All work
Case study 04

Mentor Hub

A mentorship platform that pairs a structured 12-week digital marketing curriculum with the tooling to actually run a mentorship, from weekly goals to portfolio-ready outcomes.

RoleDesigner & Mentor
Timeline2026
TeamSolo designer-developer, one real mentee
PlatformWeb app
Tools
FigmaNext.jsReactAutomation
Overview

Good mentorship usually lives in scattered messages, half-remembered calls, and a curriculum that exists only in the mentor's head. When I took on a mentee learning digital marketing, I wanted the structure to be real and visible, not improvised week to week.

Mentor Hub is the result: a mentorship tracker built around a concrete 12-week digital marketing curriculum, designed to carry a real mentorship from first goal to portfolio-ready outcome. It was built to be used, with an actual mentee, not as a concept.

12Weeks of structured curriculum
1Real mentee, real engagement
WeeklyGoals tracked from start to outcome
End-to-endFrom first session to portfolio piece
Context

Mentorship without a backbone

Most informal mentorship has no structure holding it together. Progress depends on both people remembering where they left off, and the curriculum drifts because it was never written down. The mentee cannot see how far they have come, and the mentor cannot see where they are falling behind.

I wanted to run a mentorship that treated the mentee's time seriously: a defined path, visible progress, and outcomes they could point to afterward.

The challenge

Turn a loose relationship into a tracked program

The challenge was giving mentorship the structure of a course without losing the flexibility that makes mentorship valuable. Too rigid and it becomes a checklist; too loose and it dissolves back into scattered chats.

It also had to serve two very different views: the mentee working week to week, and the mentor tracking progress across the whole program.

  • Encode a 12-week curriculum as something you can actually track against
  • Make progress visible to keep a real person motivated
  • Support both the weekly working view and the whole-program view
  • Stay light enough that it helps the mentorship instead of becoming overhead
Goals

What success had to look like

Structure you can see

A 12-week path where the mentee always knows where they are and what is next.

Motivation through progress

Visible momentum so effort feels like it is adding up to something.

Outcome-oriented

Every week builds toward portfolio-ready work, not just consumed lessons.

Low overhead

The tool supports the mentorship without becoming another thing to maintain.

Research & discovery

Designing from a real mentorship

This project had the best research input possible: a real mentee. I designed around the actual friction points of mentoring someone through digital marketing, where a beginner gets stuck, what keeps them going, and what makes progress feel real.

I built the curriculum first, mapping twelve weeks of digital marketing into concrete weekly goals, then designed the tooling around how that curriculum is actually delivered and tracked.

Visible progress is fuel

A beginner's biggest risk is losing momentum. Seeing weeks complete and skills accumulate keeps them going.

Two people, two views

The mentee needs this-week focus; the mentor needs the whole arc. The tool has to serve both without confusing either.

Structure enables flexibility

Paradoxically, a clear backbone frees up the conversation, because you are not spending the session re-deciding what to cover.

Process

How I approached it

01

Build the curriculum

I mapped twelve weeks of digital marketing into concrete, teachable weekly goals with real outcomes.

02

Design the two views

I designed a focused weekly view for the mentee and a program overview for the mentor.

03

Add the tracking

Progress, goals, and completion were built in so momentum is always visible to both sides.

04

Run it for real

I used it to mentor an actual mentee, which is what turned it from a concept into a working tool.

The solution

Key decisions, and why

01

A curriculum you can track against

The 12-week digital marketing curriculum is encoded as structured weekly goals, not a static syllabus. Each week has clear objectives that the mentee works toward and marks complete.

Because the path is concrete, both mentor and mentee always know exactly where they are in the program.

02

Progress that keeps people going

Completion and progress are surfaced prominently, because for a learner, visible momentum is the difference between finishing and quietly dropping off. The interface is designed to make effort feel cumulative.

Small, honest signals of progress do more for motivation than any gamified gimmick.

03

Built for both sides of the table

The mentee gets a focused, this-week view that answers a single question: what do I do next. The mentor gets the whole-program view to see pacing and spot where support is needed.

Serving both roles from one tracker keeps the mentorship aligned without extra coordination.

Outcomes & impact

What shipped, and what changed

Mentor Hub is running a real mentorship: a live curriculum, a real mentee, and progress tracked from the first session toward portfolio-ready work. That it exists in actual use, not as a mockup, is the point.

It demonstrates a way of working I care about, designing tools for problems I am personally in, so the design is grounded in real use rather than assumed need.

12 weeksStructured and delivered
LiveIn use with a real mentee
2 viewsMentee focus and mentor overview
OutcomesOriented toward portfolio-ready work
Reflection

What I took away

Building a tool for a mentorship I was actually running kept me honest. Every feature had an immediate test: did it help the real person in front of me learn faster or stay motivated? Most product work does not get feedback that direct.

It reinforced my belief that the best products often come from solving your own problem first, then generalizing, rather than designing for a user you have only imagined.

  • Design for a real user you can watch, and the priorities become obvious
  • Structure and flexibility are partners, not opposites
  • Visible progress is one of the strongest motivational tools you have
  • Tools for your own problems stay grounded in real use
Get in touch

Let's build something people actually use.

I'm open to product design roles, design system work, and AI-assisted build engagements.

wakassodesign@gmail.com LinkedIn