Candix
Reverse job board where recruiters approach job seekers.
A couple of months ago, I was trying to validate my product idea, specifically to ensure that the problem I was tackling was as real as I thought. I was also attempting to collect wishes and frustrations in the form of words in order to refine my marketing speech.
I didn't have an online presence to leverage, so my options were pretty limited. The best bet was trying to gain engagement on an upvote-powered social site like Reddit. Indie Hackers is also a solid choice, but that's only if indie hackers are your target audience. We're likely not, though—we stingy freaks.
Here's what I did:
- I identified a subreddit where people were discussing the problem. I read a few posts to immerse myself in the tone. I also carefully read the guidelines to make sure I wouldn't make a faux pas.
- I created a cool meme (I could have used plain text, but I love memes) accompanied by an open-ended question.
- I interacted with commenters through upvotes and replies, though I'm not sure it was even necessary.
- I compiled all the responses into a document, categorizing them as either motivations or frustrations.
I used that document to prioritize features for my product, Candix, and some of the locutions collected were so relevant that they're used as is on the homepage.
Here's the post: If you had one wish to solve hiring, what would you wish for? It could be a product idea, the change of a practice, or anything.
When conducting research for my product, I conducted interviews with over 30 professionals in my field. I secured all these interviews by cold messaging people on LinkedIn.
Initially, I would send a connection invite accompanied by a short, friendly note. Once the connection was accepted, I would follow up with two more messages (after one day and three days). As time progressed, acceptance rate increased due to having more mutual connections with potential interviewees.
Initially, I performed all these tasks manually. Later, I automated the process using an automation tool.
Stats:
- Sent out 841 invites.
- Got 212 accepts, that's a 25.20% acceptance rate.
- 29 replied to the 1st message.
- 14 replied to the 2nd message.
- Ended up conducting 36 interviews.
Full message sequence:
You're probably thinking of AI, flying cars, or cell cloning. Well, you'd be wrong.
One of the most painful things one has to experience in life isn't the lack of light-speed vehicles or AI essay generators, but job seeking. First, because the process itself is extensively time-consuming and frustrating (offer hunting, application crafting, waiting, and more waiting), but also because it usually takes place at a moment of financial and psychological distress. Billions of people are concerned, on average, three times during their lives.
I'm building Candix as an alternative to this painful process. It's a reverse job board where recruiters approach job seekers with opportunities matching their preferences. It puts the sourcing efforts in the recruiters' hands and lets workers listen to opportunities on the job market throughout their careers, instead of just when they've quit or been fired. Why would recruiters spend time chasing talents, you may ask? Don't ask me, ask the 600,000 talent acquisition professionals already doing it. A hint: all-time high talent scarcity.
How did I come up with this idea? Well, it wasn't automatic. I've been involved with recruitment-related products for a while now, so I'm familiar with both the frustration job seekers experience and the recruiters' need for a product like Candix. I've also conducted six months of intense research.
My point is, trendy topics tend to make us forget about everyday problems that are looking to be fixed. We all have some expertise of some sort, whether we realize it or not, and our time is better spent researching and crafting solutions for problems around us than for problems we feel are more bankable.
1 Comment
super smart strategy! I might try it out 🙂