MIT Solve

Solution Overview

What is the name of your organization?

Seattle Women in Tech Reverse Mentoring Program

What is the name of your solution?

Gender-based Reverse Mentoring

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Pairing early in career women in tech to change the equation for Women in Tech

Film your elevator pitch.

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What specific problem are you solving?

We are trying to change the game for Women in Tech by building a reverse-mentoring program to pair early in career women with mid-career male managers.

What is your solution?

Working with Seattle startup UpNotch, the Seattle Women in Tech Consortium community can help pair our community to change the game for Women in Tech.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our solution is two-fold. First, given that the current tech landscape is male dominated, this program will help raise awareness with mid/senior career men to pair them with early in career women - to help them learn more and hopefully drive empathy. More importantly, this will expose early in career women to the thinking of senior leaders to better prepare them for future careers. It is truly a win-win.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

We have a great partnership with Upnotch.com to do the matching. We, the Seattle Women in Tech Consortium Home | Seattle Women in Tech Consortium - are a non-profit made up of volunteers. We can do most of this on our own - but we don't have the capacity to do background checks and the heavy lifting for matching. Seattle startup Upnotch.com | Executive Mentorship Platform is partnering with us to fill that gap.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Create a more inclusive STEM workplace culture including through improving pay transparency, decreasing bias in hiring and promotion, introducing and upholding healthy behaviors and organizational role models, and/or bolstering wraparound supports for wor

In what city and state is your solution team headquartered?

Seattle, WA, USA

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model that is rolled out in one or more communities

How many people does your solution currently serve?

Estimate is about 50 so far.

Why are you applying to the Challenge?

I would say we could benefit most from support and learning, the peer network and PR as a winner to help evangelize. Obviously, finances could help, but the PR that this effort could benefit from would be really helpful.

Honestly, every organization can do this on their own to promote women in STEM - and so the publicity that this idea of gender-based reverse mentoring would gain from this is definitely more important than our individual effort.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Emma Ryan and Ross Smith

How is your Team Lead connected to the community or communities in which your project is based?

Both of us lead this effort.

More About Your Solution

What makes your solution innovative?

I think we have a practical mix of early in career women in STEM in our community - along with a mix of senior folks in big tech companies - combined with a hungry startup investing in mentor matching technology.

All three combine to pair up early in career women in tech with mid/senior male managers to subtlety influence culture change in ways that were not previous addressable (by HR or hiring or management training) - senior managers learn first-hand what it's like to be an early in career woman in tech.

What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?

Scale up our program - we have a couple large tech company pilots but we would love to use this program to scale across the industry. This is not difficult, but it's impactful if we can scale it up.

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

This is challenging, but I think over the long term, we could use subjective data, interviewing mid/senior career male execs about how their reverse mentor influenced their hiring practices.

Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.

There has never been a mid/senior career male manager in tech who grew up as an early in career women in tech. Never. When we change the game and switch it up - early in career women can advise on current tech, social media, challenges and aspirations - and over time, the two sides build a relationshp where the mal manager feels safe and comfortable with a trusted advisor for the early in career woman - someone who represents people in their org - and will give them honest feedback on being a better leader to their generation.

If your solution is tech-based, describe the core technology that powers your solution.

No, right now, things are analog. We hope there will be AI in the future to help with matching, but we are in in stage.

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Behavioral Technology

If your solution has a website, app, or social media handle, provide the link(s) here:

https://www.upnotch.com/post/reverse-mentoring-what-is-it-and-why-you-need-to-try#:~:text=Usually%2C%20Reverse%20Mentoring%20involves%20a%20younger%20mentor%20who,60%27s%20about%20anything%20from%20diversity%20to%20new%20technology.

In which US states does your solution currently operate?

WA, NC

In which US states will your solution be operating within the next year?

all

If your solution operates outside of the US, in which countries does it operate?

United Kingdom

Your Team

Your Business Model & Funding