GoodWorker • Jobs marketplace • 2023
GoodWorker • Jobs marketplace • 2023
An employer portal for India’s blue-collar jobs market
An employer portal for India’s blue-collar jobs market
Timeline
TBD
TBD
Role
TBD
TBD
Team
TBD
TBD
TL;DR
GoodWorker asked us to find the gaps in India’s blue-collar jobs market: reach feature parity with the incumbents first, then differentiate on the part nobody had solved — the connection between a worker, a recruiter, and an employer, and the trust that connection runs on.
GoodWorker asked us to find the gaps in India’s blue-collar jobs market: reach feature parity with the incumbents first, then differentiate on the part nobody had solved — the connection between a worker, a recruiter, and an employer, and the trust that connection runs on.
We ran qualitative research across all three sides of the marketplace, turned it into jobs-to-be-done maps and a heuristic read of GoodWorker and its competitors, and translated the findings into a mobile employer portal covering nine flows — from onboarding and document verification through job posting, candidate shortlisting, and status updates.
We ran qualitative research across all three sides of the marketplace, turned it into jobs-to-be-done maps and a heuristic read of GoodWorker and its competitors, and translated the findings into a mobile employer portal covering nine flows — from onboarding and document verification through job posting, candidate shortlisting, and status updates.
3
3
Sides of the marketplace
Sides of the marketplace
16
16
Job seeker interviews
Job seeker interviews
9
9
Flows handed to development
Flows handed to development
Solution
A portal built around what an employer actually does in a day
A portal built around what an employer actually does in a day
Posting a job
Posting a job
Employers told us they judge a platform on how fast it returns something useful. Posting is broken into short, defaulted steps so a job can go live in one sitting, on a phone, between other work.
Employers told us they judge a platform on how fast it returns something useful. Posting is broken into short, defaulted steps so a job can go live in one sitting, on a phone, between other work.
Candidates in one list
Candidates in one list
One list, one status per candidate. Recruiters were stitching together their own tracking across notebooks and chat threads, so the portal makes the pipeline the product rather than something people rebuild each time.
One list, one status per candidate. Recruiters were stitching together their own tracking across notebooks and chat threads, so the portal makes the pipeline the product rather than something people rebuild each time.
Verification that earns trust
Verification that earns trust
Mistrust was the loudest theme on the worker side. First-time users verify documents up front, so a job seeker meets an employer the platform has already checked rather than one they have to take on faith.
Mistrust was the loudest theme on the worker side. First-time users verify documents up front, so a job seeker meets an employer the platform has already checked rather than one they have to take on faith.
Overview
GoodWorker is a jobs marketplace for India’s blue-collar workforce, where most hiring still happens through people rather than platforms.
GoodWorker is a jobs marketplace for India’s blue-collar workforce, where most hiring still happens through people rather than platforms.
The brief came in two parts. MVP0 was parity: match what WorkIndia, OLX, and Facebook groups already do well enough that nobody has a reason to leave. MVP1 was the interesting half — differentiate by improving how workers and recruiters connect, give recruiters a dashboard worth opening, and build enough trust that people stop treating every listing as a possible scam.
The brief came in two parts. MVP0 was parity: match what WorkIndia, OLX, and Facebook groups already do well enough that nobody has a reason to leave. MVP1 was the interesting half — differentiate by improving how workers and recruiters connect, give recruiters a dashboard worth opening, and build enough trust that people stop treating every listing as a possible scam.
Problem
A three-sided market where every side works around the product.
A three-sided market where every side works around the product.
Job seekers do not trust online listings and fall back on personal networks. Employers expect instant results and abandon anything that makes them wait. Recruiters, sitting in the middle, hold the whole thing together with processes they invent themselves. Each workaround is rational on its own and quietly cancels out the platform.
Job seekers do not trust online listings and fall back on personal networks. Employers expect instant results and abandon anything that makes them wait. Recruiters, sitting in the middle, hold the whole thing together with processes they invent themselves. Each workaround is rational on its own and quietly cancels out the platform.
User Research
We interviewed all three sides before deciding whose problem to solve first.
We interviewed all three sides before deciding whose problem to solve first.
Sixteen 1:1 interviews with job seekers across Delhi NCR, Jaipur, and Mumbai — drivers, security guards, delivery workers, sales staff, and people between jobs — plus interviews with employers and recruiters. Each conversation was reduced to quotes, mapped onto empathy maps and sketchnotes, and then synthesised into jobs-to-be-done.
Sixteen 1:1 interviews with job seekers across Delhi NCR, Jaipur, and Mumbai — drivers, security guards, delivery workers, sales staff, and people between jobs — plus interviews with employers and recruiters. Each conversation was reduced to quotes, mapped onto empathy maps and sketchnotes, and then synthesised into jobs-to-be-done.
Alongside the interviews we ran a heuristic evaluation of GoodWorker and a competitor ecosystem study, so recommendations could point at specific screens rather than at the category in general.
Alongside the interviews we ran a heuristic evaluation of GoodWorker and a competitor ecosystem study, so recommendations could point at specific screens rather than at the category in general.
Employers want to hand it off
Employers want to hand it off
Employers want to relegate the work of finding the right candidates to someone equally invested in their success — but not at the cost of feeling in control of who gets hired.
Employers want to relegate the work of finding the right candidates to someone equally invested in their success — but not at the cost of feeling in control of who gets hired.
