Solving Collaboration Challenges for Early Tech Entrepreneurs
Alianza AI Collaborative Tool
The aim to address a common challenge among tech entrepreneurs—struggling to find the right collaborators and manage projects effectively. This led to the creation of Alianza, an AI-powered platform designed to streamline collaboration, enhance project management, and connect emerging talent with experienced professionals, making the startup journey more seamless and efficient.
Project Type
Product Design
Role
UX Design and Research
Duration
12 Weeks
Process
Validating the Problem
To validate the problem, we conducted extensive research, including surveys with over 20 participants and user interviews with three institutional entrepreneurship labs—Harvard Innovation Labs, MIT Innovation Labs, and IDEA Lab at Northeastern University. Additionally in-depth interviews with tech founders, recent graduates, and entrepreneurship labs. Our findings confirmed a clear demand for an integrated solution, one that streamlines collaboration and simplifies project execution for entrepreneurs.
Identifying Market Gaps
We analyzed existing collaboration tools and found that while some focus on task management, others support networking. However, none combine ideation, validation, collaboration, and workflow management in one platform. This gap presented a clear opportunity to design a solution tailored specifically for digital entrepreneurs.
Validating the Problem
To validate the problem, we conducted extensive research, including surveys with over 20 participants and user interviews with three institutional entrepreneurship labs—Harvard Innovation Labs, MIT Innovation Labs, and IDEA Lab at Northeastern University. Additionally in-depth interviews with tech founders, recent graduates, and entrepreneurship labs. Our findings confirmed a clear demand for an integrated solution, one that streamlines collaboration and simplifies project execution for entrepreneurs.
Problem
How might we create a seamless, AI-powered platform that helps tech entrepreneurs find the right collaborators, manage projects efficiently, and accelerate innovation?
Our journey began by facing issues to find people to bring a personal project to life in a bootcamp. That's when we identified many entrepreneurs struggling with identifying the right team members and managing their projects across multiple platforms, causing delays and frustration. By talking to people who are interested in entrepreneurship we learnt that Currently, they rely on multiple disconnected platforms, making the process time-consuming and inefficient. Key Problems : - Find the right collaborators efficiently. - Structure and manage their projects effectively. - Access expert guidance when making critical decisions.
Solution
AI Profile Building and Personalized Dashboard
AI Profile Building was taken into consideration as it will help tailor the platform experience by recommending the right people based on their profile and role on the platform. We also designed a personalized dashboard experience—for founders, a structured hero section guides them through project management, while collaborators get a tailored profile-building journey to optimize their visibility in the community.
Community and Collaboration
Community is to create a space where individuals can connect. By utilizing AI to build and refine profiles, making it easier to find the right collaborators and opportunities. The AI-driven insights ensure that each profile highlights the most relevant content, addressing the pain point of connecting with the right people.
Workflow & Task Management
The workflow management feature of the platform ensures that users can seamlessly organize, track, and prioritize their project tasks. With tools like AI-recommended templates and Kanban-style task boards, users can efficiently manage their ideas towards execution. This functionality fosters the integration of intuitive design ensures accessibility for all user groups.
Future and Learnings
Alianza In Future
As we look ahead, our goal is to scale Alianza and expand its impact to a wider user base. Other sectors than tech could also benefit from this tool. It could also scale in a way where it would enable users to manage multiple project and have more mentoring workshops to connect users with industry experts. These steps will enhance collaboration, provide guidance, and make Alianza a go-to platform for innovators.
Reflecting the journey
This project has taught me very important UX lessons such as the importance of narrowing the problem statement helped us define a clear solution, while keeping design easy and familiar ensured a seamless user experience. Addtionally, I also learned to prioritize the right user feedback for meaningful improvements and mastered efficient collaboration under tight deadlines to deliver a high-quality outcome.