Client Contract Project - Spring 2025 (10 weeks)
APM Season
Improving site navigation and monetization on a student-focused product manager job board.
ROLE
Lead UX Designer
TEAM
2 Designers
2 Product Managers
1 Developer
2 Strategists
TOOLS
Figma
Figjam
Google Form
SKILLS
UX Design
Design Systems
Prototyping
Cross-functional Collaboration
Client Communication
OVERVIEW
APM Season, a student-focused job search website.
APM Season is a startup building a resource hub website for current students who are aspiring product managers (PMs). It shows early career job listings such as internships and co-ops, aiming to offer extra career prep help for young PMs to-be.
IN A RUSH?
Click to Final Product!
PROBLEM
As of February 2025: APM Season has no successful monetization and a very low number of monthly active users.
APM Season startup founders came to our team with a challenging problem. Their original website was functional to the bare minimum, but it did not gain the engagement it deserves. None of their career prep features have been successfully monetized!
CLIENT BRIEF
“We want three (3) monetizable features that...”
💸
Generates revenue
🔍
Improves site navigation
👋
Re-engages users (students)
During our first kickoff meeting with the APM Season founders, our team laid it out in a way which made them comfortable to express all their current frustrations - providing a Google Docs for all of us to write as they speak. To address these concerns and align with their priorities, we narrowed the project goals to three focus areas as shown above.
RESEARCH
Usability gaps: key features buried & unclear navigation.
Our team then did a deep dive into the old APM Season website as of February 2025. We performed a quick usability testing by clicking into every page and tool - we found these major issues:
We ran a survey for 80 college students and recent grads interested in PM roles and offered them a free 30-minute PM job prep call by the APM Season founders as a reward. Since no other platform offers both job listings and resume help for early PMs, our approach stood out! Below is the data we collected from our survey:
3/5
😶
In the survey, we asked our target users to give a rating out of 5 on the overall site navigation. 3/5 was our score.
38%
Users do not understand what’s offered by APM Season+ (the premium plan).
The other
62%
Responded “Highly Unlikely” to using APM Season’s premium, paid features - similarly, due to unfamiliarity with what the feature entails.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We need straightforward UI + extra career prep features.
We chose these four competitors because they are the top used job boards for aspiring PMs.
Our insights show that...
If we produce extra features beyond a regular job board, we have an edge amongst the competitors.
We need to revamp our UI! Based on our user testing with the current site, we need to prioritize user flow clarity.
SO, HOW MIGHT WE...
ease users’ job search while helping APM Season gain revenue?
DEFINE
Three success metrics based on our client’s brief.
Combining our research insights with on our client’s brief on the three monetizable items, we regrouped and decided on these three quantifiable success metrics. This ensures that we are aligned on a clear, tangible goal.
Engagement
Minimum 30% increase in monthly users
Done through client communication
Monetization
Minimum 10% increase in paid feature users
Done through client communication
User Experience
Minimum 20% increase in overall site navigation rating
Done through post-launch survey
IDEATE
Translating idea dumps and research insights into new features and information architecture.
We went all out! We started off with Google Docs and brainstormed as many new feature and improvement ideas to the current site. The goal is to present it to our clients and have them highlight the points that they find important.
After ideating the features and communicating it with APM Season founders, we decided to reframe the information architecture into 3 categories - Key, Next, and Future components. This way, prioritization is organized.
We had multiple email chains of back and forth conversations with our client to ensure alignment.
IDEATE
And the three features are...
Resume Review
Submit your resume for tailored feedback from experienced PMs.
1-1 Coaching
Book personalized sessions with PMs for interview prep and career guidance.
Prep Courses
Access curated PM courses at a discounted price through tracked affiliate promos.
After communicating with our client, we collectively decided on these three new features to help APM Season gain revenue in other ways beyond showing a job board. Personally, I worked on the Resume Review and 1-1 Coaching feature.
Resume Review Flow: Users can click “Resume Review” in the navigation bar, log in to access tips, or quickly get their resume reviewed within 2 days by email or call after making a direct payment.
1-1 Coaching Flow: Users can click “1-1 Coaching” in the navigation bar, and then they will immediately be presented with a PM coach name and the coach information, in which they can move forward to set the Video Meeting duration, time, and payment.
APM Season+ Flow: APM Season Plus (or APM Season+) is the premium, paid version of APM Season. Since users mention confusion regarding what this premium feature entails, we broke down the flow to ensure clarity.
TESTING + ITERATIONS
1) Onboarding Quiz: Prioritizing clarity over personalization.
//
APM Season+
Job Board
Support
Get Coaching
Resources
Sign In
Experience Level:
Student or Recent Graduate
1–2 years
3-5 years
6+ years
Returning to Workforce
I just want to learn!
Fill out the survey for more personalized job recommendations!
Skip
You can edit your answers in Account Settings later.
//
APM Season+
Job Board
Support
Get Coaching
Resources
Sign In
What kind of job are you looking for?
Back
Next
Internship
Full-Time
Open to All
Feel free to choose more than one.
During our research, we found that many users were hesitant to use the APM Season website because they didn’t fully understand them. To fix this, we thought about adding an initial onboarding quiz to personalize job recommendations based on their profile. The idea was to make the experience feel more tailored for each user.
❌ Solution: We discarded this idea. Why?
Creates friction...
It creates friction for new users because they are blocked from accessing the main content right away. This could lead to confusion or a lack of trust!
Out of scope!
The main goal of the MVP (minimum viable project) is to ensure an easy, non-ambiguous universal access. This may serve the goal long term but not now.
2) Resume Review: Emphasizing the right call-to-action.
Originally, we highlighted the blog feature in the Resume page in order to attract more users.
