Jade Pathe

This project was for an edtech company that provided university career centers with software to run university recruiting. The goal of the student activation project was to activate students, particularly those that only the university had access to email directly due to their account status.

Through user research, email marketing produced the highest activation conversion rates, and we learned that students trusted their university career center brand. The problem was that the edtech company couldn't email these students directly because they hadn't yet activated their accounts.

This led us to an email automation product for university career centers that allowed them to opt into targeted email campaigns sent directly to their students. It gave career centers some control of the messages sent to their students and the edtech company the flexibility to use best-in-class marketing strategies. When opted into these campaigns, universities could see detailed metrics and even send emails from their career center, doubling open rates. We saw around 70% of university customers opt into these campaigns, which led to 6% of all fall 2019 student activations.

The project aimed to support events and career fairs in a virtual first-world. However, building a virtual tool for universities and students to connect in the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19 in just three months was a problem.

The solution was to maintain the values of in-person recruiting events but redefine the experience, including:
• offer various methods of engagement through video events and 1:1 sessions to support all types of students;
• have clear expectations ahead of scheduled sessions and casual contexts to reduce stress and avoid repetition; and
• ensure efficient experiences focused on driving meaningful connections.

We addressed risks by building a dashboard that looked at some of the following metrics:
• number of universities with virtual fairs and the number of employers registered;
• percentage of employers with no schedules;
• percentage of students registered for less than one session;
• percentage of employers meeting with less than three students; and
• support volume for fairs with relevant categories.

The project resulted in over 50% of universities launching virtual career fairs in the fall of 2020, connecting many students and employers.

Addressing customer concerns, increasing customer satisfaction at a partnerships company, and building a new voice of customer process based on frustrations from the team was the project's goal.

The problem was internal and external frustration with a lack of clarity on how product decisions were made and how feedback was factored in. It was expressed in many ways, like mistrust of decisions and frustration with updates that didn't align with customer requests. This same issue came up with each stage of growth internally and externally, from 5-50 customers and 50-300 to 300-600. Each stage felt less special, requiring a revamp of the process.

We devised a solution in the form of a product feedback tracking process built with tools the company was already using. I focused on evaluating customer requests along with how-to and bug tickets funneling through support. I was eager to streamline how the product team could look at this information because each set tells a very important story.

This helped the team create a clear narrative of where and why they invested.