Carrera

Improving job discovery for Army National Guard soldiers and reservists

Overview

Army National Guard soldiers relied on an outdated internal system, Tour of Duty, to discover and apply for active-duty assignments. Poor usability and limited search made it difficult for qualified soldiers to find relevant opportunities, reducing participation and slowing staffing for critical roles.

As a Product Designer and Consultant at VMware Tanzu Labs, I led the design of Carrera, a modern job board web application developed in partnership with the U.S. Army Software Factory.

By making intentional tradeoffs between flexibility, security, and clarity, we improved discovery, engagement, and application rates across the platform.


Primary outcomes:

  • 30,000+ total users to date, averaging 426 weekly users

  • 93 applicants per week and 54 applicants per job on average

  • Established a reusable model for modernizing Army digital services

Business & Mission Context

The Army’s legacy system, Tour of Duty (seen above), was the primary way soldiers discovered temporary active-duty positions. However, it suffered from:

  • Outdated interface and interaction patterns

  • Limited filtering and search

  • Low accessibility and infrequent updates


This created three critical risks:

93 applicants per week and 54 applicants per job on average

  • Missed staffing opportunities for mission-critical roles

  • Low trust in Army digital systems

  • Wasted time navigating complex, unclear workflows


The business and mission goal was not simply to redesign a UI, but to increase successful job matches between soldiers and available roles — without compromising military security or compliance requirements.

Strategic Tradeoffs

Several key tradeoffs shaped the solution:

Tradeoff 1: Flexibility vs. Clarity

Soldiers had diverse roles, ranks, and specialties, which suggested highly customizable filters. However, research showed users were overwhelmed by too many controls.

Decision:

We prioritized guided filtering (rank, specialty, location) over unlimited filter combinations.

Outcome:

Search became faster and more understandable, increasing discovery and application rates.


Tradeoff 2: Civilian job board patterns vs. military constraints

Modern platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed offered useful inspiration, but could not be copied directly due to security and policy requirements.

Decision:

We adapted familiar interaction patterns (search, save, alerts) while stripping out features that conflicted with military workflows.

Outcome:

The platform felt modern without breaking trust or compliance.


What we intentionally did NOT build

To support these tradeoffs, we deprioritized:

  • Highly personalized dashboards

  • Social or networking features

  • Complex profile customization

The outcome was a focused system optimized for discovery and action, not long-term profile management.

Research and Risk Mitigation

Research was used to reduce decision risk, not to chase perfection.

This included:

  • Interviews with Army National Guard soldiers

  • Journey mapping of the application lifecycle

  • Comparative analysis of civilian job platforms

  • Facilitating Design Studios with PM and Engineers

  • Policy and security constraints from Army stakeholders


Key insight:

Soldiers struggled less with finding jobs and more with understanding which jobs were relevant to them.

This reframed the problem from:

“build a job board” → “reduce cognitive load in job relevance decisions.”

The outcome of this reframing was a focus on filtering, saving, and alerts as core system capabilities.

Design Strategy

We focused on three high-impact moments:

  • Job discovery

  • Job comparison

  • Application initiation


Key decisions included:

  • Task-based navigation over organizational structure

  • Prominent “Save” and “Apply” actions

  • Clear hierarchy for rank, specialty, and location


Each interaction was evaluated by its outcome:

Could soldiers quickly tell whether a role was right for them?

Leadership and Collaboration

I worked across:

  • Army Software Factory leadership

  • Product and engineering teams

  • VMware Tanzu Labs consultants

  • End users (soldiers)


My role included:

  • Leading design direction and prioritization

  • Aligning stakeholders across civilian and military teams

  • Translating research insights into product strategy

  • Mentoring multiple Army designers while contributing to wireframes and UI components


Outcome:

Design became a strategic input into product decisions, not just a delivery function.

Ownership of Outcomes

My responsibility extended beyond design handoff and I:

  • Helped define success metrics

  • Partnered with product on rollout strategy

  • Reviewed usage and application data post-launch

  • Iterated on search and save flows based on observed behavior

The project was evaluated based on outcomes (applications and engagement), not just feature completion.

Reflection

This project reinforced that meaningful digital transformation in government systems requires intentional tradeoffs.

Key lessons:

  • Familiar patterns increase trust, even in regulated environments

  • Clarity often outperforms configurability

  • Design influence grows when tied to mission outcomes


If I were to repeat this project, I would:

  • Instrument discovery success earlier

  • Test filtering tradeoffs more aggressively

  • Push for tighter integration with downstream systems


Carrera demonstrated that user-centered design can directly improve operational readiness — not just usability.