CONNECTING JOB SEEKERS AND RECRUITING STARTUPS.

UW Entrepreneurship Society aims to build inclusive innovation by exposing students of all faculties to Waterloo's entrepreneurial ecosystem. As the club's UX designer, I helped create Janus––a platform made for UW students and alumni to post open positions in their start-ups or clubs for hiring, and to apply for open positions to gain experience. It is the perfect networking platform for start-ups, brand new clubs, and UW students/alumni looking to gain experience.

HOW MIGHT WE NARROW THE JOB SEARCH?

Based on past research and information saved from previous club terms, we think that there is a gap between the existing platforms for job networking and the specific requirements of job seekers. There must be a niche for these preferences and requirements that University of Waterloo students generally have.

WE WENT THROUGH MANY, MANY REVISIONS.

Despite having notable checkpoints through our design thinking journey, there were many edits and reiterations in between. We reduced our user flow to the main necessary touch-points excluding filter options. Over the course of our many iterations, we added multiple sorting and filtering features. Early iterations of Janus:

TRANSLATING TESTING FEEDBACK INTO RESULTS.

Initial feedback highlighted confusion in navigating through multiple filter options, which led to slower task completion times. To address this, we reduced the user flow to only the main necessary touchpoints while excluding less critical filter options.

SIMPLIFYING THE STARTUP LANDSCAPE

Our user-centric platform showcases the symbiotic relationship between students and/or alumni and startups in the dynamic landscape of talent acquisition within the startup ecosystem.

PROMOTION: SCOPING OUT DEMANDS

Our hybrid marketing and design team simultaneously created an Instagram campaign to directly engage with our target audience and gather valuable insights into their preferences and needs.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS DROVE OUR PROJECT.

This was the first time for me to directly communicate with software engineers and PM. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn how to effectively explain my rationale and justify design-decisions in weekly meetings. Open-minded and efficient communications within both internal and external teams have made me realize that this motivates the team to drive the project forward positively.