Jobsite
Platform migration
Jobsite is a UK-focused job board consisting of 6 different brands. The organisation needed to retire the Jobsite platform and seamlessly migrate its user base to Totaljobs, ensuring minimal disruption to its users using the platform.
- Users
- Candidates and recruiters across six job board brands
- Ownership
- Migration flows, candidate transition points, design direction
- Role
- Lead Product Designer
The problem
The Jobsite platform needed to be retired while not losing its user base.
Jobsite was being retired, and its candidates and recruiters had to be moved onto Totaljobs. Migrations tend to lose people at two points.
Leaving Jobsite
Moved somewhere unfamiliar without being told why
Asked to redo something they’ve already done
Application complete
For candidates, the risk was being pushed into creating a duplicate profile right when they were applying for a job, the moment they’re least tolerant of friction. Recruiters are a more sensitive audience still, because the platform is part of how they earn. The bar was that neither group should feel the transition happening.
What we found
Mapping both platforms showed the migration would be won or lost at the point of applying.
I mapped the user flows for Jobsite and Totaljobs to find the core red routes and the points where the two platforms diverged. Two moments stood out.
The first was the crossover itself. A candidate clicking a job on Jobsite would land on Totaljobs, and leadership’s instinct was that people would need a modal explaining the new partnership. The second, and the bigger risk, was applying. A candidate arriving from Jobsite would hit an application form and face the question of which CV to use.
I presented the flows to leadership, then built a migration proposal with the product, research and tech leads around those two moments. The map did double duty: it became the source of truth engineering teams used to understand how the two systems would work together.
Key decisions
Every bet aimed to stop the migration asking users to do anything twice.
Candidates
Cross over at the job
Candidates moved to Totaljobs at the point of viewing a job, where they were already heading, rather than at a moment of our choosing.
Apply with what you already have
At application, candidates could pick a profile and CV from either platform, stopping duplicate profiles at the least forgiving moment.
One login, two passwords
Either the Jobsite or Totaljobs password worked, provided the email matched, so nobody got locked out by a platform they didn’t choose.
Recruiters
Migrate at sign-in, explain the gain
Recruiters are a more sensitive audience, so their move happened at sign-in, paired with onboarding that showed what they gained.
Hand-hold the biggest accounts
Account managers contacted Enterprise clients and migrated them by hand.
Bring the favourites
I prioritised the most-used Jobsite features, including boolean search and the candidate recommender, which ended up benefiting existing Totaljobs customers too.
One picker at the point of applying, with profiles and CVs from both platforms side by side.
Testing and iteration
Testing showed candidates were blind to the brand, and only cared about getting their application in.
Testing the risky moments
Rather than trust our suspicions, I prototyped the crossover and job application and put them in front of users.
What surprised us
The partnership modal leadership had asked for got in the way, interrupting the one task candidates came to do. Removing it and moving the partnership message into subtle banners made the crossover work best. Candidates didn’t care which brand they were on, only whether they could apply.
Changing the plan
I took the findings back to leadership, and we agreed a compromise: the branding was toned back so it never interrupted candidates applying for a job.
Challenges
Twenty-two teams and one fixed deadline of a single quarter meant the flows had to become the shared source of truth.
Fixed deadline and budget
I made calls quickly and defended them with evidence. The one real clash came after testing cut how much the partnership needed signposting to candidates. I took the evidence back to leadership and we agreed the lighter banners.
Twenty-two development teams
The flows became the single source of truth, rolled out in stages: to leadership as a plan to inspect, then to engineering leads to build the architecture behind it, then personal follow-ups with the teams carrying the heaviest experience changes.
One designer, two audiences
The workload outgrew me. I made the case for a second senior designer to take the B2B side, and defined the split so I kept direction over the whole initiative.
Final designs
The finished crossover put the job first and the brand second.
Everything testing taught us about the crossover landed on this one screen. Candidates were blind to the brand, coupled with a familiarity of being taken to different platforms the job needed to be front and centre with minimal friction to the job to be done, applying for their next role.
Jobsite search to Totaljobs job details, with partnership branding kept light so it never came between a candidate and the job.
We retired Jobsite on time and within budget, migrating 360k candidates and 75% of recruiters to Totaljobs.
Recommendation
Jobsite
Intranet Redesign
Rebuilt the intranet end to end. Support tickets fell 20% alongside the redesign.
