firstdayjob

[firstdayjob]

PROBLEM BEING SOLVED:

Adverts can drastically affect the caliber of candidates that apply for the role. 

This can nothing to do with the role itself or the company, but simply the tone that the advert sets. It is very common for ads to be written with lists of responsibilities and requirements expected of the candidate. WHAT YOU GOT FOR US APPROACH - the ‘servant, master’ relationship tone. This is not the relationship of the modern day working relationship, nor is this tone longer appropriate or suitable.   

This creates a very one sided picture of the role and has a subtle implication of the kind of relationship that an organisation has with its employees. This can alienate some of the best candidates before even starting a conversation. Instead, focus on what the company can do for the candidate. WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO JOIN US/PARTNER WITH US APPROACH - the opposite of the ‘servant master’ relationship. 

I am not talking about competitive salaries and benefits packages but career development, support, training, what interesting projects will they work on, who they will work with and the office culture. 

Try framing the responsibilities of the role as an opportunity, not a requirement. The reality is that the best candidates have options and will have the luxury of choosing a role that is right for them. Its the organisations that make them feel valued from the very beginning (and throughout the process) that have the upper hand when it comes down to making that decision.

[firstdayjob]

CONCEPT NAMES: possible early brand names

wakeuphappy

workplacegoals

culturegoals

firstdayjobs

yourworkplace 

mondaytofriday

joblife 

techlife

jobstube

[firstdayjob]

There are no shortcuts to hiring the 'hard-to-hire'.  The only thing I could leave him with is the 

understanding that people who are in high demand - as almost all software developers, data scientists, product managers  are - do not behave like 'job seekers' 

And if you set up your process / system / method on the idea that they are job seekers, you're going to have a tough time. 

[firstdayjob]

DISCOVERY PROCESS: first 1-2 months

I see this project as a part UX and part Service Design: therein I would follow the design thinking model and double diamond process to help me focus on the key stages, whilst deploying some service design research methods and techniques. Please see below (in brief) the outline of my process for the Discover, Define and Develop (

Develop stage techniques may be employed)

as a minimum:

Discover

1.     Rip the brief + Competitor analysis - audits of glassdoor and jobbio. 

2.     Stakeholder Interviews

3.     Requirement gathering activities

4.     Cluster Topics

5.     Primary Research/Secondary Research

6.     Contextual Research

7.     User journey mapping

8.     Task Models

9.     Customer Experience Map

10.   Stakeholder mapping

11.   Stakeholder workshops/focus groups

12.   Service Safari

13.   User Shadowing

14.   Further Secondary Research

Define

1.     Analysis

2.     Curate and Develop Insights

3.     Identify Themes

4.     Develop personas

5.     Brainstorming, ideation

6.     Identify opportunities

7.     HMW (how might we)

8.     UX VISION STATEMENT

============== REPORT ==============

Develop

1.     Service Blueprinting

2.     Ideation

3.     Evaluation

4.     Ideation

Additionally, just as an indication of how I work - here's how I think a user researcher should approach the Discovery stage of a project:

Discovery

Focus on gathering rich in-depth contextual research - thinking about how people’s behaviour shaped by the context of use? 


Be goal focussed not delivery focused. Think, not what people are doing now but what they might like to do in the future

Seek to uncover and understand the users end (task) goals 
and experience goals 


Seek not only to uncover ‘problems’ but opportunities to do things differently 


Aim to generate evidence based insights 


Strive and seek to know what to look for, be aware of and to capture.

[firstdayjob]

4 Options going forward

El and Matt:

Working full time on concept - monthly wage.

Working on .net roles till get a job

Work part time on idea - ‘charge’ for hours.  

[firstdayjob]

5w’s & 1h - questioning assumptions

WHO: Who is the target user(s)?

WHAT: What problem will your product solve for the user?

WHEN: When will users be using your product? (ex. before going to restaurants, before their commute, after the birth of their child…)

WHERE: Where will users be using your product? (ex. in the car, on a desktop, on a mobile device, at the bar…)

WHY: Why should users use your product? (ex. because it will save them time/money, because the current solutions aren’t effective enough)

HOW: How will users access your product? (ex. from an existing social network, from their company, by downloading the app to their phone)

UX 

In order to capture that vision and strategy:

What problem are we trying to solve? Don’t confuse this “what” with “What are we building?” Before we can truly begin building, we must identify what problem this product is attempting to solve? If you can’t answer this question, answering the rest of the “W’s” may be in vain. Take your time and articulate the problem as clearly and concisely as possible. Once you are able to do this, you have a lens through which you can answer the remaining questions, further clarifying your purpose and informing your strategy going forward.

Who is the customer? One of the most important questions to answer for any new product. Without a clear understanding of your target audience you run the risk of building something that doesn’t meet or fit your customers expectations, uses cases or mental model of what it is they came to you for. User research, ethnography, and personas are components of the UX toolset that can help to answer this question.

Where can we improve on existing patterns and solutions? Understanding how others have attempted to solve the same or a similar problem is extremely valuable in understanding what pitfalls to avoid, identifying where an existing pattern failed or needs improvement and revealing the moments in the customer’s journey that you can surprise and delight them when others have failed them. You will find yourself asking this question over and over throughout the entire design process.

When should we begin to get user feedback? Early and often is usually the answer to this question, but that may not always be true. If you introduce it too early you run the risk of letting the user drive the product development (and they may not be in the products best interest). If you introduce it too late, you may miss out on valuable feedback that could have saved you from overbuilding. Understanding who your customers are and knowing where you can improve on existing solutions will help you know when you can begin to incorporate user-testing/feedback into the product development cycle.

Why does our product solve the problem? Having identified what problem we are trying to solve, who our target users are, and where we can improve on existing solutions, we should be able to articulate why our solution solves the problem. This should be the foundation for the short-term goals with a long-term strategy.

How can data help you understand what you are building? There are countless analytics that can be used to validate assumptions, confirm design decisions and clarify your product/market fit. Techniques such as: data mining, eye-tracking, A/B testing, user flows, ethnographic research, usability benchmarking and many others can be used to gain better insights. No detail is too small to test. Copy, layout, interaction—in all of these cases good data can help you understand the results you are seeing and adjust accordingly.

IMAGES OF ‘RECCE’ FIVE W’S AND 1H

[firstdayjob]

Problem & Idea

PROBLEM

At the moment the only trigger to apply is a job advert, a page of writing, company video, doesn’t alway show much, product knowledge, not always clear.

Applicant (user)

At the moment the only trigger to apply is a job advert, a page of writing, company video, doesn’t alway show much, product knowledge, not always clear. What’s the most important thing to the candidate?

Employer (client)

Finding good talent, talent brand marketing.

What’s the most important thing to the employer? If it’s candidate first and a great candidate experience, you’ll get the best - Smart analytics and testing: Who is applying to what company videos - then we’ll be able to figure out what types of candidates respond to which types of videos.

CONCEPT

A company culture first job job - a job board that gives users the opportunity to experience their first day at work at the point of application. 

INITIAL IDEA/SOLUTION (*COULD BE*)

A video jobboard service business; hosting video content online to enable candidates to experience their first day at work, either before or at the point of application. 

Initially the job board could feature both non recce videos and recce commissioned videos to illustrate which works best. Jobboard would capture videos for companies, both actively and remotely (use of gopros), charging for them. 

Could be the first day - of one candidate and then they bump into other colleagues; who’s job titles of job fields are other being recruited for.