A glimpse of how the Optisol design team designed the UX of a next-gen resume builder application.
Resume4mat is an AI/ML-enabled resume and cover letter building application, which helps the user to build a recruitment-ready resume and cover letter.
Initially, our data labs team at Optisol were working on a client project that focused on providing the solution to the recruiter problems, basically a portal that helps the recruiter to convert 1000s of resume in whatever format they wish to convert in seconds. Then later on the same client came up with another requirement i.e. to solve the problems that the candidates face in the resume and cover letter building process. This is a web application and at Optisol we have developed a few similar web applications. web designing company
To solve the problem that has been already solved by many online portals, we were under a challenging scenario where we had to provide unique and useful features to the product. To understand what is happening around in the market, we performed competitor analysis which gave us many insights around product pain points, product features, unique selling points, etc., The objective was to provide a unique and useful solution, unlike the competitors.
In a fast-paced environment at Optisol, we were given only a short period to spend during the research phase of the project, Under this short period, the main goal was to understand the user persona analysis, their needs, and the pain points they face while preparing a resume from scratch.
To understand this we performed certain ‘user research processes’ namely,
- User survey
- Persona analysis
We created a set of a questionnaire focusing on the user’s perspective towards the difficulties involved in creating a resume from scratch. The survey questions primarily focused on identifying the target users, challenges, the effort involved, etc., in creating a resume.
Some of the user survey questions include,
1. Are you a student/intern or working professional?
2. How do you create your ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’?
3. How much time approx. Do you spend in creating a ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’ from scratch?
4. What are the challenges you go through in creating a ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’?
5. How tiring is the process of creating a ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’ for you?
6. How do you identify the perfect template for your ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’?
7. Do you follow any Rectifying / Identifying mechanism to improve your ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’ when it doesn’t make past the initial screening rounds repeatedly?
8. What is your preference in creating a ‘Resume’?
9. Any technique you follow to make your ‘Resume’ or ‘Cover letter’ creation much easier? Kindly share us below.
We shared this survey with our client (based in Australia) and people across OptiSol. We received around 100+ responses which were more than enough for us to analyze and empathize with the user given the limited time.
The survey was designed in such a way to receive responses in the form of both qualitative and quantitative data. The wide spectrum of data that we received helped us to empathize with user behavior.
Based on the analysis of the user survey data, we identified the target users, User persona, and the unique product features that can become the product’s unique selling point apart from the resume-building process.
Some of the notable pain points that we identified or received as a response from the user survey,
Insight 1:
Resume Creating process is very tiring and time-consuming. So people tend to create a resume based on job descriptions.
to solve the above pain point, we proposed a solution that can be implemented in the product as a feature i.e.,
Compatibility scorer
Calculating the compatibility score between the resume and the Job description of the job user applying.
Insight 2:
Another key insight that we identified was,
‘Users tend to consult with an experienced professional on how to refine a ‘Resume/Cover letter’ to make it recruitment-ready.
to convert the above insight into a selling point, we proposed the following product feature,
Expert Guidance on a subscription basis
Providing expert guidance or consultation as a feature to the users on a subscription basis, where the user can interact with an expert on how to make a recruitment-ready ‘Resume/Cover letter’.
Thus helping the product to generate revenue.
Other than the above two, many other pain points were identified based on which the product features and its experience were designed.
After many iterations and feedback from the client, stakeholders, and users, it helped us to validate our research findings. And most of them are being implemented in different phases of the project possibly helping the users in the process of building a resume/cover letter.
