It is surprising to realize there have been so many good matching products available for a long time, but they still suffer from significant UX problems that prevent users from ever becoming familiar with them.
Two user groups – talent and client means more UX problems to resolve. Most public UX and conversion studies suggest that requiring more than 5 minutes to complete a form, especially a non-essential one (like the initial draft of a job post), leads to a significant increase in client abandonment (often over 50%). 50% is huge rate, and if I can reduce at least 10%, it will be a big win as a MVP.
I had a chance to list all of my finding of UX from the benchmark. Lets see how I can resolve those.
- Long Job Posting Process
- Requiring more than 5 minutes for the initial draft causes high drop-off rates and client fatigue.
- Budgeting/Pricing Friction
- Clients often don’t know the market rate and spend excessive time deciding on the budget.
- Candidate Overload
- If the quality gate is too wide, the client is overwhelmed by too many applicants, causing “decision paralysis.”
- Vetting Time (Reviewing)
- Scrolling through dozens of profiles to find one key skill is slow and frustrating.
- “Dead Air” After Posting
- The client posts the job and hears nothing, leading to uncertainty and trust loss.
- High Barrier to Entry (Profile)
- Requiring too much data for the “perfect profile” upfront leads to abandonment before the Talent can even see jobs
- Vague Profile Feedback
- Talent submits a profile but doesn’t know why they aren’t getting matches (e.g., “I need more detail”).
- Proposal Point (PP) Anxiety
- If Talent runs out of PP, they might leave the platform rather than upgrade or wait.
- “Black Hole” Applications
- Talent spends time writing a great proposal only to hear nothing back.