Project Goal

1. I need to know that other designers need this platform or not.

2. Building a platform where designers can signup for mock interviews.

3. Quality has to be good for interviews otherwise the word of mouth wouldn't spread and the platform wouldn't have designers to set up interviews with.

‍

My Role and Team

I will be the primary person working on this platform. But I brought in 2 of my close friends who are in the design field to advise me while I work on this project. So that it's not just me but I have people to talk to if I get stuck or need to improve things.

‍My Advisors are:

1. Shivam Grover ( Linkedin Profile )

2. Karan Dembla ( Linkedin Profile )

‍

Design/Launch Process

1. User research ( Market analysis, Producthunt Landing Page, Survey, User Interviews)

2. Ideation (Affinity Mapping, Insights, Personas, User Flow)

3. Beta Testing ( with the user identity, Without user Identity exposed )

4. Tweaking the user flow and patterns.

5. Launching MVP of the platform.

6. Learning and Improvement.

‍

‍

User Research

‍

Market Analysis

I started researching products that are similar in nature for what I want to build. In order to learn from them.

‍

Platforms which are providing the same service:

1. Interviewing.io

2. Pramp.com

3. Interviewbuddy

‍

User flows for the above platform are:

1. User signups with basic info about them from social logins mostly Google or Linkedin or Facebook.

2. After signup, some basic questions are asked like what type of interview they want to take and some other details they want to provide before setting up the interview.

3. Then they choose the date and time for the interview.

4. Then a confirmation email is sent to the user to let them know that within 1–2 days they will get the confirmation of the interview.

‍

Note: In some platforms where the user base is large they use a calendar feature for interviewers to select dates and time range of when they are free in a week. So automatically when an interviewee signs up they choose the date and time for the interview and as soon as they book an interview they directly get a confirmation email of the interview.

Also, a very interesting point which I came across while I was looking at the platform interviewing.io which practice anonymous mock interview where the user's identity is not exposed ( if they wish then they can expose it but they prefer not to do so). They published a study based on why keeping user identity hidden is good for the interview process.

Link of the article = http://blog.interviewing.io/

‍

‍

Product hunt Landing Page

Before I began my surveys and user interviews with the designers. I wanted to know how many people are actually interested in Designer Upgrade, so I created a simple landing page from Product hunt in order to put the word out and collect some interest in Designer Upgrade.

I had a number on my checklist that as soon as the list of users who signed up for Designer Upgrade crosses 100. I will start my user interviews and surveys then beta testing for the service. Luckily 120 users signed up within 3 weeks.

In order to keep the signed-up users still interested in Designer Upgrade, I use to send a weekly newsletter which use to have interview tips from hiring managers working at big companies.

‍

‍

Survey

I created a survey form based on my market research.

‍

Survey form questions:

1. What level are you in your design career at the moment?

2. What is the nature of difficulties do you want to overcome in your interview process through this platform?

3. Would you like a proper form of feedback once you are done with the mock interview from the interview?

4. What is your current experience with the interviews you are giving or have given in the past? What type of improvement would you like to them?

5. Link of your portfolio or LinkedIn or dribble?

6. The best email to reach out to you?

‍

Link of the survey ( made it in Typeform ) = Form Link

‍

‍

Some common answers to the most important question.

What is your current experience with the interviews you are giving or have given in the past? What type of improvement would you like to them?

‍

1. There’s so much to talk about but so little time, I know I’ve done a lot of good diverse, and deep work and yet it’s hard for people to see me for the holistic person that I am. I’m also just not sure overall what it is that I’m doing wrong.

2. Lack of understanding about my working areas.

3. usually, companies don’t give me any feedback on how to improve myself.

4. No feedback at all or no proper feedback, branded college biasness

5. I lack in explaining the proper technical questions.

6. Since most of the hiring companies are startups, it’s the non-designers who take my interview. How do I convince them in the design vocabulary?

