Research

Research Objectives

•Understand the existing pain points in the current experience.

•Discover what is most important to our hiring managers when using the Talent Board.

•Prioritize features based on the needs of hiring managers.

•Gain a better understanding of Hiring Manager behaviors.

Cognitive Walkthrough

The initial research for this project began by auditing the Talent Board website. I met with Stakeholders and did independent research to identify tasks and user goals within the talent board. In addition to noting these tasks and goals, each action was evaluated for the following usability categories: Mental Model Matching, Visibility/ Hierarchy, Mapping/ Consistency, and Feedback.

Our initial research showed that the Talent Board had pain points that involved mental model mismatches, visibility/ hierarchy issues, a lack of mapping/ consistency, and some errors with feedback.

Areas of Focus

After completing the audit, data was compiled and a few areas of focus were identified. This process included calling out potential user pain points, project goals, questions, and tasks for a usability test.

Key areas of focus included:

•Entry into the Talent Board

•Creating an Account

•Searching for Candidates

•Creating an Alert

•Saving Candidates to a List

•Requesting an Interview

•Future Feature Additions

Questions & Kano Analysis Features

Based on the areas of focus, specific questions and tasks were formulated to guide our usability test. Potential future features were also identified and low-fidelity sketches were created for a Kano Analysis. In the analysis, users rated the usefulness of proposed features on a scale of one to seven. Based on answers from our users, I created a usability test script.

Testing

Usability Testing

Five, 1-hour usability tests were performed with hiring managers to observe how users navigated the website, engaged with features, and get feedback on their overall experience. The hiring managers were also asked about their experience and background in recruiting, what other tools they used, and how they felt during the test. I also inquired how relevant this website was to their work and tracked their emotional changes throughout the experience.

Findings & Recommendations

Based on the observations and findings, a Research Findings Report was created. Painpoints and opportunities were categorized into four areas: Intuitive Tools with Clearly Defined Expectations, Quick and Easy Workflow, Detailed Searches, and Qualified Candidates and Trusted Relationships. These areas aligned with what we heard from hiring managers when asked about what they value in the hiring process.

Recommendations

Based on the current painpoints and opportunities, we were able to explore a handful of opportunities to improve the Talent Board. These recommendations were organized by the four areas of focus and were assigned high or low priority and effort ratings.