Project Overview
Miro
Figma
Google Forms
Google Docs
Zoom
Tools
Role
Product Designer
Discovery
We then surveyed stakeholders of the problem space.
As a team we began by mapping the situation of use so that we could identify the stakeholders that could be involved in the process of professional development and change.
Professional Network & Connection
Participants emphasised the importance of their professional network and connections. Guidance and advice from mentors was beneficial.
"There is stuff that you need to learn from alumni or someone related in the field or someone working in the field already."
Quality of Information
Participants noted an abundance of conflicting and unreliable information — making the planning and decision-making process difficult.
"There is information available, it’s just a bit hard to find. You would have to actually like make up your mind to change."
Doubt in AI/Algorithms
Participants voiced lack of trust in the effectiveness of algorithms in the field of professional development including recruitment, networks, mentoring matching and career guidance.
"It's not really understanding your problems, it's aggregating past information to throw more words at you."
We interviewed 10 participants and gathered 3 key insights.
Interview Participants fit into the profiles of:
Career-changer
Product Manager at Career Tech
University Student
Supermarket Employee, Ex-University Student
Hiring Manager
Careers Advisor
PhD Candidate
Junior Professional
Situation of use Map
Based on the surveys we found:
Participants were on the fence about sharing their career journey with others.
Majority of participant lacked confidence in their current level of education / training to further their careers.
Majority were in favour of receiving guidance and suggestions based on the lived experiences of others.
Technology Review
I proceeded to look into current offerings on the market for professional development, particularly in the area of career mapping from one profession to the next.
Define
Based on our research we ascertained that our target audience were looking for a tool that could take into account their career problems and goals.
Ability for users to receive mentorship from experienced individuals.
Mental and emotional support regarding career decisions.
Community for individuals making similar life choices.
Personalised recommendations for adjacent career paths and options to reach career goals.
Ideate
In our team of 6, we each came up with a solution to address the needs of our users.
Over a meeting we decided on the idea of…
Interactive Pathway Maps: Mapping Pathways provides a dynamic, evolving structure integrating user input and real-world data. The visual interface would use a tree-like structure with multiple branches to illustrate potential career paths. The representation incorporates side routes and alternative options. Each node expanded to view additional details, such as skill sets, job roles, or educational requirements.
The idea aimed to address the concerns and pain points of users, revealed in our research.
Curated Information: Interviews revealed users were overwhelmed by career options, a paradox of choice.
Scepticism towards AI: Users questioned the reliability of algorithm-driven career advice.
Design
Test
Underserves goal-oriented users
—> inefficient pathways to specific roles
Complex interface
—> confusing navigation
—> information overload
—> confusing labels and redundant features
Lack of actionable guidance
—> no real call to action or function aside from planning.
Unclear value proposition
—> multiple test participants noted the profiles as the most useful feature, but not as useful as Linkedin.
Clearly the design was a fail, however the test was a success.
Findings
Iterate
The test revealed that the initial design had failed to solve the problem in a way that other technologies weren't already doing.
So I began by breaking down the problem and re-examining the research results, particularly the interview transcripts.
The first thing I noticed was that I needed to narrow down the target users. It was too broad and underserved those with a clear outcome in mind. My initial conception of the idea had come from career changers so I decided to focus on them.
I also considered the associated pain points with changing careers:
Fear of the unknown and uncertainty
Lack of relevant skills and experience
Financial concerns
Need to build a new professional network
Social risks
I went back over the research and looked into why people wanted to change careers:
Career progression
Changing industry
Toxic company culture or management
Work does not fit their skills, values, lifestyle
Increased job security, better pay, work-life balance
As well as the advice given to career-changers about networking, identifying what career-changers want to do and gaining the relevant skills for those with careers in mind.
“How might we facilitate new industry connections for those trying to break in?”
“How might we help build up social capital and professional character in career changers?”
“How might we create opportunities for career changers to try out new industries and learn new skills?”
New problem statements emerged…
Competitive Analysis II
Target Users II
Discord has servers dedicated to project collaboration and offer spaces for individuals to connect based on shared interests and project needs.
Reddit offers subreddits that are created by users and a fair few are dedicated to finding other users to collaborate or learn with on projects (e.g. r/programmingbuddies)
Formal Education settings including schools, short courses and bootcamps offer a variety of places to meet collaborators in-person or online whether through placement or preference.
Servers like these fail due to a lack of community engagement.
Subreddits are often plagued by bots and self-promoters.
Subreddit admins perceived as unreasonable despots.
Users that are not serious.
Project durations are usually semester-long engagements with same group members.
Less flexibility in choice of what you can build (restricted by scope of assignments and time)
Can be expensive to enrol in and time consuming commitment.
Servers are free to join and flexible on time commitment as usually no established rules.
Subreddits are free to join and it is up to the users to arrange time commitment and project topic through chat.
Financial commitment and presence of teachers facilitates group involvement by all/most group members.
Mandatory collaboration with non-preferred group members ensures development of soft skills.
ABOUT
BAD
GOOD
"[career changes often occur from] discovering different needs at different stages of life”
"my friends they’re all working and I'm kind of…stepping out of life — so it's kind of like lagging behind them."
"[there are] social risks associated with changing careers, such as building, then changing your identity."
High stakes projects = experience expected
Advantage of social capital
Identifying your professional niche
Natural connections
User Flow Mapping
Journey Mapping
People interested in other career changers’ professions can set up a time to chat in a virtual coffee roulette.
People can work on projects in their desired field together to gain experience.
Connects people to professionals in their current company that work in their desired role.
Already viable via cold messaging professionals on Linkedin.
Company may not have desired role available at that company and company may not support it.
This idea was most worth exploring because there weren't a heap of collaboration facilitation platforms I was aware of and collaboration was cited as a great way to develop a network and soft skills — as well as technical skills.
Ideation II
Design II
Test II - Findings
Iteration II
Role-based project structure recruitment
Rather than joining projects by skills, I found participants preferred to join project under project roles.
Reconsider / define value proposition of Community
I found multiple participants didn't think Community would contribute much to the purpose of the app.
Address post-project user journey
I found participants were unsure on outcomes and steps post-project completion.
User type disctinction
Participants wanted greater distinction between with users that were creating a project vs. joining a project.
Team member commitment
Participants expressed concerns about other team members over-committing themselves to multiple other projects.
Consider aspirational skills
Participants felt that there was not enough focus on aspiration skills when searching for roles.
Facilitate meeting scheduling
Participants expressed a desire for a streamlined method of organising team meetings.
Accessibility
Participants expressed they would like to be able to find and join projects in another language.
User Testing brought about 5 significant changes to the design:
Removal of 'Allocate me a project' option.
More robust Aspirational Goals section.
Removal of Community → moving it under Projects
Role-based project membership
Flexibility for project creators to choose to be clients, team members or project leaders.
"People will throw away skills and experience when you're actually in the interview in favour of someone who looks like they could, you know, learn those skills on the job."
Trailmix gives users the opportunity to connect with peers and professionals.
This collaboration facilitates the development of the key soft skills and social capital hiring managers and career advisors note as key to hiring a candidate despite a lack of skills or experience.
Key Takeaways
Rushing to a solution means the process can take a lot more time.
Sometimes when you're reviewing your user research you can miss key patterns if you don't keep a broad perspective.
It helps to leave the problem and come back to it with a new perspective.
When working with others, its important to be able to challenge each other respectfully and make sure all voices are heard.
Thorough comparative analyses are really useful in deepening the scope of your own solution and making it more unique.