Case study - I
chapterit
"Can he drive results?"
Scaling Conversion Through Experimentation in Career Tools
Leading a 9-person UX team to reimagine Resume-Now's resume builder — from rethinking template selection to introducing AI-powered content tools — driving a 431% revenue increase across the product suite.
Role
Sr. Manager of UX Design, NOW Brand UX Lead
Team
4 UX Designers, 1 UX Manager, 1 Visual Designer, 1 Copywriter, 1 Researcher
Timeline
2023 — 2025
Focus
Product redesign, AI features, A/B testing, team ops
Outcome
431% revenue increase across products
01 - Context
BOLD is a career-focused platform powering multiple products, including resume and cover letter builders such as MyPerfectResume, Zety, and LiveCareer.
Within the NOW Brand, we focused on improving user outcomes through continuous experimentation, leveraging A/B testing and AI-assisted features to increase conversion and help users successfully create job-ready documents.
02 - My Role
Senior Manager, User Experience Design — NOW Brand
Led UX for the NOW Brand and cover letter builders across multiple products
Managed and mentored a cross-functional design team
Defined experimentation strategy in partnership with product, data, and engineering
Oversaw design system evolution and cross-team alignment
Contributed hands-on to key feature design and optimization initiatives
Team
Collaborated across a multi-disciplinary organization:
UX Team: Researchers, interaction designers, visual designer, copywriter
Product: Product Managers and Product Owners
Data: Analysts supporting experimentation and insights
Engineering: Frontend and backend developers
This structure enabled rapid iteration through tightly integrated design, data, and product workflows.
This structure enabled rapid iteration through tightly integrated design, data, and product workflows.
03 - The Problem
Creating job application materials is a high-stakes, high-friction process.
Users often struggle to:
Structure resumes effectively
Write compelling, professional content
Meet ATS (Applicant Tracking System) requirements
Complete both resumes and cover letters
These challenges lead to drop-off, incomplete documents, and reduced conversion across the funnel.
04 - Key Insight
Users don’t just need tools—they need guidance, confidence, and momentum.
This shifted our focus from static builders to assistive, adaptive experiences that help users progress step by step toward completion.
05 - Defining the Core System
We approached the product as a conversion system, where each interaction either increased or decreased a user’s likelihood of completing their document.
Key areas of focus included:
Guided Creation
Template selection enhancements
Improved onboarding and flow structure
Focused on reducing friction and helping users get started quickly.
AI-Assisted Writing
AI-generated summaries
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation suggestions
Text enhancement features
Designed to increase confidence and reduce the effort required to produce professional content.
Mobile Optimization
Improved mobile experience for on-the-go users
Simplified flows to accommodate smaller screens
Ensured accessibility and continuity across devices.
Brand & System Evolution
NOW Brand rebrand implementation
Design system management and expansion
Variable integration and component consistency
Enabled scalable design across multiple products and teams.
06 - Exploration
Our approach relied heavily on continuous experimentation.
We tested:
Variations in template selection flows
Different levels of AI assistance
Content suggestions and placement
Interaction patterns that influenced completion rates
Each test informed the next iteration, creating a feedback loop between design decisions and measurable outcomes.
Big Swings
In addition to iterative testing, we explored larger, more conceptual ideas:
Resume Score A system to evaluate resume strength and guide improvements
Job-in-Mind (Hackathon Concept) Tailoring resume and cover letter content toward a specific job target
Section Redesigns Rethinking how users structure and prioritize content
These initiatives pushed beyond incremental gains toward step-change improvements in user outcomes.
07 - Tradeoffs
Small Tests vs. Big Bets
Balancing experimentation required navigating tradeoffs between:
Incremental A/B tests
Lower risk
Faster validation
Smaller impact
Larger conceptual changes
Higher risk
Slower validation
Potential for significant gains
This required aligning stakeholders on when to optimize and when to take strategic risks.
08 - Outcome
Through a combination of iterative experimentation and strategic feature development, we improved user progression and conversion across the funnel.
Notably, the introduction of AI-assisted features contributed to measurable increases in completion rates and user engagement.
09 - Whats Next
Future opportunities focused on deepening personalization and intelligence within the experience:
More adaptive AI guidance based on user behavior
Job-specific optimization workflows
End-to-end application support beyond resumes and cover letters
— LET'S TALK —
Github
Youtube
© MMXXVI · Ritzie Williams