step 3: Recruit new members to sign up as mentees. 
• Step 4: Propose matches
• Step 5: Matching begins
• Step 6: Monthly check-ins to assess match quality and progress 
• Step 7: Match finishes
• Step 8: Report learnings

Mentor matching logic: We have developed a successful matching algorithm for our target demographic and have a platform with over 650 users signed up as mentors, mentees or both. Users currently can log in, create a profile, manage their match preferences and accept/reject proposals. We have made over 200 mentor matches to date and our NPS score is over 80%.

Roadmap:

First month: Technical setup, and mentors and mentee onboarding

• Building the Catalyst mentoring pool by leveraging existing OneUpOneDown infrastructure. Members of the Catalyst community will be invited to join as mentors through a specific code for the Catalyst pool. New members will be invited to sign up as mentees. Both will then be able to create profiles and select their preferences. 

Second month: Matchmaking

• Our AI algorithm will run through the Catalyst pool and propose matches. A matchmaker will confirm the good matches and will make them live. 

Third month: Check-ins 

• Through the period of 3 months, we will make check-ins in order to keep track of the process and make sure matches are good. This also helps us to catch earlier matches that are not good and make new proposals.

Fourth month: Feedback and KPIs tracking

• Tracking and analyzing the data in order to compile and present a clear view of the metrics that define the success of the project.

If the pilot project is successful we will continue to expand the pool and make matches, with the intention of developing a decentralised mentoring network on the Cardano blockchain. We intend to do this in collaboration with the proposers shared below.

Total budget requested: $10,000

Pilot programme for 4 months in total (development & rollout):

• 1 month for development, mentor and mentee recruitment : 
• 1x$3,500 = $3,500 Full stack developer 
• 1x$2,000 = $2,000 Technical leader and technical support manager
• 1x$1,500 = $1,500 Marketing & Comms Lead 
• 3 month for delivery:programme execution and success  
• 3x$1,000 = $3,000 Cardano program and experience support

Team:

• Program design expert - Natalie Robinson, Co-founder and CEO at OneUpOneDown.
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliecrobinson/ 
• 10+ years in sales, marketing, finance and startup
• business development experience
• 5+ years experience mentoring entrepreneurs in
• early stage business development
• 5+ years experience learning & development
• programme design
• Member of Catalyst Leadership Academy and Cardano Creatives. 
• Technical lead - Dzhuliana Nikolova, Co-founder and CTO at OneUpOneDown.
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dzhuliana-nikolova-b6805714a/ 
• 7+ years experience in UX/UI design & product development
• 5+ years experience in software development
• 5+ years experience in self-development, education and mentoring
• Software engineer - Dimitar Sodev, Software Engineer at OneUpOneDown
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitar-sodev-451808a7/ 
• 20+ years of experience in Python, AWS, Java, SQL, AI/ML, TensorFlow, Linux, JavaScript, PHP, LAMP, Pandas, Apache.

• The project will be developed in collaboration with the AIM:
• Cardano AIM (Assembly Inspiring Masses) brings together active Catalyst Community members and currently designs and builds tools that support the community. Some examples: include the popular voter-tool (https://cardanocataly.st/voter-tool/#/), the Community Advisor Tools (CA and vCA-tools) (https://cardanocataly.st/ca-tool/#/ & https://cardanocataly.st/vca-tool/#/)))))))) as well as the community landing page (https://cardanocataly.st/). AIM continues to focus on developing the best services and tools for the benefit of the community.
• Yoram is part of AIM and an active community member, CA & successful proposer. He has participated in several initiatives and communities to make Catalyst better for all. 
• The project will be developed in collaboration with Catalyst School to support us with recruiting mentors

[AUDITABILITY]

We will consider this pilot project successful if we can make a minimum of 20 successful matches to onboard new users within the catalyst. In addition to tracking the number matches made, we will track the following metrics to assess the success of the project:

• Quality of mentor matches
• Mentor Match Impact Score (0-10)
• # of matches with at least 2 meetings
• Impact on new member onboarding:
• >80% of mentees confirmed they feel more at home within Catalyst as a result of the match
• > 35% of mentees taken on a new role or responsibility within Catalyst as a result of the mentorship

Deploying a tool that is highly effective at onboarding new members to Catalyst using OUOD’s mentor-matching method.

• Goal #1 - Build Catalyst Pool functionality so catalyst members can sign up and assign themselves to the catalyst matching pool.
• Goal #2 - Run Catalyst pilot program. 
•  Recruit >60 mentors and mentees to participate in the Cardano mentoring pool. Make and track >20 matches to assess match performance.

If the pilot program proposed is successful, we intend to work collaboratively with existing projects to develop the underlying blockchain infrastructure to support a decentralized mentor-matching platform.

Entirely new proposal.

We have submitted another Fund 8proposal to fund the development of a white paper for

Mentorship Incentivization DAO:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/404785

SDG Rating

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