Case Study

Creating the Talent Marketplace

In Spring 2017, we had reached a point where the Overpass calling software was stable, and it was time to introduce our next major feature: the talent marketplace. The Overpass Talent Marketplace allows contractors all over the world to create profiles and get matched with remote call agent jobs. I served as the lead designer to bring this feature to market.

A contractor's profile page on the Overpass Talent Network.

Context

After discussing the business objectives with the executives, I began with user research. I conducted competitor analysis to help determine our strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement, and recruited remote contractors for a questionnaire about their biggest pain points.

A screenshot of a Typeform survey I sent out to contractors. The question asks, "What are your specialties?" Possible answers include: Contact list building, Cold calling, Appointment setting, Outbound calling, Telemarketing, Lead generation, Sales, Market Research, Support, Data entry, Customer Service, Other

It was important to me to focus equally on the contractors’ experience as well as clients, who would be searching for and hiring contractors on the platform. I interviewed a dozen clients to learn about their needs and expectations when hiring contractors.

Role
Lead Designer
Team
CPO, CTO, CEO
5 Developers
1 Lead Designer
1 Designer
Timeline
March 2017

Approach

For the MVP version, it was decided to make most of the finding and hiring process manual, by having Overpass Talent Advocates serve as the middle men between the contractors and clients. With an eye to future automation, I created a flow that outlined the touch points between clients and contractors and what role the Talent Advocates would play.

The flow for a client: The client signs up and fills out hiring preferences -> hiring preferences are sent to the TA. The flow for a contractor: Contractor signs up and fills out profile -> Contractor submits profile for review -> TA reviews profile, contact contractor if edits are needed, then approves profile -> TA gathers profiles for clients and emails them to client for review -> Client looks at profiles -> if the client doesn't like any profiles, they can request new profiles. If they see a profile they like, they request an interview with the contractor -> The TA contacts contractor and client for interview availability, schedules interview -> the interview occurs -> Either the client doesn't want to hire and they start the process over again, or the client sends the contractor an offer letter -> The contractor can accept the offer and get added to the client's account, the contractor can negotiate the offer, or the contractor can decline the offer.

In this initial flow, contractors sign up and create a profile while clients fill out their preferences for hiring, which are sent to our Talent Advocates. The Talent Advocates then send clients profiles of contractors who match their hiring preferences. When a client is interested in a contractor, they send a request to interview, and the Talent Advocate schedules a video interview between the client and contractor. Once a contractor is hired, they are train them on using the Overpass calling software to ensure a smooth onboarding process. Our Talent Advocates are also available to help clients set up their environment and campaigns.

Project Goals

  • Decrease the drop off rate from sign up to profile approved
  • Improve the information architecture and visual hierarchy of the profile to improve scanability
  • See an improvement in the quality of profiles
  • Improve the subjective experience of filling out a profile

Design

Working off of the existing style guide, I created a responsive onboarding flow for contractors to create their profile. I broke it down into multiple steps, so as not to overwhelm the user with information. Contractors fill out their bio, skills, industry and work experience, availability and preferred hourly rate.

The first screen is for the contractor to register their information. They can upload a profile photo, enter their first and last names, enter their email and phone number and create a password. The second screen is for the contractor to build their profile, where they fill out an intro (a short 3-5 sentence bio), select their country and timezone, then upload their Resume/CS and provide links to their social profiles or personal websites. The third screen prompts contractors to add their work history: enter the company name, job title, location of company, start date, end date, and job description.

One of the features that sets Overpass apart is the contractor language sample. We ask contractors to record themselves speaking a short phrase so that clients can get a better sense of phone presence, accent, and enunciation. Contractors can record samples for multiple languages as well.

The screen for a contractor to record their language sample. English is a required language to work on the platform so the contractor is prompted to record their voice in English. The instructions read: "Recording your voice helps companies put a voice to the name and understand you better. When you're ready, click on the microphone and read out the paragraph. You'll have one minute to record." The blurb the contractor needs to read out says, "Hello, my name is Darlene. I'm calling you to see how I can help you improve the level of service your business offers your clients. We provide solutions for small and mid-sized companies who are interested in building their sales pipelines."

Contractors submit their completed profiles for review by the Talent Advocates. I created a dashboard for the Talent Advocates to keep track of, review, and approve contractor profiles. Talent Advocates can send profiles to clients from this dashboard as well.

An example email to a client with profiles for their perusal. The subject line is "Gerry - New Agent profiles for Connecticut Investments Inc this week". The body of the email says, "Gerry Smith, there are new profiles for you to view! Hi Gerry Smith, I've handpicked agents who I think will be a good fit for you. You can request an interview or hire them directly from their profile. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks! Signed, Armando, Account Executive" The profiles include: Janet Hamilton, United States, $18.00/hour. Skills: B2B, Sales, and 3 more. Industries: Medicine, Health Care. Charles Guzman, United States, $20.00/hour. Skills: Support, Cold Calling, and 11 more. Industries: Energy. Michael Hayes, United States, $12.50/hour. Skills: Up Selling, Cross Selling, and 1 more. Industries: Insurance, Real Estate. Brian Taylor, USA, $14.00/hour. Skills: Support. Industries: Real Estate, Repair Services.

Much of the process relies on emails being sent between clients, Talent Advocates and contractors. I designed the email templates and wrote copy for all the emails that would be sent automatically, and suggested copy for the Talent Advocates to send manually to clients.

Results

Within less than a year, we had over a thousand contractors sign up for the Overpass Talent Marketplace and we have many active clients hiring through the marketplace. Since launch, we have refined the process and added additional features to allow easier communication between clients and contractors. We are also constantly iterating to improve the experience.

A Facebook post to Overpass's Facebook page from Mauricio Cardona Jaramillo on April 19, 2017. It says, "Got a job in less than 2 weeks. Thank you Overpass! Great support also, all of my questions were answered about how to use the platform. Great staff, very helpful all the time."A Facebook post to Overpass's Facebook page from Steve Kunsaitis on June 21, 2017. It says, "Definitely 5 stars to Overpass and Anam Dil in particular. When pursuing work from home positions I ran into all of the wrong avenues be it pyramid schemes, people who want you to buy their merchandise and sell it to family and friends - etc, etc. Well, then along came Anam Dil, who not only was very thorough in making my profile completely presentable to potential employers (it was far from it without her), but she was able to link me up with a position that pays me far more than any realistic expectations I could have had - with a company that is in every way a perfect match for me and what I do. I will definitely be recommending Anam and Overpass to any associates in need of employment. Thank you Overpass and Anam! You hit the ball right out of the park, and I very much appreciate it.
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