Design research into DPG report cards for UNICEF Venture Fund companies

[jwflory]

Summary

Conduct a design exercise to prototype "DPG Report Cards" for UNICEF Venture Fund companies in a web app

Background

The Open Source Mentorship once made great use of these open source evaluation rubrics, but since moved away from them because they never found a good fit in the mentorship workflow, and frequently became out-of-date. Even though they are no longer used, there is also a gap in being able to quickly identify and assess where a given team is in their progress towards achieving the DPG Standard.

I remember a conversation with @lacabra where he mentioned the rubric was a helpful resource for him in the context of the DPG Alliance reviewing submissions from the Venture Fund. @Idadelveloper also put in a good amount of work to-date on the UNICEF Inventory Hugo theme. Combining these two pieces (i.e. a need for a quick assessment of Venture Fund portfolio companies, and a Hugo theme) seem like a possible solution to meeting this need.

Such a web application would benefit both the Venture Fund and the DPG Alliance:

1. Venture Fund portfolio managers and team can quickly get the latest information about each team's progress in meeting the DPG Standard.
2. Venture Fund mentors can contribute updates and data about each company's progress in meeting the indicators.
3. Company is better equipped for the DPG application process by referring to their report card and converting the listed information into the form.
4. DPGA reviewers have easier access to latest information about nominees coming from the UNICEF Venture Fund.
5. Venture Fund and DPGA have better insight to the journey of Venture Fund companies in meeting the DPG Standard.

Details

To close this issue, the design process should complete these phases:

1. Wire framing (done, see below)
2. Prototype evaluation and feedback
3. Architectural design and how to integrate cleanly into theme
4. Code changes
5. Site launch

Wire frame

See the six frames in the wire frame to understand the site design and look-and-feel:

Prototype

I created a fast prototype using Hugo the UNICEF Inventory theme, with a new layout added to the theme:

Outcome

• Faster assessments of UNICEF Venture Fund portfolio companies in their progress in reaching the DPG Standard
• More efficient management of company status and updates (public and open to mentors, companies, and general public)

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CC: @iperdomo @nathanbaleeta @nathanfletcher

[jwflory]

Some feedback was shared in a Venture Fund team meeting this week:

• Assigning a score: Could a company receive a single-number score or indicator of their progress? Ideally this would be at the top of the card and would be a summation of their results shown further down in the report.
• Connecting to DPG infrastructure: Could these report cards be connected to the DPG nomination infrastructure? For example, could a Venture Fund start-up convert their completed report card into a completed DPG application?

[jwflory]

Some feedback was shared in a Venture Fund mentor check-in call with @acabunoc and Philippa:

• Cohort assessments: How much progress has a cohort made towards achieving DPG certification status? Some way to aggregate company progress for a cohort and offer quick visual comparisons, perhaps on the home page view.