Mobile and Desktop Platform | 2018-2019
Role: Product Designer
The Challenge
Searching for a job is often a difficult task, filled with negative experiences and emotions in the process. Jump is a hiring platform with the mission of making getting a new job a smoother task for professionals.
In this project, I worked as the Product Designer, alongside with the Product Owner, Operations Team, Copywriters and Developers, in order to make applying for a job a more effective and pleasant experience at Jump.
The then job application flow was a form divided in 3 pages. The metrics showed a high drop-off rate. It wasn't mobile optimized, even though more than 55% of candidates at Jump were using their phones.
First page of the previous application form.
Moreover, we received reports from companies that, quite often, candidates would get to interviews, sometimes to offer stage, knowing very little about the vacancy. Some critical specs, such as salary range or type of contract, were ignored by applicants, even though this was displayed in the job page and in the application forms. The result was a lot of rejections that could have been avoided, causing a bad experience for both users, candidates and companies.
Requirements
Decrease the drop-off rate of the job application flow
Be mobile optimized
Reduce the candidate rejection rate at the interview (or later) stage
Research
By listening to records of recruiter's screening with candidates, I analysed the human conversation flow. I broke down the questions, answers and job information to understand:
The order questions were made
How did recruiters approach topics, such as salary expectations?
How did they reject candidates not suitable for the role?
What was their tone & voice?
I interviewed professionals who were job hunting, to understand their pain points and frustrations in the journey. As well as recruiters, to provide more insights about the screening interviews and understand the key information that was critical to know which candidates would be a good fit or not.
Solutions
With the research results in hand, I started to work on the new flow.
First of all, instead of long forms, I broke down the job application and created a user flow divided in smaller chunks. This way, not only the flow seemed easier - the user had to deal with one question at a time -, but it also gave Jump the chance to provide the job specs along the way, so users were better able to withhold information.
Based on the research, there was a strong indication that a more conversational approach would help achieving the goals. In order to validate this assumption, I created a chatbot prototype to test with users.
The prototype was quickly built on a marketing tool (chatbot.io) with limited resources. But it had all elements needed to prove the concept for Jump's new application flow.
Users found the conversational tone more friendly and personal. They reported it was easier to provide all information needed - they didn't feel cognitively exhausted at the end.
From the findings, I could then improve the new job application flow.
I took into consideration the different user paths for candidates who were a good fit and those who had to be rejected in a much earlier stage.
Wireframes helped to discuss the new flow with the team, as well as to test with users.
To avoid a frustrating experience while being rejected, I suggested honest and empathic communication combined with an exit option for the user, either inviting them to see better suitable positions or incorporating a negotiation approach.
Confirmation screens, such as the commute, helped make sure users were taking in all critical specs for the job, one-by-one. By providing them with an option to withdraw the application in a positive way (users could reject the confirmation to see better suited jobs), the design led them to think about the two options before clicking and encouraged users to say "no" to a job that wasn't ideal, because withdrawing the application would provide them more suitable options.
For some job specs, there were no right or wrong answers. For those cases, the designs took a neutral approach - all buttons had the same hierarchy, encouraging the user to read all the options before making a choice. While for other criteria, the answers did have different weights, so the design adapted to guide the user to the desired flow.