CareerCoachingPro
Automation enables business owner to use her time on services that make money
THE PROBLEM
CareerCoachingPro's client acquisition and onboarding were labor-intensive for the owner, reducing availability of the owner for value-added coaching activities. CareerCoachingPro is a sole proprietorship run by a single mother. Any inefficient use of the coach’s time directly impacts revenue or quality time with her family.
​CareerCoachingPro is a coaching business that delivers coaching services in two ways 1:1 personalized coaching and group sessions. Coaching is a service business that relies on job-seekers working directly with the coach. CareerCoachingPro is a sole proprietorship run by a single mother. Her time is at a premium and should be as productive as possible.
KEY GOAL
Create a new channel to attract clients and automate client sign-up to reduce manual processes and save time (non-value add) for the owner.
THE SOLUTION
Automate client sign-up on CareerCoachingPro to reduce manual processes and save time (non-value add) for the owner and create a new channel to attract clients without using the coach’s time. The coaching web pages were built in an iterative Agile method that matches the job-seeker journey of hiring career coaches.
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Pages redesigned or added to the website:
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Individual Services
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​Group Sessions
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Job Seeking Cohort
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Portfolio Class
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Agile Apprenticeship
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​Gift Card
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Personalized 1:1 Coaching
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Personalized Coaching Packages
MY ROLE
UX and Service Designer
Collaborated on an Agile team on a digitization project which included research, ideation, service design, business strategy, wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, launching website pages, conducting usability tests, and iterating on designs.
MY TEAM
Debbie Chan - UX/UI designer officiallydebbie.com
RESEARCH
As a sole proprietor of a service that sells time with a coach, the coach’s time is at a premium and should be focused on revenue-generating activities.
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Key Business Takeaways
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Time-consuming client acquisition was through in-person networking and LinkedIn direct messaging
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Manual application for services and contracts is slow and time-consuming requiring follow up
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By not utilizing the booking feature, the owner was not getting the scheduling benefit for classes and coaching
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Limited information on the website of group sessions limits SEO benefits
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Unprofessional payment through Venmo or buttons in the footer
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Before the start of a cohort, the coach gave the same talk on “finding your niche” which is an opportunity cost
Multiple semi-structured interviews were conducted with the business owner to understand customers' current acquisition and onboarding to find pain points and areas of opportunity.
The saturated and competitive nature of the career coaching business leads to job seeker confusion.
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Key Client Takeaways
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Highlight CareerCoachingPro’s “finding your niche” approach as a business differentiator
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Job seekers want to know the outcome and benefits of having a career coach
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Job seekers want to know details on classes and what they get from joining the job cohort
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Highlight learning with a community
The research insights were compiled from survey results the owner collected from previous CareerCoachingPro clients. A competitive analysis of other career coaches’ offerings and pricing was developed.
I created a research plan, led a semi-structured interview, and synthesized with a job seeker who was reluctant to sign up with CareerCoachingPro and asked to speak with multiple former clients before joining.
The goal of the interview was to gain a better understanding of the concerns of job seekers before hiring a career coach.
Persona
IDEATION
The focus of the project was on the following "how might we" statements:
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How might we highlight the benefits of career coaching with CareerCoachingPro?
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How might we show the coach’s personality to build trust?
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How might we incrementally automate the job seeker journey to get the benefit of automation without disrupting the business or website?
DESIGN
The prioritization of the webpages designed mimicked the journey of a job seeker. Starting with the main individual services page followed by designing the specific class pages. This enabled the SEO of the website to attract new clients while still using the manual onboarding until the automation was ready.
Business automation was incrementally released based on the available apps on the no-code website and the effort to implement them. The built-in Booking Services API created an easy purchase experience for the “Pay Now” users similar to other sites. Implementation of the “Pay Later” option was deprioritized since it was complicated and had a working manual process.
Digital Designs
Group Session - Before
Areas of improvement:
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"Free group sessions" is misleading. The payment for the sessions is deferred
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The word cloud is an image and does not improve the SEO
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A vague description of the job seeking cohort
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No date of the next cohort start
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No mention of additional group sessions offered
Group Session - After
Key improvements:
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Added learning with a community from our research findings
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Photo of career coach conducting a group session with clients
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Added description of group sessions
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Corrected misleading language from “Free” to “Pay later”
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Added cards for additional services with purchase buttons and links to informational pages
Job Seeking Cohort is CareerCoachingPro's biggest revenue generator for hourly earnings and bookings for additional 1:1 career coaching sessions. It is important to highlight the value to the job seeker so they will choose CareerCoachingPro over the competitors.
​The information on the Job Seeking Cohort is presented in different ways so clients can skim or read more detail with a call to action after each section.
Job Seeking Cohort - short
Benefit:
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Bulleted items to quickly inform clients of what is included in the cohort
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Calls to action for “Pay Now” and “Pay Later” with an information link to provide details for clients not familiar with the “Pay Later” option
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​Infographic of what is included in the cohort
Job Seeking Cohort - long
Benefit:
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Narrative description of what to expect and how each class builds on the previous one to provide value to the clients who want more information
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Included metrics to show the importance of learning the skills
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Highlighting the value of learning as a cohort
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Details on the additional value of working with CareerCoachingPro
Job Seeking Cohort - Schedule
Benefit:
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Clear weekly layout of classes and coaching
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Highlight the unique features offered by CareerCoachingPro (resume video review)
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Colors indicating the different class types from the infographic for continuity
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​Guidance text for coaching and gap week sessions
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Calls to action for “Pay Now” and “Pay Later” with an information link to provide details for clients not familiar with the pay later option​
Limitations of the calendars available on the no-code website could not properly show the different types of classes and the gap week. I designed the syllabus infographic to give the user a timeline of what is covered.
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Job Seeking Cohort
Business Automation
Business automation was incrementally released based on the available apps of the no-code website and the implementation difficulty. The “Pay Now” option utilized the no-code Booking Services API. The “Pay Later” application was difficult to implement; the button continued to link to the google form application for approval by the business owner until the application was built on the no-code website.
Benefits of Booking Services API:
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Set availability of the coach as a resource for all booking types
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Real-time availability for coaching clients with one calendar to track scheduled classes, cohorts, and coaching slots
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Consolidated payment dashboard with product tracking
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Set class size limits
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Secure payments with fraud protections
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Calendar invites to clients can have an online meeting link
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Utilizing the booking API of the no-code website allowed the owner to focus on revenue-generating activities. The prioritization of the webpages designed mimicked the journey of a job seeker. Benefiting from the SEO of the website to attract new clients while still using manual onboarding.
Coordination was required while designing a live website with other teams working to prevent the publication of unfinished pages. Pages were designed with background colored strips as a placeholder for designs from other teams that were not available at release. Iterative design and publication of the website was in 2 week Agile sprints.
Automation of the client sign-up resulted in
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No missed coaching opportunities with real-time availability utilizing one calendar to track classes and booked coaching times
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Reduced non-value-added time of at least 1 hour per task
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Website SEO creates a new channel to attract clients
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3 additional classes were created and increased revenue with freed-up time
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183% increase in price of job seeking cohort by owner