A new way to Talent-Hunt and Share Opportunities
Connecting people at 6degrees
About the project
A pro bono project for the client, this was a three weeks project where my team of 3 worked with the two founders of this company.
at6degrees (the client) is talent referral marketplace and job board that allows companies to scale their referral efforts through talents referred by their employees or the greater community and for jobseekers to directly apply for jobs. Companies save on hefty recruitment fees while providing anyone an opportunity to make passive income or find a suitable role for themselves
With only a concept in mind to work with, this was an end-to-end project where we began with user and online research and delivered a high fidelity prototype in Figma.
Design Goals and Challenges
Our goals were to research and understand the job seekers’ and referrers’ motivation with regards to the job hunting and job referral process.
In addition to the above mentioned, we aimed to create a digital experience that is smooth and attractive for the user (referrer and jobseeker).
Focus was given to the design so users will feel engaged and supported to come back to view jobs or help their contacts find jobs as part of the community. The community includes employees, job seekers and referrers. They may be within or outside of the organisation.
Since at6degrees has yet to present itself to the market, our challenge was that we had to work based on assumptions and design UX strategies for a product that was still in the works. Hence, we had to conceptualise based on both quantitative and qualitative research, and inspirations from various competitors and comparators for UX/UI concepts.
The Team and Tools
The Team
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Cassandra Chen - UX Researcher and Designer
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Gabriel Teo - Project Manager
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Khin Thapyay - UI Designer
Tools & Methods
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User interviews
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Comparators and Competitors Analysis
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Sketch and Ideate
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Card Sorting
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Usability Testing
Time line
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3 weeks
The Research
We first did some comparative and competitive against some of the other companies in the market. We drew inspiration from some other job portal sites as well as job referring sites. As the concept of community job referral is still relatively new in Singapore, we also looked at some companies that are based in other locations outside Singapore.
We then went on to send out surveys and conduct users interviews to gain more insights from users in the community.
Surveys
Age Range 24-50 years old
58 Respondents
3% Fresh Grads, 97% Working Adults
75.9% 75.9% indicated the preferred jobs platform is Linkedin due to its networking feature
87.9% will browse a job portal only if they are looking out for a new role
62.1% has referred a job to someone
80% indicated that they will refer a job only if they know that their contact was on the lookout
81% indicated that they will direct share the listing with their contacts
Interviews
Age Range 22-48 years old
13 Volunteers
5 Students, 8 Working Professionals
Key Insights of a Job Referrer
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I am more inclined to refer jobs to people who are within my community and are in the same industry as me.
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I need to be familiar with both the company/ industry, and the candidate to consider referring a job to them. It has to match for both parties.
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I refer jobs to someone only if I know they need a job.
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Monetary incentives are appealing to me, to help me earn side income.
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I refer jobs to someone I know personally and I think they are suitable.
Joyce, the Referrer's journey
Joyce felt concerned as Sherie was very distracted throughout dinner as she shared that a role has been open for 8 months and she has not been able to fill it!
Joyce had a long overdue catch up with Sherie over dinner. She was very excited as they have not seen each other in a while!
Sherie asked Joyce if had someone suitable in mind and Joyce could not think of anyone. A referral is a huge responsibility and a wrong one may affect their friendship!
Joyce was dismayed that she could not help Sherie out and she ended the dinner disappointed that she could not help a friend out.
Job Referrers' Needs and Wants
Pain Points:
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Difficulty in knowing which contact is open and suitable
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Poor candidate might affect reputation
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Unsure if the employer and employee is a good match
Needs and Wants:
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Easily know who might be open for work
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A hassle-free experience
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Earn while helping others
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Ensuring that the employer and employee is a good match
Job Referring's Pivoting Point
We took a step back to define what being a 'referrer' meant to people.
We observed from user research that the act of referring someone comes pegged with emotions. The referrer feels personally responsible for the refer and they must know that both the company and candidate are of good quality and fit before they make the introduction.
Referrer
vs
Introducer
Endorsement involved
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Shares it to a suitable candidate and knows the candidate and company well.
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Feels that their reputation is at stake
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Takes into account soft and hard skills
Sharing of Link, reaches out to broad network audience.
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Share it in groups/ Social media.
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May not necessarily be familiar with candidate
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Takes in account only the hard skills suitability
Pros:
Cons:
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High hard and soft skilled quality candidates
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Refers within their industry
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Limited pool of people
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Shares only with candidates that are open for work.
Pros:
Cons:
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Diverse network
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Larger pool of people
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More willing to share with generic network
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Inability to gauge candidates’ soft skills and culture fit with company
How might we then, can we let these job listings reach the masses and have high quantity of quality candidates respond easily?
Upon Deep Dive and discussion with the founders and stakeholders, the decision was to re-strategise the business model from a 'Referrer' to a 'Introducer'.
This would allow the Introducers to share a listing to their networking without knowing who would potentially be suitable for the role; and upon application from the candidates, the Introducer would do a basic screening to access the candidate's match to the role and go on to approve the candidates' application.
If the candidate gets hired, the Introducer will then be paid the Introducer fee.
Sharing a job listing
Approving a job application
The Design
Sketches of the Landing page
Sketches of the Job listing page
How then did we arrive at the design of the site?
This was done over two session of Ideate + Sketch (Design Studio) where our team got the owners involved in the process.
They were first introduced to the basics of sketching, and after which, we got right down to work!
After each round of sketching, we would each take turns in explaining our designs.
The result was a 'Frankenstein' of all our sketches!
Mark, who is on the lookout for new opportunites found a job listing that seems to fit him perfectly!
He can't find any information other than the JD on the job portal site.
Has to open various other sources to try and find out more about the company etc.
Finally found all the information he wanted after 20 mins and applies for the job. Fingers crossed!
Mark, the Seeker's journey
Needs and Wants:
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Be shown relevant jobs
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Seamless job application process
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Have comprehensive understanding of company, role and other relevant information easily
How might we then, help the Job Seeker to be shown only relevant job listings, and to be able to understand and know more about the company as well other related information and materials easily so he can know if that company may be a good fit for him?
We believe that by providing him with search filters, as well as comprehensive information on a single platform, he can have a well rounded understanding of the company in a seamless manner. This can be done by pulling data from various sources by means of Application Programming Interface (API), which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.
Applying for a job
Signing up for an event
Try out the prototype!
Pain Points:
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Tedious application process
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Have to research on various platforms and sites to gather information
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Job postings on job portals does not accurately reflect posting information (on company’s website)
Job Seeker's Needs and Wants
Retrospective
One of the biggest take away from this 3 weeks of working with product owners was time and expectation management as well as taking business goals and model into consideration.
Working with only a concept from the product owners, we redefined the business model when we shifted our focus from 'referrers' to 'introducers'. Business needs and growth roadmaps were discussed and defined.
Working in a team; trust, collaboration and co-operation was also crucial in making the project a success. By setting expectations and understanding of goals, we were each able to do own piece of work before coming together and putting them together to form the big picture. We also took into account each team members' strengths and weaknesses and made the best use of them.