Most US adults don’t have a college degree and make less in their lifetime for it. Through alternatives to academic education, they often have the skills to perform higher-wage work, but rarely receive the opportunity. I led all user research for a custom Indeed onboarding experience supporting job seekers in non-profit workforce development programs through the lens of skills-first hiring.

Bootcamps, online certificate courses, and other short term credential programs have grown in popularity and employer recognition since 2020. These trainings give job seekers facing barriers access to in-demand skills, but the Indeed resume’s “Education” fields didn’t meet their representation needs. During great organizational uncertainty, I led the Social Impact team through discovery to simple improvements with significant outcomes for job seekers who have completed training.

Transgender people in the United States of America face significant prejudice in the workplace. If job seekers cannot safely self-identify as transgender on Indeed, internal systems that detect algorithmic bias cannot identify features that may harm transgender job seekers. How should a job search company ask for this highly sensitive information? I led a study investigating mechanisms for self-identification in a secure demographic data survey.

Product teams often get excited about a feature without considering everyone who might use it. Profile photos in a hiring context are a riskier proposition for some more than others. Working solely through influence, I conducted research that centered high-risk job seekers and drove product strategy forward while mitigating those risks.