UX Strategy Internship at Rocket Mortgage
Rocket Careers. Redesigned.
Walk with me on the journey of how I pitched the idea and the ultimate decision to include a prominent feature (anecdotal video content) on the homepage of Rocket Careers; the career portal website for all companies within Rocket Mortgage’s portfolio.
Challenge
Understand how career seekers interact with and experience Rocket Careers in light of a dramatic surge in website traffic from COVID-19.
Objective
Improve the overall user experience of the career portal website with a refined focus on creating a clear and actionable plan to best showcase culture and professionalism.
Logistics
Timeline: June - August 2020
Team: Experience Strategy and Design
Location: Remote
Collaborators: Austin Leslie (principal) and Marty Hosch
Full-time offer: Accepted
Day 1: Genesis
June 12, 2020
It was clear the world had completely changed; remote work was looking to be par for the course. I spent this time establishing new relationships with my team, orienting myself with the UX software to be used, and completing various onboarding tasks. How would this unprecedented time play out? Exciting yet uncharted territory lay ahead!
Knowledge gained:
1) Use the term “housekeeping” when referring to completing miscellaneous tasks.
2) Ambiguous times can be leveraged to discover great things.
Day 5: Fork in the Road
June 17, 2020
“Door 1 or 2?” That was one of the first questions posed to me by the senior UX Strategist. I was given the option to work on one of two projects for my internship: Rocket Careers or Rock Central.
Rocket Careers was the consumer-facing career portal website for all companies within Rocket Mortgage’s portfolio; an apropos, hands-on project that would call on emotional intelligence and a strong sense of direction.
Rock Central was a burgeoning company that Rocket Mortgage had yet to get on its feet; an opportunity to see what goes into building a brand and business strategy.
“What about Door 3?” was my response. I articulated my desire to primarily work on Rocket Careers in addition to getting a bird's-eye view on the evolution of Rock Central. We both smiled and knew that this was going to be an entertaining summer.
Knowledge gained: Don’t be so quick to silo yourself. If the situation is appropriate, sometimes you can chart your own path.
Primary project: The customer-facing career portal website for all companies within Rocket Mortgage’s portfolio.
Secondary project: A 48-page booklet that extensively lays out how to present the Rock Central brand to the world.
Day 10: What is a UX Strategist?
June 22, 2020
The mind is a powerful tool. Any UX professional worth their weight knows this. However, it takes an exceptional one to continuously sharpen theirs.
UX Strategy is about how you think. You must be able to take human-centered insights and harmoniously blend them with the language of business. This is no easy feat: Communicating with stakeholders and teammates, identifying key moments and features for a digital product, prioritizing unforeseen problems and tasks, extensively educating oneself about a market space to validate a product, and then weaving UX throughout all touchpoints to create a smooth experience requires specialized skills. Nonetheless, that’s the beauty of it all.
Knowledge gained: The UX Strategist can be likened to an air traffic controller. They must have impeccable oversight, strong communication skills, and a sharp mind.
+ Business Strategy
+ Value Innovation
+ User Research
+ Streamlined Experience
= UX Strategy
Day 15: Competitive Analysis
10 websites analyzed, 5 key findings, 1 strategy developed
June 27, 2020
“Let’s see what you can do.” Those six words sent a chill up my spine. I was tasked with performing a comparative analysis of Rocket Careers. Being given autonomy can be a blessing and a curse; I would be solely responsible for producing something valuable or meaningless. I had to take a step back and remind myself that this is what I came here to do. It was time to put my UX skills to work.
I knew there would be no cutting corners. I wanted to ensure I was getting a comprehensive look at how career portal websites were stacking up. Therefore, I decided ten companies would be my lucky number. From there, I made sure each company I selected exposed me to a different industry to minimize redundancy in my analysis. Next, I honed in on 3 overarching metrics to assess them on; engagement, brand resonance, and UI/UX characteristics.
It was then time to pinpoint what I would specifically examine:
What does the company value from its users? Call-to-actions are a great indicator of this.
How does the company present itself? The perceived culture and external face remain pivotal for any company, especially on a career website.
