Workday
Helping students at higher-education institutions explore career pathways with AI.
*Due to NDA purposes, this project contains limited information and imagery —> please contact for additional details.
Contribution:
Research, Prototype, Strategy
Team:
1x Designer, 1x PMs, 2x Manager
Duration:
Summer 2024, 12 Weeks
Type:
Internship
Students struggle to visualize how their academic journey and career goals align.
Students are told by advisers, peers, and professors to take certain classes or register for clubs/involvements without really understanding how they fit into the broader picture of their career goals. As a result, this leads to a lower perceived ROI on their college degree, and even decreased on-time graduation rates due to poor planning or switching majors.
So, what is the solution?
A new AI/ML experience in Workday's student platform to empower students to explore career paths, track their progress, and take actionable steps to become industry-ready after graduation.
BACKGROUND
Career planning is a chaotic process for many students.
Students rely on a wide variety of resources like word-of-mouth, LinkedIn, and Reddit, making it difficult to find trustworthy advice. Additionally, academic advisors at institutions often manage too many students, making it difficult to provide personalized guidance to students on the skills and credentials they need for success.
Research shows that students feel unprepared for life after graduation, and lack optimism about their future.
62% —> of students who start a degree or certificate program achieve an on-time completion
1 in 3 —> students said that they were "very unclear" on what they needed to do to set themselves up for career success.
33% —> of college undergraduates say college is worth the cost, but 25% say the value of a college degree "bad" or "very bad" [out of 1000 students]
DEFINING A PLAN
Let's establish a few guiding questions to help steer our approach.
How might we leverage existing Workday data to provide a personalized experience for students?
How might we create an experience that feels low-stress, and adaptable to change?
How might we help students track their journey from being a "learner" —> to "earner" after graduation, in a tangible way?
The project goals centered around visibility into career paths, an accurate mapping from a students skills to relevant courses and careers, and utilizing AI/ML for personalization.
01
Accurate skills mapping
Map specific skills to classes + career paths to demonstrate how academic choices lead to career readiness.
02
Clear pathways to employment
Give students the highest ROI for their education by taking into account their academic story, and how they can succeed.
03
Personalized experience for every student
Leverage AI/ML to analyze student data to recommend courses accordingly, and provide dynamic feedback.
04
Real-time data and skills
Incorporate current job market trends and data via third-party sources to keep career planning relevant and up-to-date.
Before diving into the project, I planned out the various phases of my project within a 3 month timespan to ensure I am meeting my goals.
Designers at Workday align with a design process called "ILP" which is a self-guided framework to apply to any project. Beginning with the stages of understanding the problem formulating an approach, I later proceeded to exploring various design options and my research to make informed decisions. Lastly, I evaluated my design iterations and proposals, and applied any feedback to prepare for a seamless handoff to engineering.
DESIGN PROCESS
To uncover the challenges faced with the academic and career planning process, I conducted primary research with university students via UserTesting.
This was the first time I researched, planned, and executed a qualitative UserTesting research study— I successfully recruited and interviewed 12 participants from higher-education institution, ranging from ages 18-23 in the United States. I conducted these sessions via moderated interviews on Zoom, and included my Senior User Researcher on the call to take notes and moderate. I asked the participants around 10 questions related to where they get their career-related information, how they plan their goals, and their frequency of interaction with academic advisers, among others. Here are some of the insights I uncovered:
I took note of some interesting quotes from participants that highlight existing workflows and the challenges they faced:
Participant 01
"I use an Excel spreadsheet to organize my course schedule, listing required courses by semester and highlighting elective options"
Participant 02
"I switched from a Computer Science major to a Computing major due to the difficulty in meeting the B minimum grade requirement in certain classes"
Participant 03
"I have minimal interaction with my academic adviser. I only meet with them to confirm that I am on track with my degree requirements."
PROTOTYPE OVERVIEW
I worked closely with my PM and designers on the SIS team to develop a prototype in Figma, with 20+ screens and related documentation.
Initially, the proposed solution seemed like a vision project due to its massive scope, but I was able to create a deliverable which featured the core offerings of the Student platform, while tying in multiple product pillars of Workday's portfolio to offer higher-education customers a truly integrated product for students.
OUTCOME
My project will be showcased at Workday's Rising 2024 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, from September 16-19. Stay tuned for updates!
After a series of presentations to my organization's VPs, Managers, and Directors, where I showcased my prototype and the business impact of my solution, I received exciting news that my work will be presented by our GM at Workday's annual conference in September 2024 for partner customers. This marks a huge milestone in my internship, and a display of the impact this tool will have for Workday customers across the US.
Wrap-Up
What did I learn?
My internship was full of insights and valuable lessons I learned along the way. I learned how to take a simple project brief, and expand it to something greater to benefit multiple aspects of Workday's product ecosystem, and create an experience for students that is truly valuable and personalized. Additionally, I thought deeply about engineering constraints, and how to integrate this tool within the existing student platform while leveraging multiple data sources.
Next Steps.
Conduct a full accessibility review and further define the various data sources. Additionally, meet with the engineering team and experiment with more Gen AI functionalities to see where we can deliver the most value to students to simplify their planning process.