Bringing authentic content to candidates to aid their decision-making

Final design

The problem

WTTJ’s core business revolves around employer branding, with a strong emphasis on video content. As part of the acquisition, they were eager to bring this capability into the Otta product. However, their solution didn’t easily translate to Otta’s experience. Otta is built around a one-job-at-a-time model that supports fast, focused decision-making. Adding heavy video-driven employer content upfront risked disrupting that core experience.

Our challenge was to create space for employer branding in a way that respected the expectations of Otta’s candidates, without turning the product into something it wasn’t.

Goals and constraints

We had 2 key goals, balancing product experience and commercial strategy:

• Enable employer branding content in a way that companies would value and pay for

• Help candidates make quicker, faster and easier decisions about jobs

Constraints:

• Short delivery window (Q1 2024) to get to a pilot version

• Preserve Otta’s one-job-at-a-time experience

• Preserve what makes Otta special for candidates

Research insights

To understand what kind of employer branding content candidates actually wanted, and where it should show up, we ran extensive research:

• Moderated interviews (24 participants): We explored what information helps candidates decide to skip, save, or apply to a job. This included testing reactions to videos, team content, and different formats of role descriptions.

• Unmoderated tests (15 sessions, 1,800+ participants): We assessed the noticeability and perceived authenticity of different video types (e.g. portrait vs. landscape), tested content placement throughout the candidate journey, and validated expectations around company information on the job card vs. company profile.

• Quick A/B tests: Simultaneous to our research, we ran quick tests on the Otta site to validate assumptions. For example, we removed company information from the job card to see what impact it would have.

A/B testing confirmed these insights:

• Moving company info from the job card to a separate company profile increased company profile visits by ~10pp

• There was no drop in save/apply rates

Key findings:

• Candidates valued org charts, working location breakdowns, and hiring manager insight

• Portrait video was more noticeable and felt more authentic than landscape, but many still preferred text

• Most candidates expected rich company content to live in a dedicated profile, not on the job card

Strategy and ideation

We ran ideation sessions with the full product team around the prompt: “How might we integrate EB content in a way that excites candidates and delivers value to companies?”

We prioritised four themes:

• Enhanced company profiles – a new home for richer content

• Meet the team – org charts, team videos, working patterns

• Convert saves to applies – add helpful nudges at key moments

• Richer job emails – contextual EB content in daily/weekly digests

Design principles

• Candidate-first: Every new element must help the candidate make better decisions

• Information in context: Add rich content at the right moment

• Keep it lightweight: Avoid unnecessary friction or bloat

• Authenticity over polish: Real people and real insight beat corporate gloss

Design-Research iteration

We developed and refined several new content components:

• Meet the Team: Org chart, working locations, hiring manager insight, and diversity snapshot. Candidates valued understanding the team structure and leadership voice.

• Updated job card: Moved company info to the company profile to free up space. No drop in key metrics and improved focus for candidates.

• Enhanced batch end card: After seeing 10 jobs per batch, we showed candidates an improved batch end card highlighting their saved jobs, which helped them decide whether to pause and apply.

• Video enhancements: Added titles to improve clarity and tested video vs. text for different types of content.

We continuously tested concepts with users and shared weekly product design updates with internal stakeholders, including WTTJ's CEO and CTO. These were tested through moderated research and we shared video findings with the team and stakeholders, to ensure alignment. Here are some of the things candidates told us about the 'Meet the team' content which gave us confidence about its usefulness:

“Knowing sort of what the hierarchy is as well as who would be below you. That's super interesting to me.” - Feedback on the org chart

“It was nice to see information about the hiring manager. It "humanises" the unknown figure that may talk to you soon.” - Feedback on the video of the hiring manager

"These are the really cool interesting nuggets and things I can't discover myself… this feels like insider information…" - Feedback on the overall content

Managing scope

While we had developed ambitious concepts, we were conscious of the effort they would require from companies, especially around regularly updating content. Our Customer Success team flagged this as a potential barrier to adoption.

We therefore worked to simplify where possible, preserving the intent of our designs while reducing the operational burden for companies. Some examples:

• Org chart – We explored integrating with a company's HRIS to keep the org chart updated in real-time.

• Diversity breakdowns – We considered pulling this data from LinkedIn, which companies already use and trust. We also allowed companies to override this if needed.

• Team mission – Our original idea involved sharing the team’s current quarterly mission, but we removed the time-bound element to reduce the need for regular updates.

• Video – We integrated with Vimeo and embedded videos on-site, giving companies flexibility while avoiding the complexity of building a custom player.

This approach allowed us to maintain the richness of our employer branding experience while ensuring it was manageable for clients to implement.

The solution

The final V1 experience included:

• A redesigned ‘Meet the Team’ section on the job card with hiring manager text, org charts, and diversity breakdowns

• A richer company profile housing videos, photos, and structured team content

• A new batch end card experience to nudge candidates from saves to applies

• A redesigned homepage highlighting saved companies with EB content, nudging candidates to apply

Impact

Short-term (pilot phase):

• 6 out of 10 target companies signed up for the paid pilot programme on annual, five-figure contracts.

• Enabled the sales team with a clear, demo-ready experience, allowing immediate monetisation.

• Received positive qualitative feedback from candidates and early client demos.

• Drove internal alignment across Otta and WTTJ leadership for a unified go-to-market approach.

Long-term (general release):

• 24% of Pro/Advanced companies went on to purchase Employer Branding as an add-on.

• Achieved an average deal size of £4.7k, incremental to existing contract value.

• Established Employer Branding as a revenue-generating product, helping expand monetisation pathways.