Scope
Business Strategy
Innovation
UX Design + Research
Visual Identity + Branding
Team
Strategy TeamInterface Design Team
Timeline
January - May 2020
5 months
Challenge
Take a business strategy and design thinking approach to innovate and ideate a business model strategy for Alchemy, a job-search platform for undergraduate students.
Solution
A business model implemented in three phases to bridge the gap for better student-employer job matching by enhancing student engagement through the job search process as they transition from student to professional entering the job market. Connecting, understanding and empathising with users led to a new visual identity and wireframe design as a way to deep-match students to professional employers with jobs aligned to their field of study, interests and skill sets.
Synopsis
(student oriented job-search platform designed to help students make the transitional leap from student to professional and jump-start their careers by providing them with the tools and support they need to find appropriate jobs aligned with their field, skill set and persona. )
There are nineteen million students across 5,300 universities in the US and yet talented students are unable to find appropriate work and employers are unable to find appropriate talent. Our goal was to minimize and streamline the process between student-job seekers and employers with ease and efficiency by making the process more fun, intuitive and interactive.
The current problem is the major gap between student job-seekers and employers due to the pains and barriers associated with the job search process. These pains and barriers hinder a smooth flow in the employee pipeline and deter students away from making the right connections. Students feel that they have a lack of clarity. When applying for entry level jobs, they are unsure of jobs that are suitable for them and when they do apply for positions related to their field of study, they face rejection which increases confusion and decreases validation.
Applying to numerous job listings on multiple platforms is a time and energy consuming effort with a low yield. While applying for jobs, people often upload their resume yet have to manually input their information thus creating a cycle of inefficiency.
Further, job search platforms often provide too much company information, job descriptions include obtuse compulsory and preferred qualifications, and excessive textual information can lead to data-overload and be overwhelming or misleading. We found that students don’t strictly follow the long list of qualifications mentioned because the job description is geared towards someone with several years of experience rather than someone entering the workforce. Job seekers entering their chosen career seek guidance to help them make strategic decisions in order to reach their goals. Not knowing if they applied to the right role, whether or not their resume was noticed, or why they were rejected for a role, leads to immense frustration and makes students question their ability and skills.
To engage a younger user-base who view their identity as an integral component of the user experience we decided on a three pronged goal:
1. become the go-to platform for student job-seekers by transforming the relationship between job seekers and employers
2. Develop a strong, relatable, visual brand identity.
3. streamline the process between student-job seekers and employers, by making it fun, intuitive, & interactive.
To do this, we first rebranded the visual identity of Alchemy, by redesigning the logo, creating new visual guidelines, and prototyping both low fidelity and high fidelity app wireframes. While doing so, we focused on illuminating the historical resonance of the word Alchemy, which is the ancient magical process of turning lead into gold. We conveyed this idea by designing a modern take on the original logo that radiates a duality of lightheartedness and earnestness , without compromising the integrity of the original logo.
Both our market and user research , in the form of surveys and video interviews, showed that students want to be identified by more than their resume or portfolio. They want effective guidance, but they also want interactive and engaging experiences that can lead them down the right path. We believe that showcasing students humanistic values—things we know traditionally as “soft skills” —separates one job-seeker from the next and is just as important as a student's GPA or the number of years of experience they have.
Hence, our multi-phase Alchemy business model leverages data for a deep match between the student job seeker and the employer, to engage student users and become a one-stop-shop for job seekers, and integrates a way to convey soft skills assessments, portfolios and customizable profiles. Additionally, a community-driven component enables users to share information on things such as salary, culture, and diversity. Finally, cutting edge technology —VR, AI, etc.— creates a new opportunity for job insight and exploration while providing a new way to utilize campus resources for career guidance, interactive experiences, and meaningful interaction through events, workshops and networking.
Through our research with students and focussing our business models around the students’ needs Alchemy realized the importance of centering their business strategy around the user.
Process
Initial Wireframes