Enabling self-serve with a new Hiring Manager Hub
Getting hiring managers away from high-touch support and into self-serve workflows by creating an dynamic and personalized entry point into the platform.
My role
Product Design Lead
Ideation, strategy, discovery, creative direction
Timeframe
9 months
The team
1 product manager
2 product designers
1 researcher
1 analyst
1 content designer
Summary
Our primary spending persona, hiring managers, faced significant challenges in navigating the platform independently. They relied heavily on Upwork’s internal support teams for essential tasks and onboarding, leading to inefficiencies and delays.
Recognizing this critical issue, I spearheaded the development of a personalized dashboard to serve as a central information hub tailored to each hiring manager’s needs, empowering them to efficiently manage projects and address their unique concerns. By implementing this solution, we completely changed the user experience, significantly reducing reliance on support teams and increasing Enterprise active users in the product.
Process
Over the course of the project, I led in different capacities, either delivering or directing, depending on the phase.
Desk research
deliver
Concept validation
direct
Ideation
deliver
Design and testing
direct
Launch and iterate
deliver & direct
The challenge
Several different segments of hiring managers use the enterprise product. These customers have distinct needs from each other at an organizational level and also at an individual level. For example, a new hiring manager does not need the same information or experience as a long-time hiring manager who manages their remote team using Upwork.
The differences in customer types are also further pronounced on enterprise accounts because, within a single client account, some customers need the platform for their administrative and governing functions. Therefore, an ideal experience for this user group may not match that for a group primarily hiring and managing hires.
The multitude of variations makes all elements of the dashboard’s customer experience challenging, from design to content to research.
User problems
The existing homepage did not help users understand how they might be able to use Upwork.
Hiring managers are often held back from self-serving in the product because they lack understanding of how to comply with their internal company policies around hiring on Upwork.
They don’t have access to helpful content to guide them through finding, hiring, and getting work done with talent.
Upwork support teams were intentionally training new hiring managers to skip over the homepage.
Bussines problems
Relying on white glove service for enterprise hiring managers leads to expensive internal support hours.
When new users onboard to the product and can’t navigate or get started, it leads to a lack of trust and damage to Upwork’s reputation.
66% of hiring managers don’t post a job or make an offer within 60 days of registration.
What is causing problems for users trying to navigate through the product?
I worked with the product manager and the analyst to gather data from a few different sources:
Page analytics
Recorded calls
Voice of the customer
NPS data
New users have limited onboarding content and struggle to find employer specific resources.
Existing users struggle to find the status of their work and spend, and connect with Enterprise support when they need it.
All users lack access to content to drive exploration and discovery. This leads to frustration, and users either give up or try to contact the Enterprise support teams for help.
Solution alignment and prioritization
Using the data from discovery, I ran a cross functional workshop to align on the solution. I used Opportunity Solution Tree mapping to engage team members in product, design, marketing, solutions, support, and sales.
