Qualitative User Research

research to support the recruiter business

Through out my tenure at Ladders, I continuously conducted generative user research to gain an understanding of the recruiting process and recruiter behaviors. The output of this research (Personas and Mental Model) has been shared within all levels in Ladders and utilized for evaluating and defining new products/features and designing those products and features.

Personas

Who?

- Anyone that works in the recruiting industry - agencies, RPOs, Corporate HR, etc.
- US and India based Recruiters

How?

- Surveys to qualify and recruit
- Recruited via Ladders website (qualified via survey), contacting recruiters via Linkedin and networking at Recruiting conferences
- Remote plus In-person interviews and observations with screen sharing

What?

- Understand the hiring process and components of the process such as finding candidates and tracking information.
- Understand what the goals and pain points of the process are
- Observe how recruiters are finding candidates using various tools, how they store candidates and how they contact candidates.

MENTAL MODEL

I inherited a mental model developed back in 2013. As part of my user research efforts, I validated and updated this mental model and determined that the process has remained much the same. However, the tools and methods are slightly different.

Surveys

I designed, launched surveys and analyzed their results to:

roughly segment our Recruiter user base
identify potential Recruiters for further research
identify research topics
get feedback on new product features

Results from a survey to obtain feedback on process

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INTERACTION MAP

Ladders is a two sided market place. The recruiter side of the business is dependent on the member side of the business and vice versa. Recruiters not only post jobs but they also search and contact candidates. Job seeker's apply to jobs and also reply to recruiters emails.