A5: Pitching an Innovation
Team 8: TeamFactor
Andrew Li | Jessica Inthasane | Jules Yap
Katrina Do | Kevin Lin
Problem Introduction and Motivation
With us approaching our graduation, we’ve seen that the job market is competitive and difficult to navigate, especially in the past year. It has been nearly impossible to secure any opportunities, and we get turned away after a quick look at our resume and portfolios.
Furthermore, we know that employers want candidates that fit well with their company culture. More than anything, companies want high-performing teams that can work well together and have good chemistry. However, there is no avenue for a candidate to demonstrate this unless they get an interview, which most of the time, they don't.
Concept / Mission
This is why we created TeamFactor. We wanted to create a platform that helps new designers, developers, and project managers develop and display their skills for companies to see.
TeamFactor is a platform where individuals can complete company-specific projects in a group. We believe that showing your collaborative DNA on industry-level work is a unique yet straightforward way to showcase your talent to companies. By completing projects, TeamFactor increases an individual’s exposure to recruiters, expands their networks, and helps them practice essential skills before entering the workplace.
Our mission is provide a direct avenue for young professionals to show their skills to companies, and to provide a platform for companies to recognize talent quicker and help them find the most suitable employees.
Scenario That Shows The Unmet Need/Desire
George is a recent graduate with a degree in Computer Science in 2023. He is looking for a job in game development. Before graduating from college, he was confident that he’ll have no trouble finding a full time job since he had multiple internships in college. However, he has applied to hundreds of jobs, regardless on what platform including LinkedIn, Indeed, or Handshake, but he has only gotten a few interviews. He tried to send cold connection messages on Linkedin, trying to contact the recruiters directly, but he rarely got their responses back. He is starting to feel discouraged as he feels like his applications are being sent into a blackhole. Sadly, George is not alone; there are countless job seekers who face the same struggles as George does and need a platform to showcase themselves to companies, get familiar with industry standards, and develop essential skills that are important in the workspace.
Scenario That Shows The Unmet Need/Desire
Adobe is trying to find and recruit new potential employees because of a new position offering. However, Adobe operates in a competitive industry and many other technological companies are also actively recruiting talents. The job pool is very convoluted and Adobe can not filter and effectively review everyone’s resume. They take a risk and only offer interviews to a few select individuals, even though there was not much data to go off of. Adobe only has the resumes of the potential employees to base these possible recruits. Adobe needs a platform where they can look and filter more data of potential candidates/employees, so that they can showcase their teamwork and collaboration tactics, their adaptability and learning skills, and their critical thinking.
Video Pitch
Click Here to the video file.
Final Competitor Analysis
| Key Features / Selling Point | Advantages | Limitations | How are people matched? | Cost |
CoLab | Interdisciplinary project teams with a mentor to support them. | Close to industry experience Networking opportunity | No post-program career services just mentor from the project team. | Current skill level, time, personality, fields of interests, and commitment. | 4 week sprint 500, 8 week bootcamp 3000 |
Forage | A wide variety of company-specific projects that simulate the job experience. Earn a certificate of completion. | Employers can find candidates. Job seekers, upon completion you will unlock real work samples | Experiences are virtual and self-paced so no guarantee that someone might actually possess these skills without integrity. | Individual experience - you can still allow companies to contact you and look at videos from real employees. | Free for job seekers. |
Pramp | 1-on-1 mock interviews with peers or expert coaches. Offers technical, case study, and behavioral questions. | Experience from an interviewer POV, giving deeper insights of the interview process by taking turns asking questions. | Only for software engineering and product management. Resources for most popular interview questions not free. | Users are matched with other Pramp users or an expert coach with FAANG experience if they have membership. | Only 6 free interviews Membership for $79/month or $144/year or refer friends for more interviews. |
| Key Features / Selling Point | Advantages | Limitations | How are people matched? | Cost |
Pymetrics | Tests logical reasoning and measures cognitive and emotional attributes. Insights about their soft skills through games. | High completion rate. Quick and effective way to learn more about how compatible a candidate might be. | Potentially boring and seen as busy work. The evaluation might not be representative of a person's abilities. | Individual experience - companies add this assessment to their job applications for candidates to complete. | Unknown but definitely not free for businesses. |
TeamFactor | Be placed in a groups of peers to work together on Company Specific Problems and have an evaluation of your technical and collaborative skills | Tech experience close to real experience at the company Have both individual and group work skills evaluated Applicant pool with the desired skill set | Skill evaluation will partially rely on thoughtful feedback from teammates which they may not give | People looking for to work at the same company are matched. Other factors like technical skill set and interests | Main cost will be for Companies to find potential hires to keep costs lower for users looking for work |
High-Fidelity Prototypes
Click Here to the prototype.
