Background story
Seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are not advertised by the recruiting companies. The main reason for this is to avoid the administration of applicants and fruitless interviews. Instead, companies use connections and networking to fill their positions. But this means that the right person is out there to fill your vacant positions, but they’re not at the right time and place to get the job offer they want. This is the main issue that Wappare resolves, by matching passive candidates with companies that have their dream job.
Matching the right one
UX research && Product design
App Shack joined the Wappare project in 2018 and reinforced the existing development team. During the project, App Shack got more responsibility, taking over both backend and frontend development. The service consists of a web application using React, talking to a backend made in Django. During 2019, App Shack’s UX team did usability studies on both candidates and companies, leading to the beautiful and usable site we see today.
I joined the team as a UX/UI designer, working closely with CEO Martina, together verified the value of this product, the target user of it. Also I teamed up with front-end in UI specifics and back-end developer on user experience possibilities. The main workflow was running a design sprint each week.
Passive candidates and active recruiters
The recruiters receive tons of applications every day, competitive candidates as well receive many requests if they want to switch jobs. However, it's hard to match the right candidates to the right position.Recruiters become more aggressive, spreading inquires through LinkedIn, email...., in the hope of someone with the fitting skill and background get back to them.
On the other side, candidate poses a more passive stance meaning, sitting in the dark and waiting for the next opportunity, as they are occupied by their daily work, and also because of the repetition through the application process: filling the information, uploading the cv, cover letter, answering laborious questionaries.
Our goal for the project was to revamp the overarching experience. The measurement of success was simple: a match, get the right person to the right position. However, we weren't trying to revert to a simple past. Our ambitions were to create a strong foundation that embraced a rapidly evolving business and a more diverse user base.Our high-level goals were to: Make it and easy to use for everyone, User feel happy using the system. Give candidates more control of their profile. Create a platform for innovation and deeper engagement.
User research modeling
User context exploration
In the early stage, user research is an effective tool to better understand targets user, make us thinking from their pespective.
With prodcut owner, and stakeholder, I conducted two rounds of reseach, one in the way of interview, one in the way of filed study(shadowing), obeserving a whole day work of recuiter and taking notes.
Type: Semi-structured interviews
Interviewees’ profile : Company owner, headhunter, HR, anyone with responsibility in recruitment process.
Questionaries for interviewing:Board questions to open the dialogue, specific questions to pitch our concerns
1. How you feel about your daily work when hunting people?
2. What is the main frustration during the process ?
3. What is your solution to those obstacles?
4. How much information would account for a good candidates. What makes you want to take one candidates further.
5. Are you using any recruitment tool for now? How you feel about that.
"Without UX research, you are essentially basing your designs on assumptions. If you don’t take the time to engage with real users, it’s virtually impossible to know what needs and pain-points your design should address."
Main take aways
Candidates feels reluctant to update their information and show less interested to be contacted.
Engagment
Location and skills first
Find the right one: Accurate is better than efficient
Ideation
How to engage the candidates
I was surprised by the issues we found. The key of this product now is to have as much as candidates to register information through the platform and also keep their willingness to updating their profile. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if the platform is easy to use for the recruiter, this product will go to a dead end.
If power candidates have great intention to fill in their information, the talent pool will be scaled up, thus increasing the chance of matching. And frequently updating their profile will too much extent, reducing unnecessary harassment. Although the challenge it provides, it revealed an opportunity to perfect the candidates' experience This was the beginning of a working north star.
Onboarding drop off by 20%
Image uploading rates increase by 17%
Time spent on the platform increase by 13%
How to facilitate recruiter
Accuracy over efficiency
Adaptation - a playground both for user and business
There are some points here which worth mentioning. The business idea is to hide the candidate's profile until it's a paid profile, meanwhile, we still want to show the candidates' personal preference as our northern star is to have candidates feel proud of themselves.
Knowing the recruiter and the most accurate understanding of their working mode allowed us to select the most optimal profile filter. For example, I switch the experience-select minimum years rather than a check box with a year range. And they want to have the search box everywhere including searching skills, locations.
Which profile without real images interests you?
In this sprint, we focus on twittering 8 different versions of the user profile with 6 participants. All of them are recruiting specialists. We would like them to pick up the one they feel more interested in clicking through and why.
This one got most picked is with an Unsplash background and only one prominent skillset. The blurred one feels less than the real person, and the one with three skillset looks chaotic and lacks clarity.
We verified this option with Backend and got a yes to go as the API license is open and free.
Further iteration
Onboarding and profile
This product intends to increase the pool of candidates, So it would probably happen if they feel proud of themselves not only by showing their pics but also during the process of registration and profile regulation. We also provide several versions of CVs that they can download after the registration.
Candidate has the control to hide/show their images
Starting from the first step to upload their images to enhance the fulfilled experience through the registration process which mostly feels boring and laborious in other cases.
One registration, spread out anywhere
Candidates have the option to download their finished cv and send it to anyone via email or other job-seeking processing, which free the from fill-in repetition.
What happened after registration
Always highlighting their profile anywhere even after registration, and the user has the option to update their profile to keep it up to date.
Switch your status in any recruitment stage
Candidates will have an overview of what happened in the process, and see how much they get paid off
Fully flexibility of profile
Candidates have the control to disable their profile if they get employed or not actively looking for jobs to get rid of harassment
Voice
Martina Zetterkvist - CEO
Work and Passion
As a startup in a new business area, the challenges have been many, but App Shack has always been a great partner developing, analyzing, problem-solving, and strategically shaping the technique in a great way. Along the way, the process has been redefined. Both backend and frontend talents, as well as UX, have always been flexible and understanding. Even if our ways of specifying our needs, demands, and requests have varied and sometimes time have been very limited.
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