During my tenure as a content strategist at Coursera, I was fortunate to apprentice as a Product Researcher under two esteemed colleagues. I contributed rigorous research to align business goals, product experience, and user needs.

This included end-to-end mixed methods research for Pathways, interviews with superusers for Coach (AI-powered guidance), and concept evaluations for Course Builder (AI-powered platform for learning and development professionals).

How might we support learners in their career switch journey?

💼 The study’s objective was to gain a deeper understanding of Coursera’s career switchers through qualitative and quantitative research on their pursuit of multiple job roles while switching careers, and feedback on early prototypes.

I co-led a research study of our learners to understand their pain points, behaviors, and beliefs when pursuing different jobs—and what tools could help them target (and land) their dream careers.

💡 88% of career switchers were interested in multiple job roles but overwhelmed by the search, so they turned to Coursera to “try on” different paths

💡 Career switchers plan to take courses to increase their eligibility for multiple jobs

💡 They hedged their bets with Plan B, pursuing multiple jobs is to eliminate risk in a competitive job market

Deliverables I owned:

🎯 Wrote screener survey, interview guide, and research plan

🎯 Conducted user interviews that got to the heart of how and why learners plan to accomplish their career goals, as well as flowing through our platform prototype

🎯 Analyzed data using Figma and Miro to deliver insights and recommendations

Recommendations:

💼 Deliver customized job matching for Switchers to potential roles

🔎 De-mystify “how to break into tech” industry with resources

📙 Provide Switchers with guidance and confidence throughout their journey

What I learned:

I learned the importance of writing a rigorous, intentional screening survey for two reasons: To generate strong leads for interviews and to use survey results as quantitative data. This research study was successful because it was rich with both qual and quant data. The team found that 89% of career switchers planned to take courses to increase their eligibility for multiple job roles while planning to apply for jobs in different roles—because they wanted to reduce the risk of switching careers with backup plans.