Mapping the Emotional Journey of Job Seekers
A DIARY STUDY EXPLORING BEHAVIOURS, ACTIVITIES AND COPING MECHANISMS OF JOB SEEKERS
I conducted a two-week exploratory diary study to uncover key behaviors, emotions, and concerns of US job seekers, resulting in development of preliminary user journey maps that helped set direction for proof-of-concept product features.
Context
In the early phases of product development, there was significant confusion about who the user was, what their pain points were, and how our product team could address them. To resolve this ambiguity, we needed to observe users, track their habits, and identify potential intervention points in their journey where our product could assist them.
My rapid team decided to adopt an open-ended diary study to identify key aspects of user behavior, emotions, activities, and concerns, extracting patterns that could inform focused research questions in subsequent sprints. This strategic approach ensured that subsequent research efforts were guided by user-centric insights and laid the groundwork for more effective product development.
MY ROLE
As the lead UX researcher, I planned and conducted stakeholder interviews, designed protocols, analyzed data, refined the journey map, and presented findings. I mentored interns to set up the study platform, participant recruitment, data cleaning, analysis, drafting artifacts, and presentations.
Research
Study Goals:
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Gain insight into the job search behaviors and break it down into various job search activities
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Understand the impact of these behaviors on their mental well-being by assessing their emotional reactions and coping mechanisms.
Methods:
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Mini diary study, 7 days long
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Participants hosted on discord server and prompted to fill a Qualtrics survey daily.
User Demographics:
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6 people, 25-44 years old, 5/6 female, looking for jobs in UX design and UX research, identified as Asian, Caucasian and African American/ Black.
Outcomes:
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User Proto Journey Mapping.
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Preliminary user pain points and job seeking behavior patterns.
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Insights into possible POC direction/ features
Limitations:
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Only 1/6 participants identified as male.
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Study was conducted during holiday season.
Outcome
The team was able to develop a draft user journey map which could be used as a starting point for developing a fully flushed journey and identify future research questions.
Findings
People felt mental wellbeing was also important but rarely addressed it directly.
Job Search Activity:
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Job hunting tended to happen during the work week and spent the most time applying for jobs or preparing their application materials
Emotional Responses:
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Job seekers tended to have slightly more negative emotions associated with job hunting
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People managed negative emotions by removing themselves from the situation
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Networking led to positive emotions, while application preparation and rejections elicited frustration and negative feelings respectively.
RECOMMENDATIONS
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Explore the option of having something to remind job seekers to take a break
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Have a focus (or lock out) mode that “stops” job seekers from continuing job seeking on designated days (e.g. weekends)
NEXT STEPS
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Explore what gives positive emotions (specifically why networking gives positive emotions)
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Explore why application and application prep elicit negative emotions
Reflection
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The decision to conduct an broad scope diary study was effective in helping piece together the problem space for the product and define our next steps.
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Given more time, I would have aimed to get equal male and female participants.
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If I were to re-design this study, I would have included exit interviews with each participant.