High-Fidelity Prototypes
Click Here to the prototype.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Click Here to the prototype.
Crowdfunding Campaign
Click Here to the Kickstarter..
6-month budget & growth model
Growth Model
First Month Expenses Breakdown
Updated Value Flow Diagram
Envisioned Value Flow
Final Poster
Click Here to the poster file.
Appendix
Moodboard
Typography Exploration
80px Quicksand - Heading 1
64 px Quicksand - Heading 2
48px Quicksand - Heading 3
40px Quicksand - Heading 4
32px Quicksand - Heading 5
28px Zilla Slab - Subtitle 1
24px Zilla Slab - Subtitle 2
20px Hind - body
16px Hind - caption
Initially we were reviewing fonts like “Public Sans” because we wanted a polished look but, unlike the fonts we ended up choosing, this font wasn’t as visually appealing and it felt too much like a default font.
Logo Ideation #1
Our initial branding idea was called "Banana Hands" because bananas grow in clusters called "hands." This is a metaphor for the way that individuals can grow together and collectively become mature.
However, we didn’t go with this branding/logo because we believed that the name "Banana Hands" might not be professional enough.
Logo Ideation #2 (Iterations)
To convey the collaborative aspect and professionalism of our platform, we decided to change the branding to “TeamFactor”. The idea is that teamwork skills are the x-factor in getting hired!
The idea behind the logo is that the lightbulb in the middle represents innovation and creativity; we believe that collaborations create innovative solutions. In addition, there are three people around the lightbulb which represent collaboration and unity.
Color Scheme Ideations
Bright, cheerful, welcoming, delightful, optimism, trust
Professionalism, trust, calmness, growth, reliability, dependability
Final Color Scheme
Professionalism, calmness, growth, stability, creative, excitement
The new color scheme reflects the colors of our logo more accurately.
Catch Phrase
“Teamwork makes the dream work.”
“Supercharge Your Career with TeamFactor: Unleash the Power of Group Collaboration”
“Learn, create, and find work”
“Prep yourself for your dream career”
“Further your career with your peers”
“Tackle company-specific projects in a group and let those companies see how you work in a team.’
“Upskill with company-specific projects in a group setting. Set yourself apart from others by showing your collaboration skills.”
“Team dynamics are more important than ever. Show companies that you are a great collaborator who can do their type of work.”
Multiple Versions of Landing Page
For the job seeker:
We created this version of the landing page to target job seekers who want to show off their collaborative skills to companies. In 2023 where finding tech jobs has become a nightmare, finding ways to show companies your talent is extremely relevant. We thought this landing page would hit the sweet spot with a unique value proposition as well.
Multiple Versions of Landing Page
For the company:
The alternative version of our landing page is directed to companies. We aimed to promote a unique yet straightforward way for them to evaluate talent. Therefore the focus was more on convincing them why this new way is effective and also time and cost-efficient.
Web Ad, Keywords, Target Demographics, Etc.
Due to the trouble with our Google Ads, we decided to only advertise the customer (job seeker) side of our platform as we felt it would reach a bigger audience.
Our target demographic was people looking to find jobs in the tech industry. Our three main groups were:
Some keywords and phrases we tried to use in our Google Ads campaign:
Marketing our Landing Page
We had trouble with Google Ads suspending our campaigns so we went with the grassroots angle.
Marketing our Landing Page
Initially our group was unable to run our ads through google but after an account appeal the campaign was able to run and garnered a good amount of attention.
