Rethinking professional identity.
Evolving Meta Career Profiles into a platform for internal mobility and team productivity.
Gathering the evidence...
To understand existing behaviors, we mapped how employees navigated career growth manually. Meet Will, a representative composite of our employee research interviews:
Reflecting on your career
LinkedIn was Will's common destination to reflect on his career journey.
Understanding the present
The internal profile was how he oriented himself on the present, teams, workstreams, collaborators.
Career growth opportunities
Capturing growth, evolution, and opportunities was extremely fragmented.
Networking
Cultivating and expanding his network was a clear goal.
Resumes and career details weren't everything.
People sought out and identified with details and "meta" information that weren't traditionally captured, to help form a more holistic view of themselves and others.
How can we better serve Will?
3 opportunities identified.
1, Representing Identity
How might we create a better way for employees to manage their professional identity in one accurate, scalable place?
The goal was a clear, career-focused experience showing how investments connect across tools, with transparent privacy controls.
The previous internal profile wasn't designed with any principal or system in mind, making it impossible to scale on it’s existing architecture. It was conceived as a vertical, vs a platform for other contexts to leverage.
2 - Managing the Journey
How might we help understand where they are and what comes next?
A key issue: employees using the internal jobs tool didn’t understand eligibility or how they appeared to hiring managers. I used this tool to show how shared patterns could extend beyond Profile while leveraging its data contextually.
Wireframe Exploration
Initial architectural mapping of candidate eligibility and context.
Hi-Fi Experience Prototype
Hi-fidelity candidate presentation experience integrating shared profile metadata.
User Testing Concept
Concept design for peer recognition and badge expression that went into user testing.
3 - Humanizing the Experience
How might we humanize the Profile experience to help people express, engage, and connect with others in a way that's professionally beneficial?
Internal tools felt one-sided, leading to low engagement and incomplete data. Employees wanted to know more about each other, but weren’t always comfortable sharing personal details.
Self-Expression Framework
Empowering employees to express professional identity, values, and working preferences.
Engagement & Reciprocity Signals
Fostering lightweight peer engagement and feedback loops.
Organic Connection Discovery
Connecting peers through shared interests, mentorship opportunities, and org communities.
Badges & Stickers Ecosystem
I introduced Badges and Stickers, inspired by real-world and social behaviors, to humanize profiles and foster connection. Community-driven, they also power recommendations, mentorship, and learning. Originally a solo side project, it was later integrated into the long-term Career Profile strategy.
