POW.com

An honest job review and search website for the service industry.

Tools

Figma

Context

School assignment turned passion project - Team of five - 2022

PROBLEM

job searching comes with many challanges

  1. It isn’t easy to know what a job will be like until you’ve committed. Factors like work culture, expectations, and pay are not transparent— especially in the service industry.

  2. Reviewing a place of work in the service industry is challenging when there’s no platform like Glassdoor for restaurants or retail jobs.

GOALS

create a platform to search & Review jobs

  1. Create a platform for service industry jobs that provides honest information that may not be revealed in a job listing or interviews.

  2. Provide in-depth job reviews from verified employees.

SOLUTION

Leave reviews & Search for jobs with pow.com

With POW.com, users can anonymously review their service industry jobs. While searching for jobs, users can view verified reviews for potential jobs to get better a feel for their work culture.

Users also have the option to take a Job-Matching Quiz that provides recommendations. The results are based on factors ranging from desired work culture and pay expectations to taboo topics like standing time required.

POW = /Place Of Work/

research highlights

11 participants | interview notes available here.

Our team of five interviewed 11 participants, all with some service industry background.

We asked about how they look for jobs, the criteria they use to choose a company, and how their values determine an ideal workplace environment.

KEY INSIGHTS

Initial Considerations

Our participants generally prioritized the following while looking for jobs:

  • pay

  • schedule

  • location

  • management style

  • work culture

I Wish I Had Known…

“…the amount of time sitting vs. standing, and the amount of downtime.”

“…how physically demanding the job was.”

“…about how much pressure there was as a cashier to make sales, meet quotas, and do things like discourage people from returning items.”

“…how solitary the job was.”

Different Preferences on Work Culture

1. The Professional

“I don’t like the concept that coworkers are like your family. Its a job, not your family— it’s not professional”

2. The Personable

“Even if management isn’t great, good relationships with coworkers can make work manageable”

goals & design considerations

  1. Include basic priorities as well as more taboo/ less advertised information (e.g., no breaks, bad tippers, etc.)

  2. Highly personalized job recommendations

  3. Anonymous but verified reviewing of jobs

  4. Attain more detailed information on jobs with questions for reviewers

ideation & wireframes

user testing

5 participants | 2 tasks each

Our team of five interviewed 5 participants, with the instructions to complete 2 specific goals and to think out loud while doing so.

Key Issues

  • Challenging to keep track of jobs

  • Difficult to see if users are qualified for a role

  • Preferences Quiz should be optional

Solutions

  • Add “save job” feature

  • Add qualifications to job listings; add option to see jobs not qualified for

  • Add metrics from the Preferences Quiz to filter options

FINAL User screens

Landing
Sign-Up
Discover
Search Filter
Job Preferences Quiz
Quiz Results> Job Details
Map View

Reflections

  • Skewed very negative or very positive reviews

  • Lack of detail in reviews

  • Incorrect/biased reporting of job metrics

Constraints & Concerns

  • Incentivize reviews with points

  • Create a “business view” for reporting/ commenting on reviews & adding POWs

  • Allow users to rank their job preferences metrics by priority

Future Steps