Changing the way high school students choose and plan their careers

Two state government departments engaged The Customer Experience Company (CEC) to help drive enrolments towards vocational education providers.

It was identified that prospective students had little access to quality information about vocational training, as well as negative preconceptions about vocational career outcomes.

CEC established customer research as the foundation of every phase of the solution development; from early concept sketches, all the way to recommending a launch and adoption plan for the minimal viable product (MVP).

Once the MVP was developed, CEC conducted usability and resonance testing with the live MVP amongst a broad range of prospective students, career advisers and parents.

CEC’s testing validated the product’s value proposition, identified ways to optimise the design to increase adoption, and provided insight into how to successfully launch and scale the product.

To do this, CEC conducted research with high school students and uncovered a plethora of behavioural and attitudinal problems in the student mindset to address; such as fear of the future, low-motivation and procrastination.

Based off these insights, CEC developed customer archetypes, design principles and established a cadence of concept ideation and testing. At multiple stages in the project, CEC tested mid-to-high fidelity prototypes to rapidly validate which features were the most valuable to both customers and the business. CEC also provided user stories and detailed design specs to assist the development of
the MVP.

CEC collaborated with their client to conceptualise and build a digital product aimed at engaging and empowering prospective students across the state to make informed decisions about their careers.

The client was enabled to deliver a high quality MVP that unquestionably addresses real customer needs in eight months. CEC’s customer centric approach, coupled with our focus on tangible and actionable recommendations enabled our clients to reach a point where they are ready to launch.