7. Only two interviews have been by me. So I will need some materials.

8. I would just like to know what sort of questions I can expect for UX Designer positions, I am a junior so I am just starting to get interviews

9. Whether we should give a gist of our past experience, or should we talk about every detail?

‍

‍

‍

Ideation ( Affinity Mapping, Insights, Personas & User flow )

‍

Affinity Mapping

We used affinity mapping to brainstorm about ideas in order to discuss what things have to be in consideration while we built Designer Upgrade and user flows (keeping in mind the data we got from a user survey and user interview).

‍

‍

‍

Insights

Having organized our thoughts on affinity map. We were able to extract 5 main insights across all our research.

1. Experience Level = It matters a lot when setting up an interview between two users. The interviewer level should be higher from the interviewee or the same.

2. Time & Date = Availability is the main matter so both users should be from the same country in order to set up a proper time for the interview or from the same time zone. ( so asking about time zone is important than asking about the country they live in when they want to give/take interviews)

3. Feedback = It is an important part for the interviewee because that is the main thing they seek out of the mock interview so that they improve on their skills where they lacked so that their actual interview goes smoothly. It is important at an interviewer level so that it helps us keep track of the experience because the interviewer is the main user in control of the experience for the interview.

4. Identity = We found out that interviewers don't want to show their identity because many times interviewees taking a mock interview want to connect with them on LinkedIn and then ask for favors for the job process. They want to help designers but they want to keep the identity hidden. When both identities are hidden both can feel comfortable in giving and taking the interview.

5. Reschedule = Rescheduling the interview can be a major factor as sometimes things can come up so it has to be very direct to both users to alert us in advance if they want to cancel or postpone the interview.

6. Interview Timeline = It is a basic time sorting given to both users when sending a calendar invite for the interview so that they have a proper schedule arrangement of how much time they have to take for introduction, then the main interview, and then the feedback section.

‍

‍

Persona

To reflect the diversity of users who may use Designer Upgrade, we created personas for each type of user which we encounter during our user interview.

‍

Interviewee Personas

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Interviewer Personas

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

User Flow Journey Mapping

It is a process where I am going to define how the user will interact or proceed with the platform to give or take interviews.

‍

Interviewee User flow Journey

‍

‍

‍

Interviewer User flow Journey

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Beta Test

This way I could discover more about what the user wants.

‍

1. The first beta testing of the mock interview will be with both users exposing their identity to each other for the interview like the normal process which happens over video call interview.

2. The second testing of the mock interview will be done with both users not exposing their identity to each other and also interviewers using an alias name.

‍

Note: I also did testing with users not exposing their identities but sharing their real names.

‍

I conducted 5 interviews each for both users. In order to compare which one works better.

‍

Brief result of both beta test interview was:

1. The user identity exposed = It went normal but I could see some pros and cons of this user experience. After every interview, the interviewee tried to reach out to the interviewer directly on LinkedIn to personally know them and bring them into their network as it was a good pro for the interviewee but the interviewer didn’t prefer it. They want to help other designers but they don't want designers only reaching out to them for job recommendations.

2. The user identity not exposed = In this interview both the users were acting very formal with each other and there was less stress from both sides while giving the interview and both of the users felt comfortable as they fully are themselves while they give/take interviews.

Note: A edge case problem appeared when the user chooses a portfolio review interview that time the identity is exposed of the interviewee to the interviewer. So for the portfolio review, I had to make an exception of not hiding the identity of both users.

3. Common Advantage: Both users loved the idea of recording the interview video call and sending them a copy of it because it helped both of them to revisit the interview process again. ( its an option to record the call for both users ).

‍

‍

Some common problems I encountered in both user experience were:

1. I made an assumption that every designer wants to go through the entire design interview process but that was not the correct assumption I made. The interviewee had specific interview skills that they wanted to practice. Like someone wanted to practice on case study test, general interview skills, portfolio review & design challenge.

So now when the interviewee book an interview they will specifically mention what type of interview they want to give. It is a good effect on the interviewer's side as now we can onboard interviewers the same way as what type of interview they want to take. It helped me segment users for the interviews properly.

