Reducing drop off and scaling.

Using research to increase engagement, and scale growth in the Job-Seeker Journey.

Project snapshot

Company: Hunty (LatAm job search startup)

Role: Lead Service & UX Researcher

Duration: 6 months

Focus: Lifecycle research, understanding drop-off & engagement across candidate journeys.

Methods: In-depth interviews (job seekers, mentors), shadowing, service blueprinting, archetypes, workshops, prototyping.

Impact: Reduced drop-off rates by ~15%, increased candidate NPS +15 pts, informed launch of Hunty’s first productized service.

What I did:

Conducted interviews & fly on the wall methods with job seekers and mentors.
Created customer archetypes that revealed distinct behaviors & needs.
Designed service blueprints to map friction points & surface opportunities.
Facilitated cross-team workshops with product & customer success to align on indicators and next steps.
Prototyped and validated ideas that led to a new productized service model.

Setting the stage for scalable growth.

Hunty's Modular Service Blueprint Mapping.

Context

Hunty’s coaching bootcamp was helping job seekers, but growth was capped:

Drop-off rates after onboarding were high.
Mentor experiences were inconsistent.
No shared view of where the service broke down.

The leadership team needed clarity on why users disengaged, and how to design a more scalable, consistent experience.

My contribution

My Role

👉 I led the end-to-end research & service design stream, from planning through synthesis and implementation.

👉 I facilitated workshops that aligned Product and Customer Success teams on metrics and opportunities.

👉 I produced decision tools (blueprints, journeys and archetypes) that became part of Hunty’s core toolkit.

What I did

I interviewed 25+ job seekers and mentors, uncovering mismatched expectations and hidden friction points.
I created 4 archetypes (e.g. “Mono,” “Hormiga”) that explained user mindsets and informed prioritization of matching logic.
I mapped the candidate + mentor journeys, visualizing gaps like unclear handoffs and mentor overload.
I worked with Product to redesign platform flows for better usability and scalability.
I partnered with Customer Success to define key indicators for engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Outcomes

✅ 15% drop-off reduction across first modules of the bootcamp.

✅ Candidate NPS +15 pts, Mentor NPS +10 pts (post-redesign surveys).

✅ Higher engagement in sessions, fewer mid-bootcamp abandonments.

✅ Research artifacts (archetypes, blueprints) became decision tools used in roadmap and backlog discussions.

✅ Directly informed Hunty’s first productized service model, now a core part of the company’s growth strategy.

Customer Archetypes and Prioritization Workshops.

Process

01/

The challenge

Who exactly are our users? Recent grads vs. mid-career professionals had vastly different goals and pain points.

Why were users dropping off halfway through the bootcamp?

How could we make mentor support scalable while keeping it personal?

Where were the biggest opportunities to improve usability in the platform itself?

02/

The Research

Research Planning & Execution

Recruited and interviewed 20+ job seekers and 5+ mentors across backgrounds.
Shadowed live sessions and reviewed service artifacts.
Partnered with Customer Success to align on drop-off, NPS, and engagement metrics.

Analysis & Synthesis

Created user archetypes capturing distinct job-seeker mindsets and needs.
Built end-to-end journey maps for seekers and mentors.
Produced a service blueprint that exposed friction points and system gaps.

Strategic Direction

Proposed new service pathways and mentor-matching logic.
Facilitated cross-functional workshops with Product and CS to prioritize opportunities.
Prototyped concepts for a hybrid “coaching + digital” model.

03/

Key Insights

Archetype differences mattered. A recent grad needed accountability and clarity, while a career-shifter valued flexibility and tailored networking perks.
Drop-off wasn’t caused by one big failure, it was small mismatches: unclear handoffs, no feedback loops, mentor overload.
Scalability required hybridization. A blended service (human + platform features) could preserve what seekers valued while making mentors more effective.

"I dropped off because I felt lost in the process".

7/20 users said they lost tracking mid-bootcamp.”

Learnings for next time

My journey maps weren't the prettiest. But perfect journey maps aren’t what drives impact. Turning journey maps into living assets was more impactful than perfecting every detail.