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Piloting a new service for career transition

The economy is going through a turbulent state change, with shifts in both underlying structure and in the specific kinds of jobs that are viable (or not). Career change is a common story, but the resources to support it can be hard to find. Our client, a learning and development consulting company, wanted to bring their knowledge to bear through a new consumer-facing career change service.

How We Helped

  • We conducted research with career transitioners to understand their hopes, fears, needs, and gaps
  • We defined jobs to be done for career transitioners, and used this framework to help us evaluate competing services in the market in order to find underserved groups and value propositions
  • We developed a functional 8-week pilot program combining self-directed exploration, regular curriculum delivered via email, and a hosted Slack community, and ran it for 66 career transitioners, with a small set opting to pay for enhanced features like expert AMA sessions
  • We translated the outcomes of the pilot into a series of insights and engagement sessions with our client’s senior leadership and the project’s external advisory committee in order to make decisions about whether to dive in deeper
  • We evolved the service model into a self-serve version of the program that could be sold to organizations as a B2B service

Key Insights

  • Mid- to late-career transitioners are often underserved by formal, government supports which prioritize recent grads. Our research helped to give shape to this group and their needs, enabling targeted piloting that met them where they were at
  • Confidence (or its erosion) give shape to a person's career transition journey. Our pilot aimed to create a safe space where participants could explore their needs and wants around work in private, then shift to a community space of people in a similar position to share reflections and try on new 'frames' for their professional selves
  • Many supports in the market focused on a single kind of 'transaction' -- mapping a single career pathway, or showing data divorced from actionability. We designed the pilot to be integrative, bringing together data, advice, reflective activity, and community support

Outcome

Our client committed to the service, transforming the pilot into a self-serve, consumer-facing career transition program delivered via an e-learning platform.