**Note: This page is still a Work In Progress. 
Maven
A tutoring marketplace developed for university students
Background
In 2015, my roommates and I started a tutoring business using a website and a facebook page. In 2017, we decided to embark on the development of a mobile app, however we could not complete it prior to graduating. This page is an attempt at finishing the UI/UX design, while bringing it up to 2019 design standards.
The Problem
in 2015, our university’s existing methods of finding a tutor consisted primarily of word-of-mouth and bulletin boards. These methods do not ensure quality, and without a place to leave feedback, they don’t enforce accountability for either party. It could take weeks to find a tutor, and by that time it was often too late.
Our Solution
We created a not-for-profit digital marketplace that connects students with peer tutors. Students had the opportunity to rate and review their tutors, while the tutors could set their own prices based on experience and demand.
The Result
We generated over $15,000 of income for our network of more than 50 tutors, providing tutoring across all undergraduate faculties to hundreds of students. We gathered feedback from students and tutors by having them answer surveys, questionnaires, and interviews, the responses of which encouraged us to pursue the next step of the business…Create an mobile app!
Next step: building Maven
After running our business through facebook and our webpage, it was clear from our user feedback that the next step was to build a mobile app for our service.
User research
How we did it
To determine the features of our app that our clients needed most, we sifted through hundreds of responses that we had collected from past tutoring sessions. After each session, we would reach out to the tutor and student and ask specific questions for them to comment on (e.g. How could this experience be improved? What aspect of our service is lacking?). We also sent surveys out to all of our clients to get a better grasp on some of the more pertinent issues and common problems. From there, we conducted one-on-one interviews with our clients to get more direct information on problems our app could solve for them.
What it told us
Key takeaways for students:
Find tutors quickly; don’t have time to wait for days to find a tutor
Ability to rate and review their tutor
Ability to chat with tutor before the session to explain what they are having trouble understanding
Key takeaways for tutors:
Ability to set their own price; some tutors feel their time is worth more than others based on experience, difficulty of class, and demand
Eliminating overhead; tutors don’t want to spend time marketing themselves and finding students
Automatic payments were requested by majority of tutors; allows them to skip the hassle of carrying change, or having to set up e-transfers with students
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