Folio is a student-focused freelance job site that connects students and recent grads to project gigs from vetted companies. Folio empowers students to graduate debt-free and gain rich experiences while providing trusted, low-cost pathways to good jobs.
User Research | Client Project | 2023
Research-based Project
Project Timeline: June 2023 | 3-Week Design Sprint
Deliverables: User Research, Affinity Mapping, Personas, and Competitive Analysis
My Role: For this project, In a small team of three, I was the UX Researcher. I conducted four out of the nine user interviews and collaborated on affinity mapping and survey. I was also responsible for creating Avery's persona and the problem statement.
OVERVIEW
Our team was tasked to help design a way to build community into Folio to engage their users and increase retention. In this project, we Gather, synthesize, & handoff data on the problems, motivations, & goals Folio’s user base has on professional community platforms.
THE GOAL
To provide a comprehensive understanding of how Folio tackled the challenge of user retention through professional community platforms
THE PROBLEM
Folio faced challenges in maintaining user retention, particularly during project lulls.
The proposed solution from the stakeholders was to integrate community features into Folio, fostering engagement and increasing user retention.
RESEARCH
We started by creating a Community Platform Survey to understand users’ likes, dislikes, needs, and experiences with professional networking communities. Our criteria were Students/career pivoters open to freelancing opportunities & hiring managers interested in outsourcing labor. We had 35 participants in our survey.
I found these general insights through the survey:
Popular job hunt methods: Alumni resources, LinkedIn, Otta, college student job sites (Handshake, etc), Indeed, UpWork, WellFound, personal network
Community platform features: On average, survey takers valued opportunities for personal connection 25% more than newsfeed content interaction
Based on the survey data, the features that stood out as valuable are as follows:
The Community Platform Survey helped us to understand users’ likes, dislikes, needs, and experiences with professional networking communities.
Likes
Referencing industry peers/leaders for insights & inspiration
Company/job transparency
Directly reaching out to company reps
Frustrations:
Overwhelming & insignificant content on newsfeeds
Filtering to the right jobs/gigs
Desires
Transparency in job application processing
Knowing the right people willing to provide feedback/advice
Customized consolidation of resources
To gain a deeper understanding, we conducted nine user interviews with freelancers, students, and recent grads to understand their problems, motivations, and goals on professional networking platforms. The insights garnered from these interviews were meticulously mapped using affinity mapping, helping us distill common themes and pain points.
View Affinity Map
Two personas were developed – Avery and Hasna. I created Avery and the problem statement.
Our interviews expressed a desire for features such as participation in weekly challenges, access to an open-source bank of vetted resources, implementing profile stickers/badges indicating availability for mentorship, and engagement in discussions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. The responses revealed that the majority of users like the survey participants are open to freelancing opportunities, with a notable preference for personal connection over newsfeed content interaction on professional networking communities.
During this phase, we identified potential areas of improvement based on the community platform interviews. Interwee expressed frustration with overwhelming and insignificant content on newsfeeds and difficulties in filtering to find the right jobs or gigs. This resonated with our observations that users were disengaging from platforms that failed to meet their objectives.
Synthesizing the gathered data revealed a familiar sentiment – Folio faced challenges in meeting the objectives of its user base. The absence of effective tools such as fostering meaningful connections within the freelancing community led users to consider alternative platforms, neglect Folio entirely, or disengage from active participation.
Our findings underscored the fundamental challenge – the need for a solution that aligns with user objectives to ensure sustained engagement and satisfaction on the Folio platform.
Recommendation - Cultivating Community
Implement tools/resources like weekly challenges and open-source resource banks.
Foster human connection through discussions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
Introduce community groups, moderators, and profile stickers/badges indicating availability for mentoring.
NEXT STEPS
Lead moderated events, including virtual and in-person sessions
Organize panels with hiring managers and recruiters
Host networking events, hackathons, designations, and mini freelancer cohorts