Petco
Recruiting Quality Vets for Vetco
Vetco is a team of animal healthcare professionals located across the nation who are dedicated to wellness and non-emergency care for dogs and cats. As part of the Petco corporation family of brands, they serve pets in more than 1,200 Petco and Unleashed locations across the US.
A large part of Vetco’s business is dependent on contracting 1,000's of veterinarians for its clinics across the country. With hopes of increasing their number of contractor applications, they hired us to find and understand the needs, wants, and actions of their current and prospective vets. We used that data to build Vetco a tail-waggin' website that marketed the benefits of working with Vetco to prospective veterinarians.
Oh, and I should also mention I won ATLARGE a Silver Davey Award with this project.
My Role
I did this project while working for ATLARGE. My role in this project was:
- Product Design
- Strategy
- Wireframes
- Design
- HTML / CSS Updates
Beginning the Project
Setting Goals - Identifying Ideas
At the beginning of the week, my team and I had a kick-off meeting with the client to discuss the project. We laid out the goals for the project and we worked together to throw up all of our initial ideas for the website. We wanted to select which ideas to explore, which ideas would require more research, and which ideas to table for now or get rid of entirely.
Strategy & UX
Classifying & Understanding Who We Should Be Targeting
In order for us to develop a successful recruitment site, we needed to understand what type of veterinarians we should be targeting and what their motivations might be. We began this project by working with a Vetco hiring director who had a diverse understanding of the industry. We were also backed with data on their current vets. Together, we list out all of the different types of veterinarians that could be a current or prospective Vetco contractor. We discussed both Vetco's current veterinarian database and prospective veterinarian types who are not currently working with them.
From there, we separated out veterinarian types that were most common and made the best fit to be a Vetco contractor.
Asking What Drives These Veterinarians
Once we chose 8 veterinarian types to focus on, we interviewed current Vetco veterinarians who matched each description and asked them what drove them to work for Vetco. We wanted to understand:
- Why did they decide to work for Vetco?
- What do they like about it?
- What do they dislike about it?
- What are their passions and goals for being a veterinarian?
- How does working with Vetco drive their passions and goals?
These interviews allowed us to identify key marketing points we should use as selling points to inspire veterinarians to get on board with Vetco.
The Low-Detail Wireframing Session
Once we completed the user research and content strategy, Vetco's Director of Marketing, my team, and I met for an in-person whiteboarding session. I lead the wireframing session and together, we worked out how the pages of the recruitment site could be structured.
Fleshing Out the Homepage
We drew out multiple content pieces for the homepage. We worked as a team to determine what were the important pieces to call out and what is the best way to display it.
We used sticky notes to call put things we thought were important (in yellow) and things we thought were not (in pick).
Some of the final decisions we made after this discussion was to:
- Put the map as the first thing people see to emphasize that Vetco is hiring vets all across the country
- Approach potential veterinarians with their relatable personas instead of their reasons why
- Educate veterinarians on why they should work with Vetco
Deciding on The Layout for the Job Position Search
An important piece of the recruitment site would be the job search page. With this page, we really wanted to allow users to view opportunities in their areas by either searching by state or zip code or by clicking an interactive map of the U.S.
We also wanted to give Vetco a place to post a featured position to promote applications for an area in need and encourage vets to think outside of their location.
A change we made in the final wireframes was putting the featured position below the sort and search function. We determined searching was a user's main goal for this page.
Displaying the Personas
When determining the best way to display the different personas, we wanted to factor in the possibility of some persona descriptions being longer than the other. We also understood that only one or two personas would relate to each veterinarian. What followed was the idea to show all 8 personas in 1 view and use a page-jump feature to take a user down to more information.
The Finished Product
Completed Veterinarian Personas
The findings we pulled from this research allowed us to develop personas that became the driving content piece for the recruitment site. We wrote personalized job descriptions to match each type of veterinarian to make the content more relatable across every lifestyle and career stage.
Designing the Finalized Solution
After our low-detail wireframing session, I decided on the final pieces what would compete the finalized high-detail wireframes. Once wireframes were approved, I did the full design for the website.
The Benefits of the Benefits
Our user research and interviews shined the light on what benefits of working for Vetco were most important to veterinarians.
Options to Choose From
We created one separate page for each type clinic model a veterinarian could choose to work for.
Advanced Job Filtering
Once a veterinarian was sold on the benefits of working for Vetco, we build a product that allowed a veterinarian to search by state or zip code to find Vetco opportunities near them.
Responsively-Built Across Devices
In addition to the strategy, wireframes, and design, I also assisted the development team with HTML and CSS updates. I tested the website across multiple devices and browsers to ensure the site was bug-free across technology.
Copyright © 2021 Brittany Altmann | Website by me, of course.