aitou

AiTou

"Job referral could be helpful."

The job-seeking platform needs to find a way to gain more users and monetize.
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AiTou is a job-seeking platform incubating at Columbia Startup Lab, built to help international students find jobs that offer visa and sponsorship support.

Being at the stage of fund-raising, with the goal of gaining more users & monetizing, the platform is now launching a new feature —— building a job referral platform for job-seekers & referrers.
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My role

Product Design Lead.
Worked with founder, engineers and PM.

2021/10 - 2022/09
Freelance

Responsibilities

Competitive analysis. Product strategy.
User research / testing.
UX/UI design.
Design system.
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Why Job Referral?

We noticed there is a huge need for job referrals in the market.

And we believe providing job referral services will bring us more traffic and users. Also there are more monetizing opportunities in referrals compared to job-searching only.
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Problem Definition

The usual job referral is time-consuming and messy for both job-seekers and referrers

I tried to emphasize with users by interviewing 9 job-seekers & 8 referrers, trying to identify their pain points during the job referral process.

Referrers

Job-seekers

Job-seekers

Usually look for referrals on LinkedIn by connecting with others or reach out to friends who already work there.
‍The connecting and back-and-forth messages is time-consuming. It is also hard to track their requests or get responses timely.

Referrers

Most referrers said that it is difficult to find suitable candidates, they don't know where to post the referral information, and it is hard to manage all the requests via emails.

Ideation

Building bridges - Redefining job referrals for seekers and referrers

We want to build a job referral platform that allows:
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Job-seekers to find matching referrals & request (No more back & forth messages, save time), track referral status (No need to worry about getting no response).

Referrers to post their referral info (Easy to find candidates & customize requirements), manage applicants' requests easily (Efficient managing system).
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Solution preview

A job referral platform to match job-seekers with referrals and help referrers manage requests

Design Process

Competitive Analysis

Why the job referral market still needs a real solution

After the user interview and problem define, we did some research on "what are some platforms doing job referral right now" & "how they are doing business with job referral". We want to learn from them while also be creative, providing something unique in the market.

There are not many platforms focusing mainly on job referrals. I checked exponent and 1point3acres, to see how they do business with job referrals.

- Exponent

Job-seekers cannot see any referral info or referrer's profile, just submit referral requests and wait for referrers to reach out.

Pros: ① Referrer's info is perfectly protected. ② The process is very straightforward and easy to understand and develop.

‍Cons: ① Job-seekers know nothing about referral detailed info and potential referrers ② Referrers cannot customize referral requirements.

- 1point3acres

Referrer post referral details on the platform to recruit candidates. Job-seekers see suitable posts and reach out to referrers.

Pros: ① Referrers can customize referral requirements based on their needs ② Job-seekers know the referral info better

‍Cons: ① Cannot ensure referrers' credibility ② Hard for referrers to manage all the requests ③ Job-seekers have to browse for a long time to find suitable posts

Define MVP

Defining and building an MVP that matters

After identifying key gaps and opportunities in the market, we brainstormed ideas, prioritized features, and defined a focused MVP to address the most critical needs.

User flow

Map the user journey

User flow for job-seekers:

User flow for referrers:

Usability Testing (Job-seekers)

- Recruit Participants

I came up with the following target participants: ‍
- Consider referral an important component when finding a job
- Currently seeking / have applied a job referral in the recent 2 years (familiar with the process)
- Utilizes apps or websites to find referrals
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- Methods

Ask participants to share the screen (if remote) and Think Aloud during the whole process. Record the screen and verbal answers if necessary.
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Give general tasks for users:
1. Please take a minute to explore the website, and tell us what AiTou is about.
2. You’re seeking a Software Development Engineer referral at Google. Now try to search and request for the referral.
3. You have requested for the referral. Now please try to track your referral status.

Ask questions for each page to get specific feedback.

- 1st Round

For the first round, I recruited 5 participants and conducted in-person testing.
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- 2nd Round

For the second round, each team member found 2-3 target users and recruited 17 participants in total and sent out survey to get quantitive feedback.

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Key Feature Iteration

- Browse Referrals
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- Referral Card

What information should be presented in the referral card?

- Referral Details

Usability Testing (for Referrers)

- Recruit Participants

AiTou has already worked with a number of referrers. We emailed the referrer list and recruited 5 participants to conduct remote testing.
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- Methods
Give tasks to participants. Ask them to share screen with us and Think Aloud during the process.

Key Feature Iteration

- Post Referrals
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- Privacy Concern

Prototype Walkthrough

For Job-seekers
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For Referrers
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Design System

I created a new design system for company rebranding.

Key Takeaways

Job referral process can be really complex (including company policies towards job applications and referrals, referrer's requirements...). I have to dig into every step and circumstance and take lots of factors into considerations. As the sole designer of the team for 4 months, I was responsible for all the design decisions. It was tough to figure out all the logics, develop solutions, and sort out the priority and feasibility.

The experience also taught me how to deliver handoff to developers. My previous experience with HTML, CSS & JavaScript definitely helps me communicate with engineers.
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→ Next: Cross-platform 3D animation tool