Inspiration
We believe that the main factor that discourages women from applying to jobs until they meet 100% of the qualifications is a lack of confidence and a fear of failure. So, we decided to create our app “Summit”, in order to uplift women and help them feel prepared internally, through a variety of resources. These include a chatbot, a mentor matching service, and a network of others on “Summit” to connect and grow with. While technical qualifications are essential, we decided to focus on improving soft skills such as interview practice, networking, collaboration, and advocating for oneself. We were especially inspired by the Women In Tech Panel at FidHacks, as many panelists mentioned imposter syndrome, as well as the importance of having a “cheerleader”. Thus, we decided our app could be the cheerleader for our users through our chatbot, Sierra, as well as mentors and other members.
What it does
Upon first opening the app, the user will be met by the chatbot, Sierra. It will gather information from the user about their strengths, weaknesses, goals, and worries, and use this information to create a step by step plan. This series of steps is their pathway to success, which will be shown on the landing page. Additionally, the chatbot will use the information to pair the user with a Mentor who has similar values/interests and more experience. The user can chat with their mentor and take advice. Similarly, the user can access different groups within the “Community” tab of the app, which are also based on their career goals and interests. This will help them create a full network of support and encourage action towards their goals.
How we built it
Our first step in building our app was brainstorming the purpose and functionality of our app. When thinking of why women might feel less sure about seizing opportunities, we drew on our own experiences; we felt that a lack of confidence, sometimes from not having a support group, had hindered us in the past. Thus, we designed our app with the purpose of boosting the confidence of female professionals. We sought to deliver this through a logical flow designed to provide the user assurance in her next steps. First, we decided our main MVP would be a functional chatbot that could assist the user in understanding her pathway to success. To create the chatbot, we used an OpenAI API, which provided the personable and encouraging responses that we wanted to provide users, as well as individual personalization for each user. We used React (Javascript, CSS/HTML) to build the functionality of the chatbot, then migrated over the visual design from Figma. Then, after gaining an understanding of the user’s goals, strengths, and values, we intended for the chatbot to connect the user to like-minded mentors and interest groups, earning points when they took steps towards their goals. In order to design the app and create the UI, we used Figma. This allowed us to prototype our app and lay out each individual page.
Challenges we ran into
One of the challenges we ran into, but also one of the most valuable lessons we learned, was not understanding the full picture of the development flow. Our idea was to create the visual mockup in Figma and the functionality of the chatbot in React, then integrate the two; however, we weren’t aware of the limitations to Figma, and that it would be unable to integrate React. Now, we know that a better flow of development would be to visually mock up first in Figma, then flesh it out with functional code in React. Another challenge we ran into, since it was our first time working with an AI API and APIs in general, was encrypting the API key for deployment. We ended up only using a real API key locally, and replacing it with a placeholder when pushing to GitHub. In the future, this is an important cybersecurity concern that we’d like to learn more about addressing.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of our concept as a whole, and our ability to collaborate to come up with an app design and idea. We are especially proud of how we were able to incorporate multiple factors, like the chatbot, mentor matching, and community network into one idea that would cohesively improve experiences for women in tech. Additionally, we were all able to learn how to use new technologies, such as Figma for creating the UI, React for the chatbot, and integrating the OpenAI API. Ultimately, we were able to bring our vision to life and have a full app design as well as a functioning chatbot.
What we learned
We learned about the MVP from the FidHacks mentors, which is the main component you need in order for the product to be used. We determined our MVP to be the chatbot because most of our app was built around the chatbot. We also learned that it is important to state your purpose separately from the MVP. While the MVP is the product, the purpose is how the MVP will impact the community. For us, we want to focus on making the chatbot to improve confidence and self esteem through two main ways: being a cheerleader and helping improve soft skills. As the panelist mentioned, having a cheerleader can be helpful to convince you to apply for a job that you might not feel fully qualified for. Also, soft skills can help you feel more comfortable in going into these interviews that you are not fully qualified for. As a team, we developed skills in developing AI, creating user interfaces with Figma, creating videos with Canva, and presenting our ideas. We also learned the importance of collaboration as we brought up questions regarding how to make the app easier to use and more fun. We also learned the importance of detailing the plan before building, and considering multiple perspectives and taking advice from mentors on how to improve the user experience.
What's next for Summit
Going forward we would want to add more features to make it more gamified such as the ability to design your own avatar that way you can visualize yourself reaching your goals and prizes that you unlock (such as new hiking boots or a new backpack) when you reach a new level/badge.
We would like to expand the use of the chatbot to include being able to help with interview practice, resume review, and book meetings with career coaches.
We also found that people might feel more comfortable with sending emails or asking for coffee chats to get advice if they have templates or help for how to word their email. Therefore, we wanted the chatbot to be able to provide advice or help with formatting emails.
We would like to expand into a web version that stores articles, videos, and blogs made by mentors (who get incentives/badges for making them). The web version could be linked in the app, so it's easily accessible.
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