Better, Faster, Fairer Hiring

Talented jobseekers with strong credentials are being overlooked in the job search, sometimes applying to 1000+ jobs over 12 months before getting their first offer. Some face eviction or deportation in the process.

Pearl gets jobseekers hired sooner by providing a fractional AI team to 1. diagnose root causes, 2. provide a personalized treatment plan, and 3. execute against it. To date, we went from 0 to 1,700+ users serviced, gotten users hired, gotten a user their first interview within 48 hours of working with us, and secured partnerships with 4 universities.

As the Head of Product Design and Founder, my core responsibilities include:

• User testing (generative and usability)
• Ideation, concepting, rapid prototyping (low-to-high fidelity)
• End-to-end user journey mapping
• Hiring, managing, and mentoring a team of designers and researchers
• Collaborating with engineering and product to shape the roadmap
• Creating and tracking success metrics
• Creating and overseeing support & marketing assets

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Background

Pearl started as a tool to help jobseekers build better portfolios. Over time, we learned that jobseekers—especially those with non-traditional backgrounds—needed more than a better website. They needed structure, strategy, and support. In 2025, we repositioned Pearl as an AI-powered “career team” built to help overlooked jobseekers become undeniable.

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Our Users

The Problem

Qualified, motivated jobseekers were doing all the “right” things, e.g. fixing resumes, applying everywhere, trying to network, but still getting nowhere—any they didn't know why. They weren’t failing because they lacked talent; they were failing because they lacked inside knowledge, feedback, and consistent support.

I applied to over 800 jobs between March and November. The job search is a perpetual cycle of shame and guilt and you lose your confidence. — Jennifer L. (below)

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Our Approach

We build on the shoulders of giants. While every company is different, the approaches that most inform our own are:

• Let My People Go Surfing (impact-focused business principles)
• Running Lean (a mental framework for seeing your whole company)
• Product-Led Growth (groundwork for building a product-led company)
• Cold Start Problem (getting networks off the ground)
• Zero-to-One (the philosophy behind succeeding when starting from 0)

Deliverables

Our core deliverables fall into three buckets, all in service of driving user outcomes (i.e. job search success) and business success (i.e. sustainably creating and capturing value for our users):

1. Product offerings
2. Service offerings
3. Enablement (which support 1. and 2.)

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Our core product offering allowed jobseekers to build portfolios to showcase skills that resumes don't adequately capture. The portfolio builder allowed non-technical, users build their first portfolio in two sittings, complete with:

• Visually clean, responsive layout
• Website native navigation
• Custom colors and personal branding
• Tracking and analytics
• Case study coach (generative AI)
• Example portfolios from industry peers

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Our core service offering allowed us to learn, (in)validate parts of our business, add value for our users, and make quick adjustments before writing any code or designing wireframes.

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Enablement included anything to support the product or service offerings. A tangible example is the design going into our events, which included a demo, physical banner, swag, merch, and more.

Design Process (A Typical Sprint)

Our product development process end-to-end averages 2-6 weeks, and often follows this pattern:

1. Identify an opportunity (with product and engineering)
2. Ideate and prioritize, (with product and engineering)
3. Low-fidelity sketching and concept testing (with research)
4. Increasing the fidelity, taking in inspiration, and using/ extending our design system (with engineering)
5. Deploying to a test branch and A/B testing (with research, engineering and product)
6. Synthesize findings and make a decision (product team)

An example is redesigning our portfolio pages.

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Results & The Response

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• Launched the first version of the platform in 2 weeks.
• Grew it from 0 to 1,700 accounts.
• Secured 6 university partnerships and 3 event partnerships.

My portfolio pushed me over the edge to have them want to hire me. [It] set me apart from other candidates. — Jennifer L. (Executive Assistant)

Pearl provided a platform for our attendees to continue to view [jobs] and make updates in real time. We were also able to give our partners attendee numbers as the convention was still going. — Ayiesha S. (Dream Con)

The app connected us with amazing applicants before we got to the conference! Really liked the setup and display of the platform. I also, liked how easy it was to enter positions. — Michela W. (USDA)