Pitch Deck Outline

Content: 

1. Problem Breakdown
2. 1. Google Search (breaking down the commonality of the problem)
   2. Problem Definition (providing context to the exact issue presented)
   3. Current Solutions (idea that this will not focus on using flashy new tech, but rather solving for a fundamentally ignored approach) 
3. Preliminary Research
4. 1. Questionnaire (what can I learn from people who have actually gone through this? What potential insights can I glean about functionality, medium, personality, etc.) 
   2. 1. Overall Experience
      2. What could have made it better
      3. Tools used
   3. Competitive Research (who are the big players in eth space and what is their approach to solving the problem? Are they even attempting to solve this problem? 
   4. Gap Exposure (Can a gap be located to showcase there is market value for such a product?) 
5. Question Breakdown
6. 1. Question Definition
   2. One Liner Solution
7. Mentors
8. 1. SME
   2. DME
9. Timeline
10. 1. Gant Chart 

ResEArCh

Competitive Research:

Hired: https://hired.com/  "Get Matched with a job you love" 

Catered job matching
Hands-off methodology
Relies on titles, salaries, and location

Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/  "search millions of jobs online to find the next step in your career."

Focuses on strong algorithms and speed
Exploratory methodology
Quantity over quality

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/ "Apply For Jobs Easily and Quickly."


Focused on massive catalog of opportunities 
Connection based methodology
Relentlessly spammy

- - - 

What is obvious from digging into the three main competitors that I can identify is that they all focus on matching data points about job title, salary, and location very well. In today's algorithmic world, this feels almost like a 'well duh'; there is are a few gaps that I can observe from this research.


1. No one is focusing on the idea of "Empowerment."

How can we take a candidate and push them to actually LAND a job rather than just find one? Can a service provide professional insights to those who have not yet had professional experience and thusly don't know what to do to prepare for an interview? To set up SEO on their portfolio? What to provide when applying? 

2. No one is utilizing the soft, emotional side of candidates to its full potential.

How can a service understand it's patrons on a more emotional, empathetic, and qualitative manner? What if the service could understand the "why" of you want a job? Can this understanding lead to better placement within a new role? Can this lad to better hires by employers?  


- - - 


Questionnaire: 

I sent out 15 questionnaires to people that fit my persona (young, seeking a first-time "real" job, somewhere in a creative field, with minimal industry experience) and asked them the following questions: 

• What is your current Job Title?
• Can you briefly describe your role?
• Are you a Full-Time Employee? Contractor/Consultant? Part Time?
• When was the last time you looked for a job?
• How did you search when you were looking? (i.e. Recruiter? Job Site? Personal Connection?)
• How long did you search before finding your job?
• How would you describe the overall experience? Was it fast? Tiring? Time-Consuming? 
• What was the best part?
• What was the worst part? 
• What could have made it better?

I got a slew of responses all revolving around this idea of "demoralization."

People noted that when applying for jobs they felt anxious like never before, they felt a sense of abandonment when they were forced to toss resumes into a black hole, they felt lost when they actually got an interview and didn't know how to properly prepare, they felt beaten down, depressed, and finished after receiving rejection letters; things did not seem to be perfect in my participants eyes.

How would you describe the overall experience?

“Time-consuming and stressful”

“Exhausting and redundant”

“It felt like throwing darts into a dark room”

“I felt so burnt out by the time it was done”

What could have made it better?

“A better filtering system to match what employers are looking for and what job hunters are interested in”

“Status updates on the application”

“Mental health/moral check-ins”

“Reviews from industry professionals”

- - - 


SME Sitdown:

I had a great conversation with Dana Ellison (Sr. Recruiter at Creative Circle) where we discussed at length the issues involved in getting people (and businesses!) the roles they need. We came away with the following notes.

• It’s about the 2/3 
• how do you level up 
• First job coach
• Mentor 
• Scribe 
• Recruiter 

1. Learns my traits by understanding what I’m good at, what I like to do, what I don’t like, what I’ve done, etc.
2. • Idea: Example roles to build personality data
3. Synthesizes my information and determines roles that fit my personality data and that of similar applicants 
4. Presents roles that match with certain levels of my criteria, prioritizes them based on match %
5. • Idea: Correlation matches, I.e. we see people with builds like yours that land roles like this, is that something you’d be interested in?
6. Offers me constructive criticism to help me become better suited for the roles I want. 
7. • Idea: Best practices, pro-tips, resume help, online resources
8. Assists me in submitting an “as good as possible” application 
9. • Idea: offers insights into timelines, appropriate language, cover letter, information from #4 above, etc.
10. Schedules activities by synching availability data between me and the business
11. Prepares me for upcoming events (interviews, portfolio reviews, resume reviews, phone screens, etc.)
12. • Idea: Interview checklists, Timely notifications, etc.
13. Tracks my progress and provides helpful status updates 
14. • Idea: Tips on when it is respectful to reach out 
    • • Possibly automated? 
15. Congratulates me on my accomplishments when I get an offer 

- - - 


DME Sitdown:

I also had a very in-depth conversation with Yuriy Zaremba (Sr. UX Designer at Amazon) regarding some of the progress I have been making on this project. He shed light on everything from how to display the reasoning behind the product over its features, how to keep track of your true audience, and how to properly construct the UI of the product to get the maximum effect. 

Dmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

DME: Yuriy Zaremba, Senior UX Designer at Amazon

I'm a user experience designer, specializing in AI and IoT. Currently focused on evolving Alexa. I've designed award-winning digital for household names like Amazon, Blackberry, Disney, Dell, Johnson &Johnson, Kraft, Lexus, Microsoft, NBC, Proctor & Gamble, Samsung, Toyota and others.

Past Meetings: August 13th, September 12th,

Scheduled Meetings: November 2nd

Questions: 

What makes a product desirable? 

Is there a different process when designing something from scratch vs designing a feature for something?

How do you know if an idea has merit?

How do you present meaningful information about what you're building? 

Are there any pitfalls you see with the idea?

Do you know of any products out there doing something similar?

How do you screen a candidate?

How do you identify a good candidate from a faker?

Smeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

SME: Dana Ellison, Sr. Recruiter at Creative Circle

"Actively recruiting advertising, marketing, digital, and design talent for top companies in the Denver/Boulder area for both freelance and full-time roles."

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-ellison-4709ba17/

Past Meetings: July 17th, September 26th
Scheduled Meetings: November 2nd

Questions: 

What are some day to day tasks that you do for your job?
What are the most stressful parts of your job?
What are the most rewarding parts of your job?
How do you objectively identify talent? 
What do you do with someone talented who is struggling to find work?
How do you quantify what someone will be good at?
How can you tell if someone will be a good fit for a role?
How do you prepare a candidate for an interview?

ReSEarCh QueStIOn

The research question that I will be following for thesis will be something like the following:


Can the demoralizing nature of job hunting be made more empowering through the use of UX principals?

Can a system based on empowerment and empathy reverse the feelings of demoralizing while job hunting? 

- - - 

Can the demoralizing nature of first time job hunting be made more empowering by utilizing UX methodologies to build job hunting software based on emotional connections rather than input-matching?

Problem: 

The appathetic solutions for first time job hunters leave them anxious, depressed, and settling for less than they should.

Oh that Problem Definition of mine

Attempted problem definition: The heartache of job hunting brought about by the algorithmic and systemic style of current solutions. 

My inquiries brought about quite a few insights in regard to the problem areas that people were facing in regard to job hunting. The following are some of the many responses to "What was the worst part about your job hunt?" 

Alex, Software Engineer: "Ugh, incompetent recruiters and keyword spam hunters. On LinkedIn, I get maybe 10 messages/week from recruiters and 9 of them miss the mark on something I'm interested in or qualified for." 

Paige, UX Designer: "Getting zero feedback for months was the hardest part. I felt it was a waste of time and ruined the moral of showing my best skills." 

Katie, Architect: "Does interviewing count as an answer? More specifically, I'm very awkward individual so talking about myself is difficult." 

Mike, Software Engineer: "Not hearing back from companies. Also when searching for entry-level positions and 50% of them require 5+ years of experience... That seems like a simple thing to fix on a site like Indeed"


A simple google search also reveals what people are concerned about with Job Hunting:

I also looked at a few online articles exploring missteps when looking for a job, and things that you can do to make it a better experience:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2015/04/10/am-i-doing-something-wrong-in-my-job-search/

https://www.themuse.com/advice/7-basic-mistakes-thatll-slow-down-any-job-searchand-how-to-fix-them-all-today

https://www.creativecircle.com/blog/category/job-search/

What it be like

It really do be like that sometimes ... 

Job hunting is terrible, it increases anxiety, focuses on data and not empathy, and can reduce a candidates drive and motivation for working. 

A quick google search validates my thinking. Then I started with some competitive thinking and research to find out who was in the marketplace, how they were succeeding (were they?) and what gaps remained.


1. Indeed

A huge aggregator of postings from across the Web, this site consolidates listings from many job boards in one place. It also compiles information from various company career pages and allows you to search locally or globally.

2. LinkedIn

This top networking site enables you to find jobs through your extended network. Additionally, you can join groups, participate in conversations and follow companies you find interesting and relevant to your job search.

3. Hired

Hired (hired.com) is a marketplace that matches tech talent with the world’s most innovative companies. Hired combines intelligent job matching with unbiased career counseling to help people find a job they love. Through Hired, job candidates and companies have transparency into salary offers, competing opportunities and job details. 

- - - 

It's looking like not a lot of people are focusing on candidate empathy, empowerment, or culture fit. A Gap possibly??? This also seems like it could be a great start for some UX thinking and ideation. 

- - - 

My next step is to perform some Primary Research and send out inquiries to my network (primarily targeting people who have recently found jobs or are currently looking) and ask them the following questions: 

1. What is your current job title?
2. Can you briefly describe your role?
3. Are you a Full-Time Employee? Contractor/Consultant? Part Time?
4. When was the last time you looked for a job?
5. How did you search when you were looking? (i.e. Recruiter? Job Site? Personal Connection? If a recruiter or site, which one?)
6. How long did you search before finding your job?
7. How would you describe the overall experience? Was it simple? Tiring? Time-Consuming? 
8. What was the best part?
9. What was the worst part? 
10. What could have made it better?