SUMMARY
15-week group project through USC's Master of Science in Integrated Design, Business, and Technology. My team consisted of a project manager, UX researcher, UX designer, tech lead, and business lead. We created a platform that aimed to help companies assess candidates’ soft skills. We created a prototype and pitched the final idea to the class.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
Conducted user interviews with hiring managers and recent graduates
Created user personas and user flow
Collaborated with designers to develop prototype on Figma
SOLUTION
A web platform that allows employers to assess candidates' soft skills through group projects and assessment tools
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Soft skills are essential for entry-level candidates, yet, employers are finding a considerable gap in soft skills and diversity in the hiring process.
USER INTERVIEWS & DISCOVERIES
Based on 20+ interviews with hiring managers, HR, and recruiters, they face three main issues during the hiring process for recent graduates:
Difficult to assess soft skills: users can assess candidates' technical skills but hard to determine if the candidate is collaborative, inquisitive, and has a capacity to learn.
Lack of diversity: unconscious and implicit bias affect the hiring process
Low retention rate: high turnover rate due to poor employee fit with the company
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We conducted a competitive analysis of companies that target entry-level candidates and helps them gain experiences and soft skills through real-life projects. To compete in the market, we incorporated the Predictive Index® Behavioral Assessment, which a personality test to assess the candidate fit. Also, we’ve added a post-project assessment that evaluates the overall team dynamic and project.
USER PERSONAS
From our research and user interviews, we identified two key audiences- hiring manager and entry-level candidate (recent graduate). These personas acted as a benchmark for our team and guided us through the design process.
Sandra seeks candidates that exhibit soft skills and wants to find diverse candidates but resumes can be deceiving and difficult to determine candidates' willingness to learn.
Ann recently joined the workforce a year ago but wants to pivot her career to a data analyst but finds it difficult to gain experience outside of her online class.
USER JOURNEY
The journey maps from the candidate and the employers perspective helped us identify when the company and candidate will interact with Pavenly. The hiring manager can use Pavenly once they have narrowed down their top candidates and wants to test how they interact in a team setting. The hiring manager will send a Pavenly link to the top candidates and divided into team(s). Once the candidates receive the link, the candidates will complete a behavior assessment, 48-hour team project along with a post project assessment.
USER FLOW
I used user stories to create our user flows. As a hiring manager, they want to start a project, check project status, view assessment reports, and access past candidates. As a candidate, we want to go through the team project and assessments.
Company Flow
Candidate Flow
WIREFRAMES- COMPANY
Pavenly Projects: Companies can select from a variety of ready-to-use projects based on the role.
Project Detail: Candidates use the Kanban board to document their process and companies can view this to evaluate team dynamic.
Assessment Reports: Company is recommended a candidate based on 2 assessments- behavior and project evaluations.
WIREFRAMES- CANDIDATE
Behavioral Assessment: Candidates select adjectives that best describe themselves.
Team Project: Learn about the project details and meet team members.
Post Project Assessment: Prompts candidates to answer questions related to the project experience and working in a team setting.
Portfolio: Upon completion, Pavenly generates a portfolio that candidates can share with future companies even if they didn’t get selected.
CONCLUSION
From our user testing with our users, we discovered:
Some felt uncomfortable sharing their identity with other candidates
Instructions on how to navigate the platform from a company’s perspective aren’t too clear after login
After the semester ended, 3 of team members (including myself) decided to continue the project for the Spring 2021 semester. We plan to revisit our problem statement, conduct more user research and refine our features.