Dialexa EDU: Mentoring a New Generation of Digital Product Creators

Joshua Payberah
Jan Ballard
Sean Sullivan

Dialexa EDU: Mentoring a New Generation of Digital Product Creators

Dialexa’s methodology is about solving problems, excelling at our crafts, and providing innovative experiences. Dialexa EDU, a new initiative started in 2020, fosters this same mindset around creation and offers it to future generations of digital product creators. Dialexa didn’t see many real-world mentorship opportunities for the next-generation, so we knew we could fill this industry void by creating and executing a real-world mentorship program. We assembled a team of Dialexans and Professors who were passionate to bring this idea to life.

This panel talk will explore the Dialexa EDU 2020 program where student teams from Texas Christian University, University of North Texas, and The University of Texas at Dallas took the groups of students through this eight-week sprint of a real-world project showing them what you need to consider from a design standpoint, a technology standpoint, and a business standpoint.

After getting off to a great start, the COVID pandemic required a mid-sprint pivot, but the students and mentors persevered to keep the work going. This culminated with a Digital Presentation Day in April where each school’s team presented their outputs of the sprint deliverables and offered their perspectives on what they learned throughout the program.