However, feedback from our clients suggest that putting up this blog strays from one main goal: monetization.
🖼️ Solution: Layout (Hierarchy) Redesign
Shifting the visual hierarchy; placing the paid feature (Resume Review) at the top, followed by the free blog.
Adding negative white space to direct the user’s eyes more easily to the main body content.
When the paid feature is prioritized in the hierarchy, users are more likely to focus on it first, improving visibility and increasing the likelihood of monetization. Therefore, this design decision was made.
3) 1-1 Coaching: Putting a face to the name.
For the 1-1 Coaching page, I initially added a button to “Meet your coach” as a primary clickable call-to-action.
I also added a testimonials section to showcase credibility and enforce trust for users, with the intention in gaining more users to sign up for the 1-to-1 coaching feature.
🖼️ Enhancement: Show the Coach and only the Coach!
Feedback from our clients and PMs pushed us to keep things simple and straightforward.
Testimonials is a possible method to gain trust, however, APM Season is still a relatively new site with no current users to get positive feedback from! Thus, this should rather be a future implementation.
Again, because APM Season is new, users will want to ask, “Who am I talking to? Who is this coach? Can I put a face to the name?” which ultimately led us to highlighting the coach’s name, role, and summary.
Of course, the Book button is still a clickable primary call-to-action to push action from users.
4) Nav Bar: Multiple Iterations.
We believe that the navigation bar is the backbone and compass to any site. The old design of the website does not include a single, easy-to-use nav bar, and have the features spread across the page without a rule.
My design partner and I ideate a couple of navigation bar iterations, writing down descriptions on what differs from each and presenting them to our client for review. We decided on Iteration #1, keeping these two things in mind:
🖼️ We decided on Iteration #1, keeping these two things in mind:
Highlighting all key features: Resume Review, Courses, 1-1 Coaching; ensuring each key feature has each own page.
Combining the Job Board page with the Home page (the ‘//’ logo) to get rid of clutter.
We remembered that the target users are students interested in the tech industry, so we assume that they are tech savvy enough to know that the logo on the left equals the Home page.
COLOR, TYPOGRAPHY, STYLE GUIDE
UI Goal: Simple, Modern, Clear.
When transitioning from low to high fidelity, we encountered a challenge in the form of... ambiguity! (apparently common in the UX design world)
“Make us stand out. Make us different from the other competitor sites,” told our client.
“Wait, what does standing out or being different even mean??” - Me in my head
As a first-time collaborator with a real client, I wasn’t sure what “standing out” truly meant. To explore this, we ran a mini design sprint with 25 color variations! We want to make sure that the client is presented with as many possible options and have the liberty to choose.
Guided by color psychology, we focused on the color green, symbolizing growth, to reflect the client’s vision in helping aspiring PMs advance or grow their careers.
🖼️ Final UI: Clarity > Complexity.
Keeping in mind that our target users are tech-savvy students interested in PM/tech roles, we emphasized:
Feature Visibility: Resume Review, Courses, and 1:1 Coaching each have dedicated sections.
Streamlined Navigation: Merged Job Board with Home using the “//” logo to reduce clutter.
Call-to-actions Emphasized: With everything on the page being white and only the primary buttons green, the user’s eyes will immediately be directed towards the greens that stand out!
Design Components & Style Guide
This is the finalized style and asset guide with reusable components and variants!
Color: We retained APM Season’s original green and introduced a bluish-green secondary tone to add depth and a modern touch.
Typography: We chose Roboto; a clean, friendly sans serif font that reflects the professional yet approachable brand image our client envisioned.
THE SOLUTION
An all-in-one student job board website aimed to help students land early career roles in product management.
1) PM Job Board as the Landing Page
This is the immediate landing page. APM Season will be featuring 100+ Product Management internships and entry level roles.
2) APM Season+ - The Premium
This is the premium version of APM Season! You can get instant early access to PM jobs and internships. It has an easy point of entry: an emphasized button on the nav bar.
3) 1-on-1 Coaching
Get personalized mentorship with an accredited FAANG Product Manager! You can see the PM’s biodata and credibility on the page. It consists of an instant and easy payment pop-up/
4) Resume Review
On the resume review page, you will see detailed bulletpoints on what’s included per package! There is also an easy One-Time Payment pop-up once a package is clicked.
REFLECTIONS
We achieved our goal! Here’s the report after 30 days...
After handing off the designs in late April, developers implemented them on the APM Season website. A month later, we reviewed the results with the founders, and here it is...
Is there > 30% increase in monthly active users?
✅ 60% increase in monthly active users. We went from 80 to 128 active users per month!
Is there > 10% increase in premium APM Season+ usage?
✅ There is exactly a 10% increase in APM Season+ usage.
Is there > 20% increase in site usability score?
✅ From our new survey, the current site usability score is 4.6/5 (used to be 3/5).
If I had more time...
Expand user testing - With only two months for turnaround, testing was limited to the two APM Season+ founders.
Improve accessibility checking - We couldn’t fully validate color accessibility due to time constraints.
Grow the design system - Beyond color and typography, adding consistency in line height and spacing is a crucial next step.
APM Season was my first real-world client project!
Here’s what I learned:
Rejection is redirection. Our initial ideas and designs got rejected A LOT due to feasibility and time constraints, but now we learned it is better to not bite more than we can chew and have a more focused end result.
How to tackle ambiguity. Throughout the project, the clients’ directions were not as clear cut as expected in a school project. I noticed that asking questions on Slack and providing multiple options help clarify ambiguity.
Cross-functional sync is important. Working with Product Managers and developers showed me the importance of aligning across roles to keep the project moving smoothly.