What UX characteristics are employed? Examining the formatting of pages and various ways to complete tasks answered this.
Do they seem personable? How the user can establish contact is an underrated yet powerful method.
Does the user walk away feeling the company will provide value to them? Engagement and overall impressions are key metrics here.
Knowledge gained: The little things often make a big difference. After completing my thorough analysis, the clear winners were the ones that prompted high engagement by way of unique user experiences. In a world where things can move at light-speed, sometimes it's best to pause and pay special attention to the details.
My detailed analysis found that Rocket Careers was performing well overall apart from lacking an intentional user journey. After serious thought, the idea clicked to build a strategy on designing a unique storytelling element to pull the user through the site purposefully.
Optimizing the user experience to align with my newfound strategy and the 3 KPIs above was my next challenge. Let’s see where this takes us.
Day 20: Heuristic Evaluation
30+ recommendations, 2 implementations
July 2, 2020
Painstaking examination; that sums up my heuristic evaluation of Rocket Careers. And I loved every minute of it. It was around this time I began to realize I chose the right profession.
I decided to use a combination of Nielsen’s heuristics and others optimized for websites specifically, which would give me an all-encompassing look at the website. Countless hours and over 30 recommendations later, I organized my findings down to nine areas of improvement: storytelling, job posting, search functionality, SEO, subdomain, logos, information architecture, UX writing, and mobile view.
It was my responsibility to pitch what a unique storytelling element would look like for Rocket Careers. My eye caught the infrequent use of anecdotal content throughout the website; the lightbulb went off! Because everyone was working from home, getting more people in front of their cameras to tell their story of why and what it means to work here would be my angle. Users will see real people in regular clothes with relatable lives. Taking their stories and displaying them right on the homepage through a UI overlay would be the UX implementation.
On another note, I observed that the website provided a visual indicator if a job posting was recent. To further optimize the user experience, I recommended they display the date of the job posting as well. This would provide even more clarity to the user in their job search.
Knowledge gained: The devil is in the details!
Recommendation 1: Embed anecdotal video content on the homepage of Rocket Careers.
This provides a purposeful and unique storytelling element for users by displaying content that is engaging and relatable. What better way to connect company culture and professionalism with the hearts and minds of job seekers?
Implemented: Yes!
Recommendation 2: Display the date of when the job was posted.
Job seekers want to feel that a company values their time and efforts. Displaying the date of the job posting will ease feelings of applying to an abyss.
Implemented: Yes!
Day 25: Stakeholder Presentation
5 various stakeholders
July 7, 2020
Today was the big day; countless hours of hard work would culminate in a 45-minute presentation. No pressure. How would they respond to all my laborious work, insights, and recommendations? Here goes nothing!
I had practiced and prepared so much that the night before my presentation, I vividly dreamt about what I was going to say.
The main thing I focused on was making my presentation digestible yet still underscore the expertise involved.
Knowledge gained:
1) Not everyone is as keyed into the project as you. Therefore, consider the altitude at which every stakeholder is coming in at. Some are coming in at 30,000 feet, and others at ground-level. Our job as UX Strategists is to translate our expertise into a language that is easy to understand and digestible.
2) Feedback is beautiful but don’t be afraid to defend your decisions. Moreover, the notion of time, risk, and trust are your best friend when explaining the rationale for your decisions:
Do we have the time to pursue X effectively?
What’s the risk of not pursuing X? What’s the risk if we do pursue X?
Do we have enough trust built with everyone keyed in on this project to pull their own weight?
Read Reviews Below
“Austin has attacked his internship this summer, driving insights and tackling every task assigned to him. Austin, your UX presentation was clearly practiced and delivered beautifully. Great job on generating value for our clients and delivering high-quality work that will directly impact Rocket Careers!”
Marty Hosch, Staff UX Designer
“Austin jumped into a UX review of Rocket Careers; a very important piece of our organization. He was super clear and detailed, gave a great presentation, and made it look easy! Austin you are “obsessed with finding a better way” - were super on point and a great value-add to this project. Thank you for your high-level overview!”
