Empowering Career Transitioners: A UX Journey from Vision to Launch
The Problem: Navigating Career Transitions is Overwhelming
When I set out on a new career path, I was excited but also overwhelmed. The uncertainty, self-doubt, and imposter syndrome felt debilitating. Through trial and error, I found my path, but I kept asking myself:
"What if there was a way to guide career transitioners with clarity and confidence?"
That’s when I partnered with Unleashing Your Awesome, a career coaching startup dedicated to helping professionals. We created Awesomeness Unleashed—a digital platform offering motivational podcasts and actionable insights to inspire career transitioners like me.
But there were some challenges:
💰 Limited budget
👥 Team reduction
❓Hesitation in participation
🔧 Platform constraints
Keep reading to see how we turned these challenges into opportunities— inspiring 40% of community members and reducing coaching time by 25%.
My Role: Design Lead in a Startup
From July 2022 - June 2023, I led the design strategy, collaborating with a team of 8, including a stakeholder (owner), product managers, UX designers, a scrum master, a learning consultant/content strategist, and a marketing lead.
After launching the MVP, we adapted to a smaller team of 4, redistributing responsibilities to maintain progress.
My key responsibilities:
🔍 Market research
🧪 Usability Studies
📐 Information architecture, wireframes, & prototypes
📝 Interview design & facilitation
From Insights to Action: Understanding Career Transitioners’ Needs
We surveyed and interviewed career transitioners to uncover the biggest obstacles they faced. Three key themes emerged:
1
Career uncertainty left them feeling stuck
2
Limited access & opportunities made transitions harder
3
Employers not communicating created discouragement
What some of our users said were their biggest frustration
Our takeaway? People needed reliable guidance, inspiring stories, and practical tools all in one place.
Yet, there was still one big obstacle:
Some community members were hesitant to share their career stories due to privacy concerns.
Building Trust in the Community through conversations & openness
Instead of pushing for immediate participation, I focused on relationships first. Through one-on-one conversations with the interviewees, I addressed their privacy concerns and reassured them of the value of sharing their stories. We co-created interview questions with our community, making the process more inclusive.
The result: Six virtual interviews with real career transitioners.
A Clear Path for Users with Progressive Disclosure
With our content ready, we needed an intuitive way for users to explore interviews.
We considered two flows:
A Landing page > Interviewee page > Video
B Landing page > Video page with all interviewees > Video
Flow A was chosen to help users explore interviews based on interest while giving each interviewee a dedicated space. This approach follows progressive disclosure, a UX principle that prevents overwhelm by revealing information gradually.
Sketches of two potential user flows
From Sketch to Screen: Navigating Constraints & launching the mvp
I began with hand-drawn wireframes, refining them in Figma before implementing them on Kajabi (the startup’s existing platform).
Challenge: I later discovered that Kajabi had design restrictions, limiting customization.
Solution: I balanced my original design vision with platform constraints, ensuring an intuitive and engaging user experience despite limitations.
We launched the MVP with three interviews, focusing on iteration over perfection.
Homepage before
Homepage wireframe
Homepage after
High-fidelity homepage on Kajabi
Video page before
Video page wireframe
Video page after
High-fidelity video page on Kajabi
Episode page before
Interviewee episode page wireframe
Episode page after
High-fidelity interviewee episode page on Kajabi
We Launched the MVP, But Engagement Fell Short
After launching the MVP, we analyzed engagement and gathered feedback. Here’s what we discovered:
✅ Successes:
Engaging summaries & seamless functionality
Relevant content that resonated with users
⚠️ Challenges:
Low initial engagement, people weren’t watching as expected
Chart summarizing the retrospective discussion with what worked, what didn’t work, and next steps
Digging Deeper: over half of community members were unaware of podcast
We turned to research and gathered insights through multiple methods.
📊 Poll Results:
53% of respondents (15 out of 28) didn’t know the podcast existed.
📝 Survey Insights:
50% found the podcast easy to access
33.3% struggled with navigation and usability issues
👀 Usability Testing Uncovered More:
Confusion between “Podcasts” and “Podcast Videos” tabs.
Disruptive second login requirements.
Descriptions for all videos.
Affinity map segments visualizing usability study data
Prioritizing Improvements: Navigation & Login Took Top Priority
To avoid getting overwhelmed, we implemented a prioritization framework:
Do Now
Streamline navigation and remove extra login step
Do Next
Improve page layouts and video descriptions
Do Later
Update graphics and revise episode labeling
Prioritization chart
Impact & Lessons Learned
🚀 Next Steps:
Optimize navigation and implement awareness strategies.
Conduct additional usability studies to test improvements.
Address remaining issues and expand video content.
💡 What I’d Do Differently Next Time:
Start marketing and awareness efforts earlier.
Test low-fidelity prototypes to inform the design and user flows.
Final Thoughts: user-centered design Led to Impact & Empowerement
This project reaffirmed my belief in user-centered design. By deeply understanding career transitioners’ challenges, we built a platform that not only provided resources—but sparked action.
This project also inspired me to continue my career transition and design journey!
📌 Key takeaway?
The best solutions come from truly listening to users and designing with them, not just for them.
Screenshot of a recording where I’m conducting an interview for the video series