SPRINT17 - Web App

Perwell

Bring your company to life for your next star hires.

Problem Statement  

How might we help recruiters keep candidates engaged throughout the hiring process using information candidates will find informative and useful, increasing the likelihood of a quality hire?

Problem Background  

An employer brand is a combination of different elements, which include the company culture, employee experience, reputation, leadership, employee engagement, and social and online presence. Companies actively investing in employer brand can reduce turnover by as much as 28% and reduce the cost per hire by as much as 50%. Even with all the benefits of an employer brand, we discover through user research that candidates, in some cases, are having a difficult time finding information that makes up an employer brand that they perceive as accurate or,  in other cases, they are having trouble finding any information at all.

Research Insights

To validate the problem space, I conducted 10 recruiter user interviews and distributed a survey to the same user base that received 9 responses, Additionally, because my product has multiple users, I conducted research among 18 job seekers via a user survey. 

Recruiter Pain Points

  • “Sharing employee experience from the website or having it there for candidates to reference is critical, but it's not always accessible. Candidates have shared thats what helped them make their decision, and they were referencing and post I made years ago.”
  • “I need to be able to share tidbits of information with candidates about the company and the opportunity as they progress through the process.0”
  • “I need to be able to connect candidates to the hiring team or leadership, but time can be a limiting factor.”

Job Seeker Pain Points

  • “It’s hard to gather consensus. It seems that most people to feel compelled to write about their experiences are doing so to share something negative. The positive is rare.. that makes me skeptical.”
  • “Sometimes people don't reply on LinkedIn, your interviewee will likely only say good things.”
  • “Can't always find experiences.”
  • “Transparency”

Supporting Data from User Surveys

  • Nearly 80% of recruiter respondents believe being able to address questions about the employee experience is necessary to be an effective recruiter, 70% of those respondents felt that their employers have not equipped them with the tools or resources to address those types of questions. 
  • Over 33% of recruiter respondents felt hiring teams or internal employees don’t have the time to talk to candidates.
  • 91% of candidate respondents feel that uncovering information about and related to the employee experience is difficult to find because the sources, such as recruiters, interviewers, and anonymous contributors on Blind and Glassdoor, are perceived as compromised or the information is not accessible online or people that have it that are not personal contacts are not easily accessible.
  • 50% of candidate respondents mentioned using online research via a google search or 3rd party sites to find information. 
  • 50% of candidate respondents mentioned having peer-to-peer chats with a past or current employees they know or via cold outreach.

Landing on the Solution

Perwell is a platform that will build or enhance a company's employer brand by giving them and their recruiters the ability to showcase their culture, employee experiences, employee engagement, and leadership through employee video narratives. We will do this through the following: 

  1. Enabling recruiters to send video narrative requests composed of single or multiple prompts to individuals or groups of people within the company. 
  2. Alerting employees to the recruiters’ requests and prompting the activation of the camera on their device.
  3. Enabling employees to submit an unprompted request using predefined video categories. 
  4. Enabling the recruiter to approve content ready to be publish to the central job-seeker-facing platform and later to an integration on the company website.
  5. Enabling job-seekers to search through the library of video narratives to discover and research companies

Using this solution, we believe recruiters and companies will gain candidate trust because they have enabled employees to share their insight, and candidates will access for more data than they previously had, which will increase the likelihood of a company-candidate fit, ultimately reduce attrition. 

Future Steps

As for the next steps, I look forward to building an MVP and getting the platform in front of recruiters and candidates alike to help inform future versions of the product, which may allow the uploading of videos from a file, and the creation of company and candidate profiles to name a few.

Learnings

Product Manager Learnings:

Muhammad Djata

I've enjoyed my time with Co.Lab here are some highlights from my experience. 

  • I learn to frame an idea in the context of a job to be done. I found this helpful in grounding an idea and the value it will provide customers. Also, I found it helpful to frame my research plan and its execution.
  • I learned to speak with users by diving deep into a problem space from the perspective of the people experiencing the problem.  
  • I learned how to use data and insight gathered from user interviews and surveys as a mechanism in the ideation process.

Designer Learnings:

Designer Learnings:

Jo Sturdivant

  1. Adapting to an Established Team: Joining the team in week 6 of 8 was challenging, as I had to quickly adapt to existing workflows, dynamics, and goals. This mirrors real-world situations where you often integrate into teams mid-project, and flexibility is essential.
  2. Work-Blocking for Efficiency: With only two weeks to complete the project, I learned the importance of a structured work-blocking system. This approach allowed me to manage my time effectively and meet deadlines under pressure.
  3. Making Data-Driven Design Decisions: Unlike my past projects, I had to rely on research conducted by others. This was a valuable experience in using pre-existing data to guide design decisions, helping me focus on the core insights without starting from scratch.

Developer Learnings:

Developer Learnings:

Vanady Beard

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As the back-end developer, I learned how important it is to create efficient and reliable systems that support the entire application. This experience also taught me the importance of optimising the database and ensuring the backend is scalable and easy to maintain.

Developer Learnings:

Stephen Asiedu

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As a back-end developer, I've come to understand the importance of being familiar with various database systems and modules. This knowledge enables me to build diverse applications and maintain versatility in my work. I've also learned that the responsibility for making the right choices rests on my shoulders, guided by my best judgement.

Developer Learnings:

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Developer Learnings:

Maurquise Williams

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  1. Process of Creating an MVP: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) taught me how to focus on delivering core functionalities balancing between essential features and avoiding scope creep.
  2. Collaboration in a Real-World Tech Setting: This experience taught me how to collaborate efficiently in a fast-paced tech environment, keeping the team aligned and productive, even while working remotely across time zones.
  3. Sharpening Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: This experience honed my ability to think critically and solve problems efficiently. By tackling challenges and finding quick solutions, I sharpened my decision-making and troubleshooting skills in a dynamic, real-world setting.

Developer Learnings:

Jeremiah Williams

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All in all this experience was very awesome I learned that in coding with others being transparent is key

Developers Learnings:

Justin Farley

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I learned how important communication is when working with a team. Communication provides understanding, advice, ideas, and much more. While working with the product team, I’ve found that communication keeps everything flowing smoothly. Working with a team also showed me that every member brings something different to the table and we all have to work together in order to align and meet our end goal.

Full Team Learning