Upwork Platform Monetization of Connects
B2C Marketplace • Monetization Team • 2019
Get a behind the scenes look at the simple changes that went into monetizing Connects.
Role: Sr. Product Designer
Category: Marketplace
Impact: ~12M in revenue for the business.
Background
Upwork is the worlds largest freelancing marketplace where clients of all businesses sizes can hire freelancers to help get work done. Freelancers have always used Connects, a token system used to apply to jobs, but historically they’ve always been free until we decided to monetize them. This project was less of a true product design end to end project, more so a product and business lead project that yielded tremendous results with just a few changes from the design perspective.
The Problem
Because connects have historically been free on the platform, freelancers would mass apply to jobs, leaving clients to sort through the a lengthy list of job proposals, making it difficult to find the right candidate.
Often times, clients would only review the most recent applications received, leaving great candidate options often unread.
We needed to improve the client user experience so that they received the best freelancer job proposals, while also giving freelancers a reason to be very selective about the job postings they apply to.
The focus, lead by the business, was to monetize our connect systems.
*Note that we also explored boosting freelancer applications, which you can see in this screenshot below which also allowed candidates to boost themselves to the top of the list.I only explored concepts during my tenure, but not the full extent of the design*
User Validation
The change to the product was simple from a design perspective, so what mattered most was getting the messaging just right. I worked with a senior user researcher to do concept testing with select members of the freelancer community.
The result of this type of validation was refined copy mindful enough to release to the larger freelancer community.
What Shipped
The results
Upwork continues to reap the benefits of this change and it has kept it’s staying power as a major revenue driver for the business. During my time there, the result was multimillion dollars in revenue for the business.
Ready to learn more this project?
The delight is in the details. Email me and let’s have a chat!