applicant ux baselining
bikelane hire
Context
After the MVP was created, and shipped by an outside firm, I was brought on as the in-house product designer at Bikelane Solutions. Working in an extra-lean team of two engineers, and a product manager, I worked to design and implement an improved applicant experience on the platform, while sprint and project managing the product. I created a baseline for the applicant UX in order to set up the product to be continuously iterated on. We successfully packaged and shipped the project in June of 2019.
my role:
Product Designer / Sprint Manager
Methods:
Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Iterative Prototyping
Tools:
Sketch, Invision, Jira
Problem
The MVP of the job board was created and shipped solely based on the employer’s experience, and largely misunderstands or ignores the applicant’s experience leading to high drop off mid-application, and low platform retention.
Goal
Investigate and solution for applicant needs to increase the rate of completed applications, and applicant retention on the platform.
Research
Competitive Landscape
What is the baseline for applicant UX?
Hiring solutions for the restaurant industry in particular include a number of established competitors. I analyzed the features and capabilities of each competitor to understand what an applicant might expect during their job search.
direct competitors (R to L): harri, culinary agents, craigslist, indeed, email & walk-ins
Research boiled down to four features:
Applicant Profile: Does the platform have a profile page for the applicant where they can edit/view their information?
One Click Applications: If applicants build out their profile, can they apply to other jobs in one click/without having to fill out the entire application again?
Free or Paid: Is the solution a free or paid solution?
Automated Application Status: Will applicants receive updates on the status of their application?
User Interviews
What are applicants’ expectations for application systems and the application process?
I spoke with 6 recent applicants from our system about their experience on our platform, and their wants and needs relating to the job hunting process.
Applicants reiterated two points:
Applicants apply to many jobs at once and therefore hate redundancy.
“I don’t like having to fill out information over and over again.”
Applicants expect some kind of feedback after submitting the application, but usually do not receive it.
“I want to know if I might get hired, or not.”
Solutioning
Requirements & Constraints
Limited engineering resources meant we would have to treat the applicant experience as an MVP.
New flows need to take into consideration the existing tables and database structure.
Based on historical data, must be mobile friendly as most applicants apply through their phone.
Ideation and Feature Prioritization
Considering impact, and the “expectedness” of a feature led to three solutions tied to user goals.
User flows
Taking a look at the existing structure, and processes (both front-end and back-end), I determined that in order to keep changes to our data tables to a minimum, the solutions should be implemented by breaking apart the applicant user flow into a flow for new users, and a flow for existing users.
Card Sorting
DESIGN & PROTOTYPING:
Wireframes
Prototyping…Testing…Prototyping…Testing…
DEV & LAUNCH
Development spanned a 3 months, where I worked closely with our engineering team to resolve blockers, iterate, and eventually launch the redesign in June 2019! 🎉
Bikelane has been acquired and dissolved as of May 2020.
