I worked as a User Researcher to help a startup take on an amazing endeavor to build a platform connecting businesses with contingent labor (freelancers). My defined business objective (their were multiple) was to help the company better understand both the independent professionals and small businesses their platform served through user research.

GOALS

• Problem - The client needed to identify the most highly needed features of both customers for their freelancing platform from both the supply-side (freelancer’s) and the demand-side (businesses whom hire freelancers).
• Whom to speak with - Working with the client we decided to speak with seasoned Freelancers with 7+ years experience whose sole income was from Freelancing, AND the businesses that directly relied on the Freelancer services as part of their business.
  • Employment Status
  • What specialty of Freelancing (we were looking for only two specialties)
  • Years of Experience
  • Frequency of Freelancing in last 6 months
• Data gathering:
  • We utilized Surveys to screen the different users and inform the discussion guides (see below), for the different participant groups (freelancers & businesses)
  • We recorded audio interviews and transcripts to analyze the data which defined the Dimensions to model the user types by.
• Project Plan - I created a project plan to review all of the outputs and delverables in coordination with the other initiatives defined for the team to move forward by. The overall project for both groups was 3-4 weeks.
• Personas - from the information collected we assessed and
• Journey Map - Created a journey map to pair with the insights along the journey of engagment.

APPROACH

Setup:

1. Work closely with the client to clarify what they needed from the research and draft a research outline with those clearly stated Goals.
2. Review and get buy-in on the Goals, outcomes, and success metrics from the client and stakeholders on a weekly basis.

Goals defined for doing this type of research:

1. Share knowledge internally with the company and team
2. Bring more clarity of who their customers are and what is important to them which creates better alignment.
3. Create a foundation for the team to continually use this as a tool over time as they refine the overall business offering with the shared understanding of the customer.