Responsive Search Ad Combinations Report | ||||
Headline 1 | Headline 2 | Description 1 | Description 2 | Impressions |
Develop Collaboration Skills | Develop Your Teamwork Skills | Work on Industry-Standard Projects in a Group. Take Initiative and Stand Out to Companies. | Take Initiative and Stand Out with our Group Projects from Top Companies. | 339 |
Get Contacted by Companies | Get Started Today | Work on Industry-Standard Projects in a Group. Take Initiative and Stand Out to Companies. | N/A | 318 |
Develop Collaboration Skills | Get Hired Through Teamwork | Work on Industry-Standard Projects in a Group. Take Initiative and Stand Out to Companies. | N/A | 313 |
Get Contacted by Companies | Get Hired Through Teamwork | Work on Industry-Standard Projects in a Group. Take Initiative and Stand Out to Companies. | N/A | 256 |
Get Started Today | Get Hired Through Teamwork | Work on Industry-Standard Projects in a Group. Take Initiative and Stand Out to Companies. | N/A | 225 |
Analysis of Web Probe
In total, we had 702 visitors to our web probe and 121/173 (70%) conversions were email signups.
Overall conversion rate (including button clicks): 24.64%
According to this article, our conversion rate is high compared to the benchmark of 13.3% (visitor to freemium), indicating that there is potentially interest in our platform!
As of June 1 12:30pm
Concierge MVP Description
Give a group of individuals looking for tech careers a problem to solve together. They will brainstorm and mock up solutions together to both demonstrate their technical and collaborative skills. It’ll be done remotely as we plan to connect people globally. From observing their work we would analyze their skills and weaknesses, compile it into a scorecard, and present it to them and companies they are interested in working for. This is to improve their chances of obtaining their dream careers especially by showing their team work ethic.
Who: 3 participants (2 who signed up on our landing page, 1 UCSD student)
Where: Zoom
When: Tuesday, May 29, 8-9:30pm
Concierge MVP Recruitment
We sent out an email to the people who left their email on our landing page and had 2 responses.
As the amount of people who left their emails increased over time, multiple emails were sent out in batches for a total of 61 recipients until we secured 2 participants.
Conversion rate: 2/61 (3.2%)
Concierge MVP Risk Assessment
Why we chose this MVP?
Our main concern was if this service would be valuable to people. All our previous findings were about social connections. With the shift to professional connections and development we did not know if people would find a teamwork based career development program more valuable than the self paced programs that already exist.
How does the MVP look to address risks?
The MVP’s main focus is to simulate teamwork and collaboration amongst the users and observe that information to report back to the user. By both experiencing how the beginning stages of the project would be, and receiving their skill assessment we ask the users if their experience was valuable and what changes could be made.
Concierge MVP Logistics
Problem: Spotify wants to create a new way for users to discover music that is more personalized and engaging. With the upsurge of AI, they want to integrate it to create a new way to create playlists that are tailored to the specific interests. However, the company struggles to find the right hire for their company culture and needs a way to better filter applicants from the pool of applications.
30 minute session for problem solving: Brainstorming and collaborating on a mock up
Another 10-15 minutes for them to do peer evaluations and self reflection
Statistics Compilations
Concierge MVP Logistics
Some of the criteria we used to evaluate the participants were:
These were also similar to what we asked them in the peer evaluation form, although we should have standardized it more.
How It Actually Panned Out
Photo/Video Documentation of Service Encounter
Photo/Video Documentation of Service Encounter
Analysis of Result
Overall, the session was successful - the participants collaborated on ideation and came up with a proposed solution to the problem. However, one participant was too overbearing and dominated the conversation and took the solution into her own hands.
Consequently, we might have to think of how we can intervene during the collaboration session in order to mitigate these situations.
The participants were also slow to get started with the work, mainly because they felt it was too sudden. When given a blank Miro page, they were struggling to find a starting point. They mentioned that it would have been nice to have icebreakers, as well as the ability to pick the topic and learn about each other’s interests through that. One participant mentioned that she would appreciate an interdisciplinary team (specifically a product manager) because she would want her other teammates to keep her in check.
Analysis of Result
We also asked the participants several questions at the end of the session.
How valuable were the statistics given at the end?
Can see how your work is evaluated from an outside perspective, learn how you behave in different scenarios, find traits you’re not aware of. Very valuable and nice to know!
Would a long-term project in this style be plausible and valuable?
Having shorter options would be good for building experience to the longer projects, could be used for portfolios, learn from teammates
How likely are you to recommend this service?
Not yet a full service but would recommend, recommend for junior and self-taught designers for team experience, recommend to learn about performance and improve
Design Implications
What to improve on