Reputy.io AI Talent Wallet

Client
Reputy.io - early stage start-up
Duration
1 year - 2023/24
Role
Product Designer & Product Manager
Collaborators
Founder, CTO, CMO, Software Engineer

I was tasked with designing a product (0-1) for Reputy.io with the aim to support graduates in the recruitment process by showcasing their soft skills in an interactive and engaging manner.

Problem
Reputy.io, an early stage startup, sought to revolutionise the CV due to 89% of employers stating a lack of soft skills is the primary cause for bad hires. Our aim is to design a user-friendly SaaS product to highlight job seekers soft skills and enable effective hiring decisions for employers.
Solution
Introducing the "AI Talent Wallet": a platform where users showcase their soft skills by uploading evidence from real-world examples. AI technology plays a crucial role by identifying relevant soft skills and offering insights to navigate the job market successfully and enhance hiring decisions.

Product Demo

User Research

Extensive user research, encompassing 20+ sessions and 4 workshops, delved deep into the challenges faced by both graduates and graduate employers.

Graduates stated difficulty in showcasing skills on their CVs due to a lack of work experience as well as a lack of feedback and understanding on what went well and what didn’t.

Employers highlighted that soft skills are paramount for assessing graduate hires, but most CVs fail to show them. A significant portion of bad hires result from a lack of soft skills.

Problem Definition & Ideation

Discuss
Leveraging the insights generated from the user interviews and workshops.
‍
The team got together to discuss potential ways for graduates to showcase their soft skills to employers whilst ensuring employers would be engaged. With the main objective ultimately being matching graduates with employers.
Ideate
We generated ideas with no constraints to allow more creative thinking and ideas.
‍
Through this, we then documented our ideas and grouped them by themes. The following main themes appear; The ability to upload evidence of soft skills.  Leverage AI, Data and insights. Stand out to employers
Prioritise
Using the themes, we discussed ideas considering value, feasibility and risk.

Focusing on the most pressing pain points throughout the graduate journey, starting from the moment a graduate decides they want to start applying for jobs. This highlighted the many steps involved to effectively apply for positions.
Define
This identified multiple user needs and requirements to enhance the experience.

We agreed to create a personalised onboarding journey to understand specific needs such as their career aspirations, the ability to guide and help graduates learn how to evidence skills required and provide unique data and insights.

Project Goals

Graduates were our primary focus due to the importance of encouraging graduates to upload and showcase their skills. However, employers were regularly engaged to ensure they found the profile useful to view.
Graduate goals
Employer goals
Business goals
Showcase soft skills effectively
Present their soft skills in a compelling and clear manner to stand out to employers.
Receive constructive feedback
Get actionable insights and feedback on how to improve their soft skill presentations and overall profile.
Learn and develop
skills
Identify areas for growth and development to enhance their employability and career prospects.
Assess candidates efficiently
Quickly and effectively evaluate candidates' soft skills to make informed hiring decisions.
Identify potential fits

Find candidates whose soft skills match the company’s culture and role requirements.
Reduce hiring risks

Minimise the chances of hiring the wrong candidate by having a more comprehensive understanding of their soft skills.
Develop the MVP
‍
Develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test the market and gather user feedback.
Secure early adoption, talent and funding
Attract and onboard the first set of customers or users. Secure funding from investors and onboard the team.
Identify product-market fit
Validate the product-market fit by acquiring early adopters and receiving feedback.

Product Vision & Roadmap

We conducted competitor and market analysis to identify opportunities to enhance the user experience and define the product vision and roadmap.

