Designing a referral-reward feature for Peerlist: A Case Study

Prathamesh Sujgure
Bootcamp
Published in
11 min readJun 17, 2024

This project is a part of the 10kdesigners capstone project assigned by Peerlist, with the aim of building a referral reward feature for Peerlist members who can refer a friend for a job post on the platform.

Cover banner image displaying title “Hire my Peer”, subtitle “Designing a referral-reward feature for Peerlist” and some sneak shots of UI components designed
Cover Banner

How might we extend the reach and effectiveness of job referrals as a feature within an online professional networking platform, to connect companies with a larger pool of qualified candidates while also rewarding users for their valuable connections?”

This case study is divided mainly into four sections:

🌱 Setting up the context.

Defining the problem, Persona categorization, Research.

🎯 Strategizing, Finding solution and Implementation.

🎬 Short tl;dr videos sprinkled across, if you are in a hurry…

Before we get into the details, let’s imagine a situation like this:

You’re scrolling through a professional networking platform, connecting with professionals and checking out jobs. Suddenly, you spot a perfect job for a friend in your network. Excitedly, you simply share the job post with your friend, who then goes through the usual application process.

Now, here’s the twist. With so many candidates applying for each job, you wonder how will your friend’s application stand out. Is it actually worth sharing the post and making a referral?

Also, think about the time, effort and resources companies invest for hiring just one qualified candidate. What if there was a simpler way to refer your friend based on your credibility, help companies hire a qualified candidate in less resources and earn something for yourself too?

GIF of Erlich Bachman from “Silicon Valley” throwing money
cha ching 💸

🌱 Context and Background

About Peerlist

  • Peerlist is a professional networking platform for people in tech where users can showcase their proof of work and get hired by the best companies. Users who form connections on Peerlist are called “Peers”.
  • They aim to become the most credible professional network available on the internet by providing a meaningful and valuable platform for it’s users.

Identification of the Problem

  • As an active and prominent platform, Peerlist’s team noticed that traditional job referral scenario has a very limited reach, only 5% to 10% employees of the company actually go out and find and hunt down possible candidates for the company. Nobody does this proactively.
  • All the companies when hiring also appoint consultants and agencies who are paid some percent CTC of the hired candidate as a finder’s fee.
  • They understand finding a job could be hard, but it could be made easier with a system based upon strong sense of community and support among Peers. Job referrals could be more rewarding if done through an online medium.

What can be done?

  • To address these challenges, Peerlist wants to improve traditional job referral systems by making the process easier, more effective, and more rewarding for candidates, referrers and employers alike.
  • Their idea is to create a system using which any Peer can refer a job to their friend and earn rewards from the employer creating a win-win situation for all the parties.

“We have observed that current job referral scenario has a very limited reach. Only current existing employees can refer a person for a job post in a particular company. Also, companies spend lots of time and resources when hiring. Sometimes (companies) also appoint consultants and agencies.

As a professional networking platform we want to build a feature where our users can refer jobs to their friends and get that referral bonus.”

- Akash Bhadange, Cofounder and CEO at Peerlist

🎬 tl;dr

📌 Defining the Problem

Based on the context and background, here is a clear problem statement to set the perspective:

“Design a feature within Peerlist that allows credible users to refer their qualified friends for job posts and earn rewards from the employer, aiming to extend the reach and effectiveness of job referrals.”

GIF of Hermione Granger from movie series “Harry Potter”, saying the magic spell Wingardium Leviosa
Wingardium Leviosa

☔ Considerations and Constraints

I believe, it’s important to understand constraints before solving a problem, as it helps to create practical solutions that work well for everyone involved.

  • Any user can refer a job to their Peers, regardless of their current or former workplace.
  • Focus only on implementing the feature for the referrer’s side workflow.
  • Verify the qualifications of users making the referral.
  • Assess how this feature will contribute to the platform’s growth and user retention.
  • Identify potential monetization opportunities for Peerlist through the referral-reward system.
  • Explore the roles or companies most interested in using this feature and develop strategies to encourage their adoption.
  • Implement measures to prevent abuse or spamming of the feature by members.
  • Enhance transparency by establishing clear guidelines and processes within the system.
  • Explore how to incentivize user participation and engagement beyond the referral bonus.

🙇🏻‍♂️ Target Personas

I have categorized three main personas involved in the process based on their distinct roles and interactions within the feature:

1. Peerlist user (Referrer)

2. Referred Peer (Candidate)

3. Hiring company (Employer)

🤔 Research

Before getting into designing a job referral system, I decided to peel back each layer of the onion and understand how present traditional referral systems work.
My aim was to gain accurate and concise insights into existing practices and their benefits.

How does referral-reward system work in traditional job markets?

