Pathfinder
What is Pathfinder?
Pathfinder is a platform designed to bring transparency to career paths and help jobseekers pursue their passions. Initially well-received, it soon faced challenges with user engagement and retention, revealing a gap between expectations and experience. Our team focused on improving user acquisition and retention for the platform relaunch, while also preparing for the CMU McGinnis Venture Competition.
110%
increase in user acquisition
+1
new scalable feature
The Challenge
Pathfinder’s goal is to become a go-to resource for jobseekers exploring various industries. However, users weren’t finding enough value in the platform, leading to challenges with acquisition and retention.
Goal: Design a feature that helps users explore career insights while ensuring discoverability and a seamless experience, reinforcing Pathfinder as a go-to resource for jobseekers.
The Solution
Based on research, we identified that users wanted a platform that would offer a lot more information about an industry or career path beyond required hard skills.
To address this gap, we developed Stories, a feature that showcases testimonials from professionals, offering firsthand insights into their careers and industries.
Discover Stories
Launched a discovery page showcasing professional testimonials, making it easier for job seekers to find relevant industry insights.
Stories
Users can browse through all stories and filter for industries, experience, company, and more.
Tailored Testimonials
Users can explore each professional’s journey, daily work, and insights, with recommended stories that encourage seamless content discovery.
USER STORIES
Who are our users?
User stories and prior research helped us understand Pathfinder’s audience, their motivations, challenges, and goals, shaping our design approach.
SURVEYS & USER INTERVIEWS
What are our users’ biggest challenges?
Previous surveys and interviews revealed that people often had to scour multiple platforms (Reddit, Blind, Level.fyi, Linkedin, etc.) in order to narrow down applicable information to their particular career paths.
Hidden information
“It’s sometimes difficult to find blogs/posts where people talk about their personal experiences.”
Insights are scattered
“Too much information is scattered across multiple websites/platforms suggesting different things.”
Can't find valuable answers on Pathfinder
“I love the concept of Pathfinder but would like to gain more insight on the industry. I’m interested in to see the value in the resource.”
HEURISTIC ANALYSIS
Understanding Pathfinder’s Current Website
I evaluated the site's core features and value propositions in order to get a better understanding of how it was serving its users.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
What are users’ current solutions to find more information about their desired career paths?
A competitive analysis of Reddit, Blind, and Medium revealed how jobseekers gain career insights and uncovered best practices and gaps across platforms.
USER FLOW
Identifying the problem space
Analyzing user flows and feedback revealed that Phase 3 caused the most dissatisfaction. Users were frustrated by the career page’s shallow results, prompting many to leave the site.
User Patterns
By mapping the user journey, I revealed where users struggled most and uncovered clear opportunities for improvement.
Users value community
Jobseekers need relatable insights from diverse professionals, as seen in forums like Reddit, Blind, and Medium.
Users are curious
While skill data is useful, jobseekers crave context from others’ career journeys, and research showed Pathfinder wasn’t providing the rich, relatable insights users expected.
Feature Prioritization
Research and user stories revealed that users highly valued peer insights. Guided by the PM, I helped launch a feature highlighting user-generated testimonials, building a foundational framework and promoting it across Reddit, IndieHackers, and our networks.
First Draft Wireframes
With enough research gathered, we moved forward with the following priorities in mind:
Introducing a new feature and prioritizing its discoverability
Information hierarchy to present users’ testimonials and dense information in an approachable way
Core Flows
Based on our usability test results from the first prototype, we were able to apply several changes that ensured better accessibility and visual hierarchy to encourage users to explore this new feature.
Discover
Clear call-to-actions ("Discover Stories") encourage user engagement and set expectations, serving as an introductory guide for first-time testimonial explorers.
All Stories
Users can browse all stories and use filters to refine their search. Summarized story cards enable quick scanning for relatable testimonials.
Expanded Story
Users can expand story cards for in-depth testimonials, each answering five key jobseeker questions. Related testimonials are suggested at the bottom of the card to encourage continued exploration.
How did 'Stories' serve our users?
+1
new feature for our Pathfinder 2.0 launch
110%
increase in user acquistion
7
users tested the new feature and provided feedback
Testing to inform future design phases
We tested the new feature with some users and gained valuable feedback to inform our next design phase. Our main findings were:
Appreciated the related testimonials recommendation
Felt the collapsed and expanded abilities of the cards made the stories easy to parse through
Some filtering options’ language was confusing - “difference between career and industry?”
Outcomes
Launched newest feature on Pathfinder’s website and notified subscribers via newsletter
Saw a 110% increase in user acquisition with Pathfinder 2.0
Presented idea to stakeholders in the Carnegie Mellon University McGinnis Venture Competition as finalist
Reflections
Challenges
We managed the timeline carefully while balancing full-time jobs and preparing for the Pathfinder venture competition track.
Shortly after I joined the team, our UX researcher left so I had to step up to quickly gain understanding of the project and how to shape the design direction.
Achievements
Collaborating with an engineer-heavy team helped assess feasibility early and guide a more strategic design approach.
The McGinnis Venture Competition pitch offered valuable lessons on business strategy, investor expectations, and product potential.
