Building a Sustainable Framework to Uncover Gaps in the DEI Journey

Project Overview

Digitally speaking, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is a nascent space—with past attempts tending to focus on hiring practices alone, often to the exclusion of other essential components: belonging and inclusion, retention, advancements, etc.

Crucial as enabling the recruitment of diverse talent may be, true diversity goes beyond hiring. Actual comprehensive DEI strategy required a platform with resources, learning tools, and the ability to gain insights and communicate between team members. What had been done in the past was mostly consultancy—it was more manual than automated and lacked a platform to implement, execute, and measure impact.

With a single platform to build, mobilize, and measure an organization’s diversity action plan, Mathison offers the only end-to-end operating system specifically built for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And when Mathison needed a partner to help them build the requisite platform to deliver their software, they came to MindSea.

The challenge:

Mathison came to MindSea seeking to design and build user-centered capabilities to deliver a one-of-a-kind DEI platform that enables Mathison’s Employee Partners to create more inclusive workplaces.

The result:

Ultimately, this project helped Mathison secure $25 million Series A funding in May 2022.  

Success Factors

1. Understand the need and define priorities:

Mathison wanted to develop a broader, more holistic solution that went beyond mere recruiting—they wanted to empower their customers to uncover gaps in the DEI journey, and provide targeted recommendations to help them. 

In order to do that, Mathison needed to gain insights about their customers’ DEI journey by means of an assessment tool. MindSea integrated into their engineering and design teams and provided support to develop a platform for deploying that assessment: from the architecture through to the design work.

2. Flexibility and adaptability

Both Mathison and MindSea follow the principles of human-centered design in their product development process—constantly talking to clients and utilizing customer impact teams to gather feedback, then adjusting for the new information coming in. And in true startup fashion, things were evolving quickly during the build process and in response to other competitors in the space. 

Instead of getting locked into a static plan, the project adapted to new information from the space. This allowed for launching a product that resonated with the market and was capable of ongoing development iteration. MindSea blended into the Mathison team of designers and developers with an agility and flexibility that enabled the teams to move to market quickly.

3. Collaborative Culture

This project was unique in the cooperation made possible by a similarity of cultures between the two firms involved. The openness of each organization generated a level of integration and shared positive culture that increased the level of productivity and teamwork—driving success within every element of the project.

Resources came together very quickly in a blended team model, and because MindSea team members were considered part of the Mathison team, everyone was present on the same standups and involved in sprint planning. This allowed all contributors on the project to move forward as a single team, without being at odds or inadvertently working against each other.

The Outcome:

The collaboration between MindSea and Mathison played a critical role in Mathison’s $25 million Series A raise in May 2022. Over 150 customers are utilizing the Mathison platform to help them develop their DEI roadmap and move from action to insights with clear goals and best practices.

At MindSea, we know responsible DEI practices make better organizations, and make organizations better. We were honored to work with Mathison on such an important digital solution.