Overview
Project Overview
This project was at the intersection of education and entrepreneurship–we aimed to unlock unique value for students and the entrepreneurial community. We aspired to provide internships at early-stage startups for 30 college students from low-income backgrounds nationwide.
My role:
Design Researcher and Strategist.
Outcome:
Developed program strategy recommendations, including onboarding/offboarding experience, student application and rubric acceptance model, and establishing best practices for Nasdaq EC, startups, students, and college staff.
Time frame
3 months in 2019.
CHALLENGE
How might we help community college students strengthen their career opportunities for the future? How might we help early-stage startups find valuable talent?
GOALS
Test to learn whether startups hiring students with non-traditional backgrounds would be a good match for each other.
IMPACT
Despite the impact of COVID-19, the pilot program was successful due to my foresight and extensive recommendations on remote work.
Process
RESEARCH
The product consultant and I collaborated closely to leverage each other’s areas of expertise. My focus was on research and program strategy, while his focus was on product development.
Methods: primary and secondary research, strategic foresight methods, surveys, college intercepts, focus groups, in-depth interviews, personas, journey maps, and affinity maps.
- I began auditing all research done to date at Nasdaq EC on startups and students and researched current external trends.
- I developed one survey to learn about students’ current skill sets, entrepreneurial mindsets, and motivations. And we developed another survey to learn about startups’ needs.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
We created an Airtable to visualize survey data and identify correlations. After identifying some preliminary patterns, I wanted to test our main hypothesis quickly. To gauge interest, my partner and I developed a mock website called “InternMatch” and linked it to the application. Additionally, we conducted intercepts at SF College to gather feedback on the product concept.
- We validated hypotheses and decided to gather more accurate data from our target audience–students from the Community Colleges of Central Valley (lower-income area). We planned to leverage college events to pitch the concept idea to the students.
FINDINGS
I planned and conducted 20+ in-depth interviews with faculty staff, students, and startups. I synthesized all the data gathered and identified main insights:
Students
Most low-income college students juggle full-time jobs alongside their studies and require guidance on specific tech tools and skills.
Startups
Startups often struggle to provide meaningful projects for both students and their organization, and may not have time for coaching or mentoring.
Faculty
Faculty members are passionate about helping their students succeed, and are willing to invest time to facilitate connections between students and startups.
We encountered several obstacles to scale this project nationwide. The most significant challenges were identifying suitable talent from the same college, an effective matching process, managing time zone differences, and ensuring adequate resources to all stakeholders.
OUTCOMES
SOLUTION
I developed an application and acceptance rubric to asses students personality, skill sets, creativity, and passion. My partner and I developed an easy-to-fill application survey to connect the responses to the rubric to find preliminary matches.
IMPACT
I foresaw the need to focus on remote work. My recommendations and best practices ensured quality internships despite COVID-19 shaking the world. After the pilot’s success, Nasdaq officially launched the Intermatch program as part of its current offering services.
I recommended strategies to build a strong foundation step by step with all the key players involved (startups, college staff, and students). Today, they have an “Intern Ready Workbook” based on my recommended strategies.
A deeper dive into this case study is available upon request.