Debra Abrams, Senior Product Manager
“Austin, I appreciate how you’ve jumped into your internship with both feet. I heard you did a spectacular job with presenting UX research and recommendations for Rocket Careers, and I’m excited to see how you will continue to add value throughout the summer.”
Steve Cusumano, Director of UX
Day 30: Summer of the ISMs
July 12, 2020
The summer of 2020 will be remembered as different than ever before. However, every cloud has a silver lining. With everyone being at home and having more time to reflect, Rocket Mortgage saw an opportunity to go back to the basics. They have 19 ISMs (core philosophies) that make them who they are. They encouraged this summer to be a time where each and every employee reflect on what exactly they mean and how they can be applied throughout our lives.
Knowledge gained: No matter where you go, stay grounded.
My Favorite ISM: “Say Yes Before No”
Always keep an open mind to things. A huge part of a UX Strategist’s role is to facilitate an open dialogue between stakeholders. Never say “no” in these conversations. Shutting the door of opportunity prematurely is doing the entire team a disservice. Take some time to think about the best way to proceed and go from there.
Day 35: Usability Testing and Interviews
10+ users, 300+ minutes
July 17, 2020
What better time to have candid conversations with people than in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and social movement? As the pictures below clearly indicate, none other.
Knowledge gained: Timing is everything.
Breaking the ice is key to an insightful user interview.
Listening • Neutrality • Observation
Find out what gems the user testing uncovered below:
Day 40: Affinity Diagramming
5 users, 10+ themes
July 22, 2020
Affinity diagramming is quite a gem in the UX profession. These diagrams paint a beautiful picture of what users want and need. Without them, we’d be left with just long-winded text on a PowerPoint.
Knowledge gained: A picture (visual) really is worth a thousand words.
Day 45: User Personas & Scenarios
1 workshop, 3 user personas
July 27, 2020
Personas are the glue that holds the design process together. When in doubt, we should always refer back to what our users actually want and need. The personas we craft cast a light on this.
Knowledge gained: The importance of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Persona Creation Methodology
Step 1: Grouped notes from usability tests and interviews into themes
Step 2: Casted dot votes on the most relevant themes
Step 3: Organized and sorted key themes into preliminary personas
Final deliverable? Crafting 3 distinct user personas for Rocket Careers. Take a look below:
Day 50: Journey Mapping
3 user journeys
August 1, 2020
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step. How apropos this ancient proverb is! Users can embark on an infinite amount of pathways on a website and our job is to help nudge them in the right direction to provide the most optimal experience. By mapping out these paths, we can identify and improve potential pain points and highlights of their digital journey.
Knowledge gained: Don’t just assume rather validate your assumptions.
Shivra, Tom, and Brianna’s Rocket Careers journey:
Summary: Overall, most job seekers had a positive experience throughout their Rocket Careers journey. However, I suspected that an overwhelming amount were submitting their application before doing adequate research on Rocket Mortgage. When they land on the website, we have an opportunity to keep them there and inform them.
My recommendation for a video overlay of anecdotal content on the homepage solves this by immediately engaging the user and adequately informing them about the company. Thus, allowing the user to have sufficient knowledge of what they’re getting themselves into to best match personality and expertise.
Day 55: Information Architecture & Website Analytics
1 sitemap, 4 flowcharts
August 5, 2020
Sometimes, you just need to envision it. When you see what exactly you’re undertaking, the pieces of the puzzle tend to come together. Information architecture allows us to do just that.
Knowledge gained: Nothing is as good as it seems, and nothing is as bad as it seems.
Sitemap of Rocket Careers.
I created this sitemap to prove to stakeholders our undertaking of Rocket Careers was more than manageable; less than 30 pages.
Google Analytics. Visualized.
After dissecting and visualizing the website analytics of Rocket Careers into flowcharts, my suspicions were confirmed that an overwhelming amount of users were submitting their application before doing their due diligence in researching Rocket Mortgage.
Day 60: Wrapping Up
August 10, 2020
Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end. But what a delight my summer at Rocket Mortgage has been!
Knowledge gained: You can do anything you set your mind to.