  • It is an incentive given to existing employees or former employees for referring a candidate who gets hired. Generally these rewards are given in the form of cash, company shares, maybe some tech products or other perks.
  • Basically the incentive depends upon the necessity and importance of job role and varies for different companies.

Why do companies prefer referral-reward format?

  • Efficient filtering: It helps narrow down the long list of candidates, saving company’s time and resources.
  • Cost effective hiring: The chances of hiring good talent increases while utilizing minimum resources due to the reward system.
  • No middleman: Eliminates the need for hiring agencies, reducing costs.
Chart displaying percentage for different mediums used by companies for hiring talent
Different mediums companies use for hiring [source]

What is the general range of reward bonuses offered?

  • Reward always varies upon the candidate and job role.
  • In India, it generally ranges from 5% to 10% of the annual compensation of the candidate or from ₹10,000 to ₹2,00,000.
Table showcasing average referral bonus awarded for recruiting different types of positions
Average referral bonus awarded for recruiting different types of positions [source]

What are some benefits of employee referral programs?

  1. Reduced time and cost per hire.
  2. Improved quality of hire.
  3. Reduced turnover rates.
  4. Improved offer acceptance rate.

What are the general costs of such referral programs?

  • Development costs: Basically the time and effort needed to structure a referral program.
  • Marketing costs: The expenses involved in promoting these programs, which are minimal but time consuming.
  • Employee referral bonuses.

🎬 tl;dr

🎯 Strategy and Finding solution

GIF of all main characters from “Silicon Valley” strategizing to solve a problem
The fun part begins!

Coming up with a strategy to solve this problem was an interesting iterative process. Here are some key points I considered:

  • Referred candidate must have a Peerlist profile with all details filled in.
  • Once the referrer refers a peer (candidate) for a particular job, a notification will be sent to the candidate for confirmation.
  • Implementing a scoring system for filtering out referrers who can refer for a particular position.
  • Credits will be awarded to the referrer just for referring a candidate. Credits can be used for unlocking vouchers.
  • Employer decides what and how much reward will be given for the job posted (cash, percentage or products).
  • Verified referrers will have additional advantages upon non-verified referrers.

To develop a clear solution, I applied the “What, Why, How” framework to understand each key point in depth:

🌳 The Solution

Introducing 🥁 Hire my Peer — a Referral-Reward based Hiring System, added as a concept feature to Peerlist. With this feature, users can:

  • Easily refer qualified peers for job opportunities on Peerlist.
  • Employers can acquire talent with minimum resources.
  • Celebrate success as your peer lands job, strengthening their network connections.
  • Earn rewards for each qualified referred candidate, including credits and cash benefits.

🎬 tl;dr

Let’s explore how “Hire my Peer” works in detail!

Implementation

I decided to keep the theme simple and similar to that of the existing application, reusing existing component styles across the Peerlist app.

Referrer’s User Journey

1. Dedicated Referrals Tab

quick GIF to understand the user flow from the referrer’s POV.
A quick GIF to understand the user flow from the referrer’s POV. (detailed breakdown below)

Let’s checkout the components designed and understand the functionality of each UI element:

  • Clicking the ‘Jobs’ button in the left sidebar opens the ‘All Jobs’ page, which contains various tab sections, with default tab:
UI Components Breakdown for ‘All Jobs’ page
UI Components Breakdown for ‘All Jobs’ page
  • Clicking the ‘Refer’ tab button displays only jobs open for referrals, along with other related UI elements:
UI Components Breakdown for ‘Jobs Open For Referrals’ page
UI Components Breakdown for ‘Jobs Open For Referrals’ page

2. Referral Process

A quick GIF to understand the userflow from the referrer’s POV.
A quick GIF to understand the userflow from the referrer’s POV. (detailed breakdown below)

Let’s checkout the components designed and understand the functionality of each UI element:

  • Clicking on a job post opens the job information page:
All job roles divided based upon their category in Peerlist
UI Components Breakdown for ‘Job Details’ page
  • If the referrer’s credibility score is below the required threshold, they won’t be eligible to refer their peer for that specific job and that job won’t be marked as ‘open for referral’ for the user.
  • By not informing the user of their ineligibility, helps preventing potential fraud and scams in the system.

3. Candidate Invitation:

  • If the candidate doesn’t have a Peerlist profile, referrer can share an invite.
  • The candidate then needs to create and complete a Peerlist profile and add the referrer as a Peer.
  • The referrer can then officially refer the candidate from their Peers list.

4. Credibility Score:

  • The referrer’s credibility score will decide if they can refer for a specific position. A complete Peerlist profile with all job details is essential for calculating the credibility score.
  • If the score is too low, the referrer won’t see the referral option for that job. The credibility score is crucial for preventing fraud and manipulation.
  • The score varies based on the job post requirements set by the employer, considering years of experience and job title.
All job roles divided based upon their category in Peerlist
All job roles divided based upon their category in Peerlist
  • Job roles are divided into 7 categories: Management, Product, Operations, Engineering, Design, Marketing, Sales, and Others.
  • Scores are allocated based on the referrer’s job category and role relative to the job posted, and their years of experience.
  • Eligibility is determined by comparing the referrer’s score with the required score set by the employer.

