Problem
Inefficient task assignment process for a project manager to assign freelancers
Project managers
As a former project manager in the localization industry, one common issue I had working with different companies of varying sizes is assigning work to freelancers who are based globally.
With a short turnaround time, it was highly important to find available freelancers to take on a job as soon as possible, but there was often too much time-consuming emailing back and forth with the pool of freelancers before a job could be assigned.
Freelancers
On the other hand, I’ve also observed what it’s like on the freelancer’s end. They generally had trouble keeping their clients informed of their schedule, and as they typically work from home, they were not bound to their desktop computer, and a lot of the files sent to them were then difficult to read / failed to open while they were on the go. As a result, they weren’t able to accept a job until they were back home.
Competitive Analysis
Task assignment with external freelancers is an neglected area in most project management apps
Most project management software such as Monday.com or Asana focuses on coordinating work among internal teammates, rather than that with an external team. Even with industry-specific apps that meet some needs of such remote teams, there are still neglected areas from both the perspective of freelancers and that of the PMs.
User Research Goal
To understand the pain points of project managers and freelancers in different industries
I set out to understand more of a PM’s experience working with an external freelancer especially in different industries than the one I was in to see if there is any commonality. I was also interested to find out about freelancers’ experience working with different companies or individual clients.
Outside of localization, I was able to recruit 4 project managers from publishing, broadcasting and advertising and 4 freelancers from advertising, design and post-production for in depth interviews about their experiences.
Research Insights
Streamline the communication
Project managers in different industries echoed the same issues. They have a hard time resourcing talent in time due to variability in schedule and lack of timely communication with freelancers.
Freelancers, on the other hand, have a hard time streamlining the communication process with clients. Therefore, it is challenging to accept new projects in time.
Ideation & Feature Prioritization
Automating task reassignment
Brainstorming on how to automate task (re)assignment, one way would be for a PM to post a job to a select pool of freelancers and allow whoever responds first take the job. However, it's common that a PM has a very small number of candidates qualified (or directly requested by clients) for the job, so allowing project managers control of who gets a brief first, and who gets it next (if the job is passed up by the first person) is important.
Features that will help a project manager stay on top of tasks and freelancer availability and for freelancers to have timely response are among those with higher impact, thus the priorities.
Design Process
A task assignment flow for 2 types of users
After the initial sketches, I created a sitemap and a user flow for the task assignment flow, making sure it makes sense on both the PM's end and the freelancer end before diving into making low fidelity wireframes. I did come back to update the sitemap once I realized what was missing / needed changing.
For the mobile experience, I prioritized the freelancer view since one of the most important success metrics is whether freelancers can view task on mobile.
Sitemap
User Flow
Low-fidelity Wireframes
High-fidelity Design
Design System
Usability Testing
Moderated usability tests on 3 project managers and 3 freelancers
Successes
Project managers
1. All PMs tested were able to create a task, assign freelancers (talent) including backups, be notified that someone has left a message and taken on the task quickly following the prompts.
2. After switching to the freelancer view, they were able to differentiate the two modes.
3. All PMs tested said they’d recommend this product to their teams to use.
Freelancers
1. All freelancers tested were able to navigate to the mobile app from the email app to view task details, ask questions, and accept job on desktop quickly following the prompts.
Learnings
Project managers & freelancers
1. 4 out of 6 participants tested failed to find where to click to reply to a comment on first attempt. They clicked on creating a new post instead.
2. 3 out of 6 participants failed to switch the work mode on first attempt.
Design Changes
Next Steps
Expanding the freelancer experience
An impactful next step would be to focus on expanding the freelancer experience. Freelancer task view, organizing tasks by client, adding a task they received from outside the platform, and managing invoices.
In order for freelancers to keep their availability calendars up to date, thus keeping PMs informed, the platform should be a place that keeps freelancers active by allowing them manage all their freelance projects.
Learnings
Testing low vs. high fidelity prototypes
One of my lessons from this project is that even though getting design feedback early generally saves you time down the road, some things can only be more accurately evaluated in its high-fidelity form. A few times when I presented my low fidelity design, people didn't know what they were looking for, had trouble finding information. However, once I brought the design to high fidelity, those problems were resolved without my having to change the design.
I also learned the importance of information architecture, and sometimes it means as simple as the order of the items in a list (see the last design changes above.) Because I wanted to keep in-task chat as the last tab, "deliverables" ended up being right next to task brief, causing the user to assume it's for files a PM will send freelancers rather than what the freelancers delivers.
