Catch the Opportunities Others Miss
Thread Scout
Role
UX/UI, Research
Timeline
Aug - Sep 2025
Tools
Figma, Excel, Google Forms
Context
Platforms like Teal aim to make career navigation more personal, clear, and empowering. While Teal offers a powerful all-in-one tool to surface roles that align with your goals, some promising opportunities still slip through the cracks.
Job hunting in 2025 is a rollercoaster, and not always the fun kind.
Teal’s Chrome extension does not currently capture posts about open roles
Problem
Job seekers often miss opportunities because many roles are shared and discussed in spaces such as Reddit communities, LinkedIn, Twitter threads, and niche forums.
These postings often appear as informal peer discussions or casual announcements, which makes them hard to track or assess.
Solution
Enable job seekers to access a fuller range of career opportunities by surfacing and contextualizing unconventional job leads, bridging the gap between scattered sources and meaningful fit.
Introducing Thread Scout!
All your threads in one organized feed
Thread Scout is now integrated into Teal
Explore a personalized feed of job-related threads
Open and read full threads directly within the platform
From a quick social sign‑in to a simple pasted link, capture opportunities the way you want
Connect your social accounts to see threads directly in your feed
Add a link to the thread you want to scout
Scout threads as you browse
Summarizes threads in real time to surface key job insights
Highlights application timelines, interview details, and user sentiment
Helps users discover and track informal job leads across multiple platforms
Research
Competitor Analysis
I analyzed four widely used job search platforms, including both direct and adjacent competitors. These tools help users find jobs, build resumes, and receive recommendations based on profile data. However, they rely heavily on traditional listings and lack features to surface informal leads or help users track their search across multiple sources.
Understanding the user
To begin to solve this problem I conducted interviews and surveys to understand the experiences of current job seekers and recent new hires.
From this, I concluded...
Which led me to ask the following question, how might we improve Teal to help job seekers uncover and organize informal leads, so they can track and pursue roles that align with their goals?
Landing a job often depends on a blend of informal discovery, thoughtful preparation, and a strategy tailored to the individual.
Networking matters: Many discovered roles through friends or family, reinforcing the importance of informal channels.
The use multiple platforms: LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, Notion, and Reddit were commonly mentioned for finding roles and managing the search.
Volume vs. precision: Some applied to hundreds of jobs while others landed one quickly, revealing varied strategies in the job hunt.
Three themes emerged from our initial research findings
I sketched four wireframes to explore how Thread Scout could integrate into Teal. I marked the strongest elements with stars and combined them to create a final design.
Brainstorming
Iterating on ideas
During this stage of the design process, I conducted eight unmoderated usability tests on the low-fidelity prototype. I followed up with participant surveys and used the feedback to refine design choices that were later implemented in the final version.
Iteration
From Sketches to Figma
✖️ “What kind of information will the summary have?”
✖️ “The summary looks short?”
✖️ “Do I have to add thread for every job opportunity i see?”
✔️ “It is a lot clearer now with the added context and icons”
✔️ “The summary is easier to read this way”
✖️ “Sentiment analysis for the threads would be useful”
✖️ “How do i scout a thread?”
✖️ “Does it save the thread link?”
✖️ “Is this also part of thread scout?”
✔️ “It’s similar to the website version”
✖️ “Will the summary be the same as the website?”
Initially, I focused on integrating Thread Scout into Teal’s website, but research revealed that users rely most on the Chrome extension. I updated the extension to include Thread Scout and aligned it with the website version for consistency.
Usability testing showed that users found “Highlights” and “Key Insights” repetitive. They preferred reading authentic thoughts and reactions directly from the threads.
Final Design
Finalized through usability testing and design tweaks
When users bookmark a thread, it’s added to Teal’s tracker with their other saved roles for easy access.
Teal users can edit saved threads in the tracker based on new information gathered from the Scout summary.
Next Steps
In the next chapter of this project
Reflection
When in doubt, test it out
Through usability testing of both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes, I gained three valuable lessons from participants and learned to let feedback guide the design process.
Human Experiences
I learned that people care more about personal stories and emotions than just facts. Seeing how others feel helps them connect.
Navigation cues
Users may not always know what to do next, and it's important not to assume they will. Clear text and visual cues are essential for guiding them through each step.
Usability Study
I saw how a well-planned research study (right questions, context, and note-taking) leads to better results and clearer insights