Husky Match (Hackathon Winner)

Overview

A hackathon-built mentorship matching product designed to connect students with the right mentors quickly, with an end-to-end MVP focused on usability and trust.

Problem Statement

• Finding a relevant mentor was slow and inconsistent.
• A generic directory experience increased drop-off and low-quality matches.
• Users needed confidence in why a mentor was recommended.

Goals & Success Metrics

• Reduce time-to-first-match and increase match relevance.
• Increase profile completion and successful match requests.
• Increase engagement signals (messages sent, sessions scheduled).
• Validate trust via explainable matching factors.

My Role & Responsibilities

• Owned MVP scope, user journey, and success metrics for the demo outcome.
• Converted the problem into requirements, flows, and acceptance criteria.
• Built and shipped the MVP with rapid iteration under time constraints.

Discovery & Insights

• Users want the right mentor for a specific goal—not a larger directory.
• A guided intake improves match quality and reduces noise.
• Explainability increases trust faster than sophistication.

Solution

• Guided onboarding capturing goals, interests, and constraints.
• Matching with transparent rationale (why this mentor fits).
• Clear next actions: request, message, schedule, and follow-up.
• Lightweight feedback loop to improve recommendations over time.

Execution

• Scoped a narrow MVP: intake → match → request → engagement loop.
• Prioritized reliability and clarity over feature count.
• Designed the demo around the user outcome (finding a mentor), not the tech stack.

Results & Impact

• 1st place hackathon winner out of 100+ teams.
• MVP shipped in 48 hours.

Key Learnings

• Right scope wins: a tight MVP beats a broad prototype.
• Explainability is a product feature, not a nice-to-have.
• In early-stage products, removing uncertainty drives adoption quickly.

What I’d Improve Next

• Add evaluation and feedback loops to improve match quality iteratively.
• Improve mentor supply management (availability, responsiveness, coverage).
• Expand lifecycle UX: reminders, session outcomes, and retention hooks.