Patience is measured in seconds
Patience is measured in seconds
Employers expect technology to return instant matches, and dismiss it the moment it does not. Small employers stay with tried and tested processes precisely because those processes never stall.
Employers expect technology to return instant matches, and dismiss it the moment it does not. Small employers stay with tried and tested processes precisely because those processes never stall.
Recruiters go transactional
Recruiters go transactional
Most of a recruiter’s effort is unrecognised and uncompensated, so they optimise for targets. The relationship becomes self-serving because the incentives make it so.
Most of a recruiter’s effort is unrecognised and uncompensated, so they optimise for targets. The relationship becomes self-serving because the incentives make it so.
Recruiters hack their own process
Recruiters hack their own process
High volumes and heavy documentation force recruiters to stitch together their own tracking, which then gets in the way of the organised, efficient service employers are asking for.
High volumes and heavy documentation force recruiters to stitch together their own tracking, which then gets in the way of the organised, efficient service employers are asking for.
On the worker side, mistrust is the thing the product has to earn back.
On the worker side, mistrust is the thing the product has to earn back.
Job seekers cannot tell a real listing from a scam, and several had been burned already. They fall back on referrals and face-to-face meetings because a person can be held accountable and a listing cannot.
Job seekers cannot tell a real listing from a scam, and several had been burned already. They fall back on referrals and face-to-face meetings because a person can be held accountable and a listing cannot.
Credentials make it worse. Platforms still filter on 10th and 12th class certificates that many workers do not have, while the social currency they have built through years of reliable work has nowhere to live.
Credentials make it worse. Platforms still filter on 10th and 12th class certificates that many workers do not have, while the social currency they have built through years of reliable work has nowhere to live.
How Might We
Give employers and recruiters a single place to run hiring, without taking away the control they came for?
Give employers and recruiters a single place to run hiring, without taking away the control they came for?
User goal
Make the platform trustworthy enough that workers stop routing around it?
Make the platform trustworthy enough that workers stop routing around it?
Business goal
Ideation
Jobs-to-be-done gave us a shared map of what each side was actually trying to get done.
Jobs-to-be-done gave us a shared map of what each side was actually trying to get done.
We built a JTBD tree per persona — identify jobs, get the job, grow the career on the worker side; find, filter, and convert candidates on the employer and recruiter side — and revised it as the detailed interviews came in. It became the argument for what to build first, because every proposed feature could be traced back to a job somebody named out loud.
We built a JTBD tree per persona — identify jobs, get the job, grow the career on the worker side; find, filter, and convert candidates on the employer and recruiter side — and revised it as the detailed interviews came in. It became the argument for what to build first, because every proposed feature could be traced back to a job somebody named out loud.
The competitor ecosystem study did the opposite job: it showed where parity was already good enough, so MVP0 could be scoped tightly and the design effort could go to the employer and recruiter experience that nobody had built well.
The competitor ecosystem study did the opposite job: it showed where parity was already good enough, so MVP0 could be scoped tightly and the design effort could go to the employer and recruiter experience that nobody had built well.
Design Process
We turned the research into recommendations tied to specific screens.
We turned the research into recommendations tied to specific screens.
The heuristic evaluation produced findings grouped by experience, interaction, and visual craft: keep language consistent for users reading in a second language, reduce the choice paradox by naming a recommended action, give a clear sense of place and a way back, and chunk information so the hierarchy carries the load instead of the reader.
The heuristic evaluation produced findings grouped by experience, interaction, and visual craft: keep language consistent for users reading in a second language, reduce the choice paradox by naming a recommended action, give a clear sense of place and a way back, and chunk information so the hierarchy carries the load instead of the reader.
Each recommendation was written against a screen it applied to, which is what made them survive into the build.
Each recommendation was written against a screen it applied to, which is what made them survive into the build.
Then we designed the employer portal as a ready-for-development file, flow by flow.
Then we designed the employer portal as a ready-for-development file, flow by flow.
Nine flows: onboarding, first-time document verification, job posting, the job listing home, the candidate list, candidate status updates, profile, FAQ and support, and the empty and error states that usually get left until last. Handing over states rather than screens is what let engineering build without coming back for the edge cases.
Nine flows: onboarding, first-time document verification, job posting, the job listing home, the candidate list, candidate status updates, profile, FAQ and support, and the empty and error states that usually get left until last. Handing over states rather than screens is what let engineering build without coming back for the edge cases.
Design Mockups
A closer look at the screens.
A closer look at the screens.
Outcome
The research became a portal engineering could build from, and a shared vocabulary for what to build next.
The research became a portal engineering could build from, and a shared vocabulary for what to build next.
TBD — outcome and impact.
Reflection
What I took away from this one.
What I took away from this one.
Research the side you are not designing for.
Research the side you are not designing for.
The portal is for employers, but the job seeker interviews are what explained why employers behave the way they do. In a marketplace, the constraint is almost never on the side you are building.
The portal is for employers, but the job seeker interviews are what explained why employers behave the way they do. In a marketplace, the constraint is almost never on the side you are building.
Recommendations need an address.
Recommendations need an address.
Findings written against a specific screen got built. General principles, however true, did not. Tying every recommendation to somewhere it applied is what carried the research into the product.
Findings written against a specific screen got built. General principles, however true, did not. Tying every recommendation to somewhere it applied is what carried the research into the product.
Curious to know more?
This is just a small part of the design process — for the full story, get in touch