Connect verified talents with companies
UI/UX | User Research | Web Design
Create a verification system on job platforms to help companies verify candidates
Timeline
2 months
Team
Marketing(Dorcus Ruhab) Operations and Finance (Tyson Ronnie)
Manager (DaHee Kang), Product manager (Jessica Tagbajumi),
UX Researcher (Daplaah-Teng Aryene),
UX Designer (Yuriko Nakai, Dera A, Jane He)
UX Designer/Researcher (me)
Role
User Research / UI/UX Design
Tool
Figma / Notion / Miro / Slack / Zoom
The African job market space has been plagued by fake credentials for a long time, and it is difficult for enterprises to recruit skilled talents.
LEDJA seeks to be the irrevocable blockchain-based system in the region that secures the integrity of all contract bonding documents of all kinds. By creating a verification system to verify the academic and professional background of jobseekers, LEDJA is able to help job search platforms to link verified skilled individuals with jobs throughout the continent and beyond.
Problem Discovery
Enterprises fail to recruit technical talents due to fake credentials
Our goal
Create a verification system on the job platform to help companies verify candidates
Discover the problem
White paper research
Competitive analysis
Research on verification system —
Before diving deep into the project, we decided to conduct secondary research to get familiar with the topic. To learn more about how a common verification system works, we searched online to look at the verification process of governments and financial institutions.
The two main verification methods are:
Upload credentials/files to verify the validity of credentials
Take photos/videos to verify this person is really you
Research on job search platform —
To learn more about jobseekers in Africa and the typical job search process, we searched for data and papers to understand the demographics of jobseekers in Africa and the common requirements of working in Africa:
Facts about jobseekers:
Most of them are young people aged 15-34
Young people with college or higher education are more likely to apply online
Requirements:
Language (preferred Afrikaans)
evaluated qualifications by
Register with the organizations
EXT-NG
Digital credential management platform
Brightermonday
Africa job search platform
We did some research to see if we can leverage any insights into features and functions for informing our design decisions. We mainly looked at EXT-NG, a digital credential management platform, and Brightermonday, an African job search platform to study the landing page, the main user flow, and other key features and feelings users may have throughout the process.
We also noticed that neither combined credential verification and job search platforms, which could be an opportunity for our project to fill a gap in the market.
User interviews
Although we have gathered some useful insights from the research we’ve done, we still think it’s necessary to directly speak to our potential users and to listen to their feelings and thoughts towards the recruitment and verification process. Since none of us were in Africa, it was difficult to find qualified respondents, so we recruited these companies from Ledja's network.
Based on what we’ve already known from previous research, we worked together to create the interview scripts. We asked questions to understand trends in why they struggled to find qualified candidates, their goals, and how they felt along the way.
Working on the script
Talk with interviewers
Define our solutions
Affinity map
We listened to recordings of all conversations, wrote down the things we thought were important on the Miro board, and then divided them into different topics.
Time Factor:
The whole recruiting process is time-consuming
It takes lots of time to schedule interviews with candidates
Spend lots of time selecting the right CVs out of many
Assessment:
Looking for special skills rather than certifications/credentials
A candidate's skills are usually assessed through tests
Some candidates put things they can't do on CVs
Gather things together
Recruitment:
Headhunting through LinkedIn is effective for targeted searches
They sometimes post jobs in the community and look for candidates through their personal networks
Background check:
Struggled to find candidates with the right cultural fit
Check candidates' social media to understand their personalities
Some of them talk to friends and former colleagues to get to know the candidates
Propose solutions and vote
User persona
Frustrations
Going through several CVs for interviews
Finding the right person with the right skills
Struggling to find candidates with a good cultural fit
Goals
Ensuring the candidates match their resumes with skills
Candidates have a good cultural fit
Access to qualified, vetted candidates
Jennifer Musugu
Recruitment specialist
Nairobi, Kenya