# Process & Roadmap

## How this was built

Elevra was built in a single ~24-hour hackathon sprint (Women in STEM: Education Hackathon, hosted by Robogals x DSCubed, sponsored by Versent) by a team of four. With that constraint, the team ran a compressed Agile loop rather than a phased Waterfall plan — appropriate given the requirements were being discovered in real time, not fixed in advance.

| Phase | What happened |
|---|---|
| **Conceptualise** | Reframed the brief's stated gap ("discovery and matching remain manual") into the Hills statement in [`problem-and-research.md`](./problem-and-research.md) |
| **Iterate 1** | Two competing concepts explored in parallel — a low-friction swipe browser and a precision identity-match quiz — see [`product-history.md`](./product-history.md) |
| **Converge** | Merged both into one product: swipe as the low-commitment door, match as the precision door, one shared story/action layer behind both |
| **Build** | Built the merged flow directly as a working HTML/CSS/JS prototype (`/prototype`) rather than static mockups, so the demo was a real clickable product |
| **Pitch** | Scripted and rehearsed a 4-person, 3-minute pitch (`docs/pitch-script.md`) built around a single persona's journey through the live prototype |

## Roadmap

**Shipped in the hackathon build (MVP):**
- Swipe discovery + 5-step identity match quiz
- Weighted, transparent tag-matching (no black-box model)
- Story detail pages with "her path" timelines
- Missing Story alert for zero-match identity combinations
- Take-action hub (scholarships, workshops, courses) filtered by profile
- Smart Apply: LinkedIn/resume import *or* a guided, no-resume application builder
- Saved library, profile, and an organiser-facing coordinator dashboard

**Next (prioritised backlog):**

| Priority | Feature | Why it's next |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Story submission portal | Grows the story database organically, especially for underrepresented identity combinations |
| 2 | Teacher/class portal | Turns individual matches into an aggregate view coordinators can act on |
| 3 | "Ask Her Anything" | Q&A grounded in a role model's real story, for questions a static bio can't answer |
| 4 | Robogals post-workshop QR integration | Closes the loop between physical workshops and the persistent digital layer |
| 5 | Real backend + auth | Prototype currently runs client-side only; needed before real identity data is collected |

## Risk register

| Risk | Likelihood | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Sensitive data handled without a real backend/consent flow | High (pre-MVP) | No real user data is collected in the prototype; a consent-first backend is a blocking requirement before any pilot |
| Small hackathon team, tight timeline | Known | Scope was cut to the priority screen order in `docs/design-and-ux.md`, not the full 22-screen build |
| Identity taxonomy is incomplete or contested | Ongoing | Categories are versioned and expected to change as real story submissions come in — never treated as final |