5. Reward System:

A quick GIF to understand the userflow from the referrer’s POV.
A quick GIF to understand the userflow from the referrer’s POV. (detailed breakdown below)

Let’s checkout the components designed and understand the functionality of each UI element:

  • Clicking on the ‘Gift Box’ Icon on the right side of the navbar opens the ‘Peerlist Rewards’ page:
A quick GIF to understand the userflow from the referrer’s POV.
UI Components Breakdown for ‘Peerlist Rewards’ page
  • Referrers earn credits just for making a referral. Credits and rewards are different: credits are tokens awarded by Peerlist to encourage users to use this feature and to thank them for helping build a supportive network on the platform.
  • Credits can be used to redeem gift vouchers.
  • There’s a limit on the number of credits awarded, which resets after a specific period (e.g., a month).
  • The referrer gets rewards given by company once the candidate is hired (an online escrow system can be used).
  • The referrer will also receive important notifications about the candidate’s hiring process.

Candidate’s User Journey:

  • If the candidate does not have a Peerlist profile, they need to create one and complete all necessary details to increase their chances of matching with job opportunities.
  • After being referred, the candidate will receive a notification for confirmation. They will see a list of terms and conditions, along with the reward offered to the referrer for transparency. The candidate must agree to the terms and confirm the referral before their application is sent to the employer.
  • The notification system could be implemented in this manner:
Visual Overview for ‘Notifications’ page from Candidate’s POV
Visual Overview for ‘Notifications’ page from Candidate’s POV

Employer’s User Journey

  • Employer will have an option to open the job for referrals. If selected, they will need to choose the level of the referrer that is appropriate for the job role.
  • Peerlist will recommend the appropriate referrer level based on the job role, but employer can change it if needed.
  • Employer can also set the reward amount, with Peerlist providing recommendations based on current market trends.
  • Changes in the ‘Posted Job’ dashboard on Employer’s side could be implemented in this manner:
Visual Overview for ‘Job Posted’ dashboard from Employer’s POV
Visual Overview for ‘Job Posted’ dashboard from Employer’s POV
  • In the applied jobs dashboard, referred candidates will be indicated by a tag on the candidate details card.

🔭 Future considerations

  • Increased Visibility: Utilize a scroll feed card to highlight jobs open for referrals with associated rewards, directing users to the referral jobs page through a clear call-to-action.
  • Proof of Work Integration: Allow candidates and referrers to post about successful referrals, serving as proof of work for the system and reinforcing the value of referrals.
  • Continuous Promotion: Ensure consistent display of referral opportunities in the all jobs section to boost engagement and ongoing participation.
  • Employer Engagement: Provide insights to employers on job posting performance, including metrics on referrals. Conduct surveys to promote the benefits of the referral-reward system to encourage employer involvement.

💡 My Learnings

In my first industry project (design), I’ve learned a lot through the process of learning, creating, and evolving. Let me share some key insights with you:

  1. Stay connected with the team from the project’s start and continuously gather feedback to make informed decisions and also to validate your assumptions.
  2. Be open to adjusting plans based on new information. You can always design better.
  3. Document the reasons behind every decision made, which help in understanding and communicating with others.

And last but not least… just keep grinding!

GIF of Dory from “Finding Nemo”, singing Just keep Swimming
🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️

॥ अंतः अस्ति प्रारंभः ॥

Every end marks a new beginning. With the conclusion of this case study, I’m very excited to see what the next chapter of my learning journey holds.

Special thanks to: Akash, Abhinav, my friends: Asmeeta, Atharva, Shreyas, Gaurav, Devang (for checking and giving feedback on this doc), Team Peerlist, and folks at 10kdesigners.

Review on the case study from experts in the industry Abhinav Chhikara and Akash Bhadange
Reviews from industry pros! 😎

If you’re interested in viewing the Product Requirement Document I submitted for this assignment, click here.

I greatly enjoyed creating this case study and hope you enjoyed reading it as well. For any feedback, suggestions, or just to have a chat, please reach out to me on Twitter, Peerlist, or LinkedIn.

Also, I’m open to opportunities as a product designer. Want to know more about me? Check my portfolio site and do reach out if you wish to work with me or collaborate. (prathameshsujgure33@gmail.com) 😼

धन्यवाद 🙏 Thank you!

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Prathamesh Sujgure
Prathamesh Sujgure

Written by Prathamesh Sujgure

Hi! I am a product designer and former web dev, driven by a passion for continuous learning, creation, and evolution. I like F1, chill chess and cats 😼.

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