Coping with incompleteness

"The service is an interesting new development. However, the jobseeker profile at least is currently very difficult to fill in."

"I find the service clumsy to use. I can’t find the right titles for my work duties and competences in order to add them to my job search profile. In my opinion, it should also be possible to write freely into the fields so that filling out the form would go more smoothly."

It is indeed still a work in progress. It’s very much incomplete, and sometimes it functions in very clumsy and unexpected ways. The correct vocational titles are still being sought out, and it is very difficult to describe one’s competences correctly in one’s jobseeker profile. Despite its incomplete nature, we launched a trial version of Job Market Finland in September 2019. And it’s good that we did.

Why are we launching an incomplete service?

With the release of the trial version, we received feedback asking what on earth we were thinking when we decided to put out a service that is so incomplete and clumsy. In this blog post, I will explain just what we were thinking.

The importance of experimentation and customer understanding has always been a major component in the development of Job Market Finland. By experimenting together with our customers and real end users in areas both small and sometimes large as well, we can build a service for working life that truly meets customer needs.

The trial version published in September serves as a foundation for the construction of the Job Market Finland service, but at the same time gives us developers the opportunity to experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

Quick fixes possible in trial version

The release of the incomplete trial version has enabled us to quickly correct the issues and functionalities that, based on customer feedback and user tests, as found to not be working as well as they should.

The trial version makes it easier to find the right direction for the development work, especially with regard to the details. As a concrete example, the front page of the service shows speech bubbles that many users tried clicking in order to go forward. Once we realised this, we turned the bubbles into buttons, and now you can move directly to the life situations of different target groups by clicking on the speech bubbles.

Tell us – we want your voice to be heard in the development work

The launching of an incomplete and even inadequate version definitely required courage and curiosity from us developers, as well as an ability to accept all criticism and feedback in a genuine manner and then to act swiftly based on it. It required confidence that we can communicate credibly about the purpose of the trial to users who have high expectations and only get a rough and ready version to try out in their hands.

We experiment together, with all the resulting successes and failures. What do you think works well in Job Market Finland, and what are you satisfied with at the moment? What, on the other hand, works poorly and would definitely require some repair and adjustment? What has surprised you are even confused you? Tell us – we want your voice to be heard in the development work.

Henriikka Kokkola
Development Specialist, KEHA Centre / Job Market Finland

Quotes are from feedback received on Job Market Finland