2. I prepared a basic interview guide about the time structure for both users. But I saw a problem from the interviewer's side that they needed a proper guide book for each interview they want to take. So if they get stuck they can read out the document for some quick help or read it before the interview to be more prepared.

‍

Link to the google docs for the interviewer guide for all the interviewer options —

1. General Interview = Document Link

2. Portfolio Review = Document Link

3. Design Challenge = Document Link

4. Presentation Skills = Document Link

‍

Tweaking the user experience according to the beta test results from the interviews.

1. The user can choose if they want to disclose their identity or not ( it will be for both users )

2. Adding a general document for each interview type for the interviewer to have some general guide book to refer too.

3. Adding a selection of what type of interview a user wants to give or take.

4. Choosing if they want to record the mock interview or not.

‍

‍

‍

Launching the MVP

I used the tool webflow to quickly develop and deploy the website for the service.

Pages required in the website

1. Landing page = This will be the section to explain to users what the platform is and how they can signup for giving or taking an interview.

2. About Us = This is the section where I will mention why I am doing this so that the user has some context about the service and whats its back story and also mentioning my team and me.

3. User reviews = I believe this section is a must when you provide these types of services because it helps new users understand about other users have achieved from this platform and what they can achieve from it.

4. Contact Us = This is a basic contact page for the user to reach out to us for any query.

‍

Link to Designer Upgrade = https://designer-upgrade.webflow.io/

‍

All the sign-up forms links:

1. A user signing up for giving an interview = Form Link

2. A user signing up for taking an interview = Form Link

3. Already a member booking for giving an interview = Form Link

‍

‍

Below are the screenshots of the website:

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Launched MVP

I used various tools to automate my process for booking the interview so that I don't have to do much manual work for setting up an interview for both users.

‍

Tools I used to build up the MVP

1. Zoom = I used to zoom its a video calling platform. The interface is very simple to use.

2. Zapier = This is one of the most important tools for this service it is an automation service that helps me automate my email invites, my data entry in google sheets.

3. Google Sheets = I use google sheets to manage the interviewer and interviewee information.

4 Webflow = It is a service that helps you develop a website very easily and the best part of the platform is that you can actually modify the code of the website in order to change its UI rather than using its CMS system. Plus it provides a hosting service to freely host your developed website.

‍

Note: For booking the interview between users I still do it manually by pairing the users and then sending out calendar invites. ( I tried finding solutions to automate it, But do let me know if you know a tool that can do that or a solution that will help me perform it better )

‍

‍

‍

‍

Some basic stats after the launch of the platform.

Its being 4 months since the MVP has been launched:

‍

‍

‍

‍

Some reviews from my current user base.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Learning and Improving the MVP

1. I saw that not a lot of designers are signing up for the interviewer position. I am going to introduce a new credit system in which whoever gives an interview will have to take 1 interview in the future. So if an interviewee takes 4 interviews through the platform they will have to take 4 interviews in the future. ( Yet to test it but I have already asked users and they are good with it)

2. It's hard to maintain a good user experience for every interview. I have created a benchmark system of rating for both interviewee and interviewer ( like we have in uber for both passengers and drivers ). This helps me maintain a good user base.

3. It's hard to engage your users on a weekly bases so I am learning things in order to do so with my current users. Like, keep the users engage with the service even when they are not using it.

4. To be honest I never knew if anyone would signup as an interviewer when I talked to users a new case appeared where an interviewer can be a person who is giving interviews currently for a job and just wants to take mock interviews in order to know different answers of the questions asked to them in their interview or one startup approached me where they want to start hiring designers so they wanted to take mock interviews in order to set up their designer hiring structure.

5. I have also learned to give fewer dates like 3 dates in a week so that its easier for me to manage and book interviews between users.

6. Also if the interviewee doesn't accept the request of the interview one day before the interview, we have started canceling those interviews or contact the interviewee for an update because we don't want the interviewer time to waste by waiting at the call.

‍

‍

Still have a long way to go to improve Designer Upgrade.

‍