Spark

User Research & Product Development

2025

Research, Testing, Marketing

Spark by CareerBeacon

Collaborated with product, development, design teams, and our CTO to create, test, and develop CareerBeacon's AI Visual Job Posting Generator, Spark.

Team objective: Using what we’ve learned from our initial product prototype, our objective was to build a higher-fidelity, go-to-market-ready version of it within a month to launch at an upcoming HR conference.

My objective: My specific objective was to ensure the initial experience of the user landing on the landing page or using Spark for the first time is frictionless, compelling, and intuitive.

I had the following questions during this project:

1. What problems do employers have and which ones does Spark solve?
2. Does introducing pricing tiers too early in the user experience turn users off? Do people require experience with a free version before committing?
3. How can we create a more attention-grabbing experience right off the bat using bolder headlines, bigger fonts, and moving elements?
4. What terminology should we use to describe the output? Should we lean into a term people already understand or create a new category?

Instead of starting from scratch, we took feedback from our prototype and identified areas for improvement, such as adding more customization, building a dashboard, and developing pricing tiers. While the product team developed these features, I focused on the following:

1. Iterative Testing & UX Enhancements: I tested the product extensively to identify friction points. Two key wins included:
• Clarity in Framing: Changed the credit display from "Credits Used" (5/10) to "Credits Available" (5) to make it immediately clear what the user has left.
• Reducing Friction: Updated the brand color picker to automatically include the "#" in HEX codes, anticipating that users may not think to include it.

2. Qualitative Research: Using sales call recordings and Reddit thread research, I collected insights on common issues employers are facing, like connecting with younger generations and building brand awareness, to inform how we positioned the product.

3. GTM Strategy & Copywriting: Wrote all the landing page copy and assisted with the wireframe and design elements to ensure the product's benefits were clear from the first click.

Due to a shift in company priorities, Spark was put on hold shortly after launch. However, I can share the following:

Candidate impact: User testimonials reported that visual posts astonishingly generated three times the organic impressions compared to standard versions.

Adoption: Spark gained 43 regular users after launch, with others continuing to sign up through sales conversations.