Working with a Client: Prentus — Creating the Student Dashboard
Prentus is a new online platform designed to achieve fast employment of bootcamp graduates. It is used by placement teams, hiring managers, and bootcamp students.
Due to its infancy the company’s desire was to increase both the hiring partners and bootcamp’s use of the platform. The challenge was understanding which particular problem needed to be addressed and which of 3 main user (the student, the recruiter, and the outcomes manager/bootcamp) would our efforts best be focused on.
We were ultimately tasked with developing new tools or enhance the dashboards on the platform.
Team
Delio Morató — User Research | Interaction Design | UI Design
Michaela Misske Maia — User Research | Interaction Design | UI Design
Client
Rob Danan CEO of Prentus
Scope and Constraints
Company provided design system while the project had a 4 weeks time frame.
Process:
Affinity Diagram
The research started with identifying what gaps in information were present and what still needed to be gathered in order to narrow the scope and identify the most pertinent pain points.
We started by conducting 8 interviews, each about an hour in duration. The interviewees consisted of the client and 7 professionals working in the field. They worked in the following areas: 3 in bootcamps/outcomes program, 3 in the career services departments of universities, and 1 was an active recruiter for a technology company.
We gather as much data as possible from the individuals regarding their business processes; what has been working, what does not, current usage of tools, and what challenges they were facing.
The information was then organized and summarized into an Affinity Diagram.
Key Takeaways:
- Recruiters want a curated list of top students
- Recruiters do not want to filter through 100’s of applications
- Most outcomes managers use multiple tools in order to track and manage hiring contacts and students
- Very difficult to track data from both students and hiring partners as many systems are private and may cause extra work on the recruiter to report out
- responsiveness may be a hinderance with regards to the 3 types of user
- many outcomes managers use simple tools such as excel or google sheets in order to speed up, manage relationship and track outcomes. They feel comfortable using such tools as they are easy to use, familiar, and can be easily personalized
- many boot camps would like a CRM feature but may not be able to afford the cost or the time to customize might be a hinderance
- the multitude of was ways employer can connect or hire students without having to report data to bootcamps can be a challenge
- following up can be difficult with both students and hiring partners
- follow up with partners can take a long time
- many of the relationships with hiring partners are based on hiring partner needs and personal relationships with individuals working at the bootcamp
- CRM feature was highly requested to track communication and next steps for bootcamps/outcomes manager
- Companies often trust people’s recommendation over resumes
Once we understood the many concerns the users had. We needed to focus on defining the problem and which problem to focus on.
At this stage we met again with the client to discuss our findings and determine which user to focus on.
Empathy Map
Based on the research and interviews we decided to create an empathy map to better understand the user experience. Based on the conversation with the client, the research and what could be delivered. A decision was made to focus on the outcomes managers (bootcamps) as our primary user.
We were able to synthesize the user experience based on information acquired in the interviews and reflected upon key pain points.
User Persona and Journey Map
Since we still needed to further narrow down our pain points, a user persona and journey map was also created.
Key takeaways:
- Core needs include: being able to provide curated list, better tracking, and a better tool to communicate with employers
- Core frustrations included: employers only wanting top students, better way to manage feed back (ex. hiring status) and a better process to manage communication
- Some opportunities that presented themselves in the journey map included: offer CRM capabilities, filter tools based on bootcamp recommendations, send downloadable links with student info..etc.
How Might We…
We then decided to move forward with creating How Might We (HMW) statements to generate solutions and move the project forward.
Based on all 3 exercises (User Persona, Journey Map, and HMW) we decided to focus on these 3 HMW statements to drive our solutions:
- How might we enable bootcamps to offer a curated list to potential hiring managers?
- How might we be able to allow for a better tracking system besides google sheets to make notes and update data?
- How might we automate and manage responses from employers to reduce communication fatigue?
Concept Sketches
Once we understood which problem we wanted to solve we decided to create some concept sketches. We then met up with the client and it was determined that we focused on the HMW statement #1 — How might we enable bootcamps to offer a curated list to potential hiring managers?
User Flow
We then created a user flow with certain attributes. The user flow, also took into account the limitations of the technology being used by the client.
With all the knowledge we acquired we decided that the user will need to be able to accomplish the following task:
- Review students on a list
- Filter out those students
- Compose an email
- Send to employers.
Based on the research we had initially conducted we decided to create a new dashboard. The dashboard consisted of integrated some excel functionality in order to facilitate the filtering mechanisms while being intuitive for the end user. Additionally, an email feature was also add with some CRM integration in order to track responses.
Low-fidelity Wireframes:
We then sketched a number of ideas and compared them. We then took the results and unified what we liked from each sketched.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
We then proceeded to create mid-fidelity wire frames.
Mid-Fidelity Testing
A usability test was then done to the flow of the wire frame. 5 people complete the test and provided feedback.
Overall the feedback was positive and all candidates were able to complete the task using the happy path. However the feedback provided was then applied to the high-fidelity version.
Style Tile
As we decided to create a new dashboard we also analyzed the design theme of the site to keep it consistent with his brand. Thus we opted to create a Style Tile for the Hi-Fi.
Also a recommendation was made to change the font from Inter to Avenir to improve contrast and legibility when working with numbers.
Hi-Fidelity
After evaluating all the feedback obtain from the user-ability test and the client a final hi-fidelity design was created.
Ideally, we would like to work on the email and CRM features more but due to the time constraint only the foundation was designed.
Next steps:
- Do usability test for hi-fis
- Finish designing email and CRM features
Success Metrics:
- Increase usage amongst hiring managers
- Graduates of bootcamp being hired faster
- Costumer satisfaction
- Clear task completion
- Better tracking and communication between all parties involved
Client Satisfaction
We were honored that the client liked our research and the feedback we provided. So much so that some of the features we explored was included in his program.
Special thanks to Rod Danan
