Career development tool

Transforming career development journey by unifying Career Choice tuition benefit program for external schools and 17+ fragmented Amazon educational programs into a comprehensive experience for 1M+ Amazon employees

Customers + Impact
Upskilling marketplace serving 1M+ hourly employees

Role:
Leadership interfacing, User research, Concepts and Visual design, Interaction design, Prototyping

Timeframe
3 months

Preview

Career development tool provides unified experience, browsing by programs or area of interest, program comparison, career exploration and school catalog.

🕵🏻‍♀️ Understanding the problem

Customers:
Hourly employees who want to advance their careers feel lost – from how to search for and evaluate their options, to how to apply and be selected. This lost and ignored feeling can ignite employee relations risks and leave hourly employees with the impression that there’s no future for them at Amazon, resulting in resignations.

  • Employees had to navigate 17+ upskilling programs scattered across 12 different websites/tools with no centralized location to explore opportunities

  • Limited awareness of available programs beyond the most visible options

  • 82% were interested in building careers at Amazon but lacked clear pathways

  • 36% of voluntary exits citing lack of career advancement opportunities

    60% of departing associates didn't talk to anyone and didn't explore other internal opportunities before leaving the company

Business:
Career Choice leadership repeatedly raised concerns about preserving the Career Choice brand for existing customers. As a tuition benefit program that pays for external schools and colleges, Career Choice had strong brand recognition among Amazon's hourly workforce. Leadership feared that placing it in one unified experience alongside 17 Amazon-run upskilling programs would dilute Career Choice's distinct value proposition and confuse employees about the fundamental difference between a tuition benefit and direct training programs.

Solution: I advocated for a unified experience and conducted a thought workshop to develop a cohesive solution addressing brand preservation while providing one destination for all options. I conducted user testing with an intentional mix of existing Career Choice customers and those unfamiliar with the program to gauge discoverability and differentiation. The resulting design maintained Career Choice's distinct identity within the broader ecosystem. All 5 Career Choice participants demonstrated full comprehension of the program and its unique value.

Vision

Empower Amazon's 1M+ hourly associates to take control of their career growth through a unified, mobile-first upskilling marketplace that transforms fragmented training resources into a personalized, accessible pathway to advancement—reducing voluntary exits and supporting Amazon's commitment to Amazon's Upskilling 2025 pledge.

Before

Case study upload in progress:
Cumbersome discovery

Learners had a hard time finding available programs across many disjointed links and websites.
Some were not aware what development opportunities exists.

Career Choice tuition benefit was well known and employees assumed it covers all career development options.

WIP
WIP

WIP

WIP

🕵🏻‍♀️ User research and feedback

We pilot tested the new experience with 1k customers. 98.33% of associates expressed interest in career development programs, validating the critical need for enhanced marketplace.

Usability Testing

Conducted with hourly associates across three fulfillment centers, testing revealed:

1. Feature Performance:

  • Compare Tool: Unanimously praised (10/10 participants), though 4/10 initially missed it, indicating need for better visual prominence

  • Program Cards: All 10 participants relied on description cards as primary information source

  • Mobile Experience: 8/10 users preferred mobile access for convenience and on-the-go exploration

2. Navigation Insights:

  • All participants successfully navigated to career development areas through A to Z

  • Some confusion with intermediate steps and link labels required terminology adjustments

  • Users wanted clear information about when closed application cycles would reopen

3. School Selection Factors:

  • Distance and format (online vs. in-person) were most important

  • Participants requested city/neighborhood information on school cards

  • Clearer format labeling needed (Online & In-Person, In-Person Only)

Biggest takeaway

To make personalized and AI assisted learning truly impactful, we must build learning that adapts, not intrudes. Give users tools to shape their path, see their progress, and connect learning to outcomes, while making the experience feel lightweight, contextual, and safe.

Participation Interest

98.33% of associates expressed interest in career development programs, validating the critical need for enhanced marketplace.

AI assistant teaching mode

Users saw clear value in the AI teaching mode. The biggest wins were:

  • Bite-sized, easy to accomplish learning

  • Quizzes with real-time feedback were viewed as the most valuable part of the experience not just for validation, but for actual learning.

  • Visible progress felt focused and motivating, especially when compared to longer static courses.

Suggested learning works, when recommendations are transparent

Users preferred proactive course recommendations, but trust hinges on transparency: users want to know why something is recommended and how it benefits them. Opt-in models and light customization were favored over full automation.

Users want personalization, but on their terms

Participants favored customization (choosing duration, depth, style of AI learning session) over aggressive AI-driven personalization and are cautious about deeper personalization using sensitive data (like their performance or manager feedback).