Search Party
Research into how happy customers really used a recruiting marketplace pointed to a different product, and I made the case for the pivot.
The role at a glance
- Business
- Search Party, a marketplace connecting employers with recruiters, with tools for matching candidates to jobs and negotiating contracts.
- Hired to
- Manage and design the product, shaping its direction and delivery.
- Key wins
- Research that showed how satisfied customers actually used the platform, a pivot to serve those emerging workflows, which went ahead, and a more productive roadmap the team could get behind.
- Moved on
- Late in 2016, to Medical Director, to research and design for GPs.
A marketplace between employers and recruiters
Search Party connected employers with recruiters, to find better candidates and make better hires. The platform matched recruiters to jobs and supported the contract negotiation between them.
Shape the product, and ship it
As product manager and designer, I owned both the direction of the product and how it was designed and delivered.
Follow the happy customers
Researched what satisfied customers actually did
I organised research into how satisfied customers really used the platform. Their workflows weren't the ones the product was built around, so I proposed a major pivot in what we offered, to serve those emerging workflows better.
Mapped what was possible
I mapped the UX architecture with the data and development teams to understand the product's limits and opportunities, and helped realign the team's thinking behind a more productive roadmap.
Confirmed the goals, then showed the change
I ran workshops and reviews with stakeholders to confirm the business objectives, then scoped and wireframed workflows to show how new features would behave and what they'd change.
Kept delivery testable
I applied agile methods, made the case for efficient, design-centred processes, and supervised design and development sprints focused on deliverables we could test with users.
A pivot, and a plan to follow it
The pivot went ahead, with a roadmap planned around it. At the end of 2016 I joined Medical Director, to research and design with GPs on Helix, and Search Party was acquired not long after.