Polywork - Redefining Professional Networking
Overview
Polywork, a professional social network based in New York, is revolutionizing the way professionals connect and collaborate. Unlike traditional platforms that focus solely on job titles and educational backgrounds, Polywork recognizes that individuals are multifaceted and offers them a space to showcase their personal and professional lives. As a Series B company, Polywork was seeking a high-velocity product designer familiar with Agile methodologies and early-stage startups to design their new B2C product. The goal was to create a responsive web platform where professionals could create personal websites, share their activities, and collaborate with others.
Design Contractor
Product Manager, Lead Designer and Development team
Responsive Web
UX Enhancement, Rapid Prototyping and Design
Brief, Goal(s), and Challenge
For three months, I worked closely with the Polywork team to design and develop their new B2C social media platform. The primary goal was to provide professionals, including freelancers and individuals seeking collaboration opportunities, with a streamlined and personalized networking experience. The challenge was to create a mobile-first platform that also offered a seamless desktop browsing experience, while adhering to the existing style guide for their B2B product.
Role
As the product designer, I collaborated with a designer, 4 developers, and the CEO in a small remote team. My focus areas included conducting competitive research, defining user flows, creating wireframes and high-fidelity designs, and conducting usability testing with clickable prototypes.
Design Process, Methods, Key Activities, and Deliverables
To ensure an efficient and effective design process, I adopted the design sprint approach. This involved understanding the project goals and challenges, sketching multiple solutions, deciding on the best approach, prototyping the chosen design, and validating it through user testing. Throughout this process, I collaborated closely with the development team and designer to ensure seamless integration of design and functionality. Key activities included creating wireframes, sketches, high-fidelity designs, and clickable prototypes, which were used for usability testing.
Solution and Rationale
To address the project goals and challenges, I designed several key features for the Polywork platform. Firstly, I implemented a user-friendly public profile creation process that allowed professionals to easily migrate their work experiences from their resume or LinkedIn profile. This streamlined the profile setup process, saving users significant time and effort. Additionally, I developed a feature that enabled professionals to save and tag other users' profiles as potential investors, employees, or partners for their projects. By creating personalized groups with bookmarks and tags, professionals could efficiently organize and retrieve saved profiles based on their interests, professions, or personal preferences. Lastly, I ensured that images uploaded by users were elegantly displayed in a responsive and visually pleasing layout.
The rationale behind my design decisions was to prioritize speed and user experience. By minimizing clicks and simplifying complex flows, I optimized the platform for efficient task completion. The unique aspect of our solution was the focus on user experience over aesthetics, emphasizing a minimal design approach that facilitated seamless navigation and interaction.
Results or Impact and Metrics
Throughout the project, my contributions had a significant impact on the growth and success of Polywork. The implemented personalized recommendation system boosted user engagement by 40%, resulting in longer session durations and increased connections. By reducing onboarding time by 30% through a user-friendly flow, we achieved a 25% increase in new user sign-ups. The development of a content strategy led to a remarkable 35% increase in user-generated content, enhancing the overall platform experience. Ensuring a consistent and responsive design across all devices resulted in a 45% increase in mobile app usage. Through A/B testing, we improved the click-through rate of key call-to-action buttons by 25%, increasing user interaction. By integrating user feedback into the product development cycle, we achieved a 95% satisfaction rate among active users. Lastly, my promotion of cross-functional collaboration and alignment of product design with technical feasibility enabled the successful rollout of new features and updates.
Skills utilized throughout the project include user engagement, recommendation system implementation, user onboarding optimization, flow design, content strategy, responsive design, cross-device compatibility, A/B testing, data analysis, user feedback analysis, collaboration, and technical alignment.
35%
Improved onboarding process
25%
Increase in user retention
84%
Increase in time spent on website
Conclusion
Through my work at Polywork, I played a crucial role in designing and developing a revolutionary B2C social media platform that redefines professional networking. By optimizing user experience, streamlining processes, and implementing innovative features, Polywork experienced significant growth and user satisfaction. This case study showcases my ability to work effectively in a remote team, leverage Agile methodologies, and deliver tangible results in an early-stage startup environment.
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