Ready to work
Impacting 13 million+ job seekers to connect with urgently hiring roles during the peak of COVID-19 related hiring revival
Overview
During the peak of lockdowns during COVID-19, unemployment in the US reached historic highs and increased by 2,500% from pre-COVID levels. I led designs for a feature-set improving positive response rate for over 13 million urgently looking job seekers.
My Role
Product designer
Team
Product manager
Software engineers
Product marketing
User researcher
Platforms
Mobile web, Desktop, Native app
Timeframe
3 Months
Impact
Launched MVP and long-term profile feature to help 13M+ job seekers receive contacts from employers
Increase in 5.5M+ matches from employers to job seekers
Positive press in marketing ads and online learning courses
All hands on deck
As businesses began to open again and lockdown mandates ended, there was an urgency to find workers. Many job seekers were laid off and needed immediate work to pay their bills and provide for families. Stores, restaurants, and in-person activities began opening with social distancing and mask mandates. Many employers such as Lowes, hospitals, and restaurants looked to Indeed to urgently find job candidates.
Problems identified
Our research teams at Indeed conducted interviews for job seekers largely affected by COVID, which resulted in the following key problems:
Problem 1
Need to urgently find work
During this time, job seekers were willing to pick up jobs outside of their normal searching criteria. They needed to find work urgently and front-line industry employers subsequently needed workers urgently.
Problem 2
Stress due to COVID environment
Many job seekers were either furloughed or laid off. They needed something to help find the motivation to job search again.
Problem 3
Uncertainty of active job postings
Hiring freezes and difficult hiring conditions for employers were rampant across industries. Job seekers felt unsure if certain jobs were closed and if job postings were outdated.
Project goals
Goal 1
Launching an MVP
With urgency to deliver value to job seekers, feasibility estimates led what our teams would be able to ship. I needed to design a solution that could realistically be built and deliver the most value to job seekers within a 4 week time-frame.
Goal 2
Help job seekers feel empowered again
Indeed had the resources and knowledge to help job seekers during this time. Given the fortunate position to help, we needed to help motivate jobseekers who felt vulnerable.
Goal 3
Planning for long-term milestones
Alongside my PM partner, we ensured the MVP was resilient to scale into a long-term solution through phased launches. The solution needed to later be applied to broader use-cases.
MVP launch
Job seekers who were urgently looking for jobs were able to add a flag onto their Indeed Resume that helped indicate they were ready to work immediately. On the employer side, they had a direct filter for improved candidate discoverability.