MVP & Constraints

Rapid development was required in order to gain investment, with a limited budget of 10k to pay for product development.
The startup also had the additional challenge of not currently having a CTO or engineer to make technical decisions.
Based off our user needs and prioritisation, the UI/UX design phase commenced focusing on the following core features.
01
Upload content
to profile
02
Leverage AI for soft skill analysis
03
Share profiles with employers
User Flow Mapping
I began by focusing on designing for graduates, starting with the onboarding journey for the wallet creation process to tailor their profile to their own needs with the use of generative AI.
Approach
User flows were created in order to outline the key steps involved for the onboarding journey. Users stated they were not sure what soft skills were needed for the desired career path which flagged a potential bottleneck in setting up their wallet. This indicated that additional guidance would be required for the user to get their wallet.
Learnings
We learnt users loved the idea of having AI automatically populate what skills should be evidenced for the desired career path. However, there was some confusion around the enter job role question, with users stating they didn’t know whether this was their current role or their desired future role. This triggered rethinking on how to ask the question.
Once the onboarding flow was complete, adding content to populate user profiles was next. This began by focusing on uploading evidence to skills cards and personal details. However, there was pressure from the business and employer feedback to see more features included for different types of profile content.
Challenges
With this being the case, I stressed the increase in scope would lead to longer development times and risk of poor UX flows due to the number of additional features, small team size and limited budget however, the founder was happy to take on the risk with the hope to deliver more product value.
Solution
An information architecture diagram was suggested to provide a clear and organised structure for the web app, help the team know the flows and relationships between different parts of the product and ensure the apps structure aligns with user needs and behaviours to enhance the overall experience.
MVP Information Architecture
When designing the IA, due to the need to develop quickly, a consistent system for uploading content was created in order to reuse components and flows as much as possible with only minor copy changes needed.
Wireframing
Using the IA and user flows, I began sketching wireframes to focus on structure, layout, functionality, flow, scalability and visual aesthetic.
Lo-fidelity wireframes were designed iteratively for both mobile and desktop versions. We regularly engaged with a small group of graduates and employers throughout the wireframing process.
Iteration #1
The first iteration leveraged a tab layout design to allow the user to switch between each type of content. Empty state wireframes were also designed in order to understand what the design would look like when the user first enters the product to populate content.
Iteration #2
After conducting a design critique with the internal team, the decision was made to change the tab designs to circles in order to be consistent with the other add content buttons but additionally provide more space to see all the relevant sections immediately.
Final iteration
During the design critique, we asked some employers and students on their thoughts on iteration 2. They liked the information provided however the founder thought the design lacked a memorable aspect and wanted the skill cards to be the main focus of the product.
I then added a colour scheme to better understand the visual hierarchy of the content as well as the layout/structure.
The desktop design was initially wire-framed by the founder but required iterations to follow more UI/UX design principles.
Modals were designed to be used for adding content to their profile. The main decision behind this was so that users remained focused on the task at hand.
Style Guide
A style guide was established to maintain design consistency and facilitate a seamless hand-off to engineers, ensuring a pixel-perfect implementation.
Using analysis from latest publications and studies, skill groupings and gradients were assigned to express the core attributes of each skill category, helping graduates and recruiters quickly grasp the balance of skills.
Cognitive
Green symbolizes growth and learning, while the transition to dark blue represents depth of knowledge and focus. This gradient highlights the journey from basic understanding to advanced cognitive abilities.
Self-management
Pink signifies self-awareness and compassion, while the transition to orange represents energy and determination. This gradient illustrates the journey from self-awareness to proactive self-management.
Technical
Deep blue signifies technical expertise and reliability, while the transition to turquoise represents innovation and adaptability. This gradient balances technical proficiency with innovative thinking.
Interpersonal
Magenta represents empathy and emotional balance, while the transition to light blue symbolizes trust and communication. This gradient illustrates the range of interpersonal abilities from empathy to effective interaction.
MVP & Usability Testing
Users sign up and start onboarding; the AI assesses desired job roles and pre-fills relevant skills. Users can upload evidence to each card.
Users can also choose to upload a cover reel or video showcasing their top evidence or adding a video intro about themselves.
Additional content can be added such as Personality assessments, awards and certifications.
Information like work preferences, contact details and social media profiles can also be attached.
Users are able to share their profile via QR code, link or email.