- Tag only macro: Tag Only::Virtual Talent Bench features (VTB)
- Help Center Article
- VTB Deck
The Virtual Talent Bench (VTB) puts talent and relationships at the center of the experience, bringing to life our brand promise that Upwork is each client’s virtual talent bench. This includes:
- Promote discovery of in-network talent
- Help new users understand how to translate their work needs when they aren’t ready for a job post - See more talent.
This feature enables the following:
- Clients don’t have to store their talent on spreadsheets off of Upwork
- Clients can add custom context via custom tags
- Helps users have a step before a job post
Key Milestones
Q2 Closed Beta
- March 29 Release Epic 1: Talent Browse to Closed Beta (30 users)
- May 20 Release Epic 2A: Lists to Closed Beta ( 30 users)
- June 16 Release Epic 2B: Tags to Closed Beta (30 users)
QT (Open Beta) - Package Epics 1-4 into a limited availability release
-
June 29 Release to 10% of clients, which means:
- 5% allocated to treatment (these features!)
- 5% allocated to control (non-VTB experience)
-
July 7 (Delayed from July 1 due to company-wide moratorium) Release to 100% of clients, which means:
-
-
- 50% allocated to treatment (these features!)
- 50% allocated to control (non-VTB experience)
- Based on the results of the above, we will determine if we default 100% of clients to treatment, meaning all clients will experience VTB
-
-
- Discover Page. The talent page is evolving to reflect the users’ context and be dynamic. It allows users to be able to easily see more talent as they try to translate their work need to Upwork. It includes:
-
- Recommended Talent. A list of recommended talent based on the user’s recent search, browse and job draft history.
- Recommended Projects. A list of recommended talent based on the user’s recent search, browse and job draft history.
- Recent Searches. A list of recent search queries with filters to help users jump right back into a search for more talent.
-
Auto-generated network lists
-
- BYO Talent List. Users can quickly access talent that their account sourced off of Upwork.
- Recent projects. Browse catalog and contracts others on the team are working on or have worked on in the past.
- Company Hires. Browse talent hired by others on your team(s)
-
- Recommended By. See if talent has been recommended by others on your account.
- Search your network. Refine and search for talent within your network (Anyone on your team(s) has worked with them, added them to a list or added tags to them.)
- Custom lists. Create a list relevant to what you are looking for: preparing to post a job, creating a pool of talent, reviewing talent with colleagues. You can add talent from talent Profiles, Proposal Manager, Search and Talent Home pages.
- In-line onboarding for lists. Users will get in-product notifications on Talent search that there are new save to list actions available.
- Talent Lists Deck
List Sharing
On May 10th, we released a new feature on production called VTB List Sharing. This feature is intended to allow clients to share their VTB lists to both Upwork and non-Upwork users. In the MVP version we only have sharing of talent lists without the notes or tags.
Upwork users who will open the shared list will now be able to save the list as their own, while non-Upwork users will be nudged towards creating an account on Upwork.
Front end changes:
-
Add a Share CTA for the VTB list from the VTB page
-
Share CTA opens a modal with option to
- Copy link to the list
- Share the list on LinkedIn (trigger the share functionality)
- Share the list on Facebook (trigger the share functionality)
- Share the list on Twitter (trigger the share functionality)
-
Share CTA opens a modal with option to
-
The shared list can be opened by either a Visitor or a User
- Visitors will be able to sign up on Upwork
-
Users will be able to Save the list as their own
Post (Experience after 5/10):
(Client - Originator of the list) Sharing a list
Visitor opening the list
Client with the link to the shared list opening the list
- Private Notes. Private notes were limited only to saved talent and could only be accessed/added from one location. Now you can save notes on any talent wherever you are seeing the talent: the talent profile, talent cards on search or talent card on proposal manager
- Talent Notes Deck
- Custom Tags. Add relevant tags to talent so you can identify key signals at a glance.
- These tags are private and available only for the user that added them for this release. Future work is planned to make them multi-user.
- These tags cannot be used to filter talent. Future work is planned.
- Soft Skill Tags. Tag talent with critical soft skills to ensure that you can compare beyond just category skills.
- These tags are private and available only for the user that added them for this release. Future work is planned to make them multi-user.
- These tags cannot be used to filter talent. Future work is planned.
- Talent Tags Deck
- Tag only macro to be used for all chats, tickets, and calls: Tag Only::Virtual Talent Bench features (VTB)
Will this be available for mobile?
Yes, this will be available for mobile, desktop. Mobile app to come in Q3.
Will this be available for all plans?
Yes, this will be available for all plans.
How can my client join this beta?
All accounts can access this functionality by clicking on their “Talent” menu item in the navigation.
Is there a Help article that describes the features?
To be created.
Is there a limit to talent custom tags?
Yes, there will be a limit for tags. We are trying to observe usage before placing this limit.
Is there a limit to custom lists?
Account can have up to 100 lists with each list containing a maximum of 50,000 talents.
Are my notes, tags and lists visible to others?
Right now, your lists, notes and tags are only visible to the person that creates them. We will be expanding this functionality for multiple users in the future.
What customer problem is this solving
Once prospective clients find an appealing freelancer they may not be ready to start a job post but they want to remember that freelancer. If prospective clients can save a freelancer then they are more likely to register because the next step is easier than creating a job post.
Target audience - Prospective clients
Target launch date - August 11, 2021
Current experience - **No save experience
New experience - Added save to VTB button on search results with a tooltip explaining functionality. Clicking will lead the visitor to sign up and upon successful sign up be redirected to the virtual talent bench page with the selected freelancer saved.
Test Cells
Control: [0 %]
Important to understand long term impacts but may run A/B test in the future.
Treatment : [100%]
Added save to VTB button on search results with a tooltip explaining functionality. Clicking will lead the visitor to sign up and upon successful sign up be redirected to the virtual talent bench page with the selected freelancer saved.
- What customer problem is this solving: The goal of VTB is to make relationship creation and organization seamless. Two key tenets of success are: (1) Priming clients early and often on saving talent as a path to hire, and (2) Making it easy to access saved talent and past hires. This feature makes it easier for clients to access their talent bench.
- Target audience: CL
- Target launch date: September 9, 2021
- Current experience (Screenshot 1): No changes: Jobs home has job posts, drafts, contracts on the left, right rail with Welcome Guide (for clients with 0 hires), cross-sell (everything as it is now)
- New experience (Screenshot 2): The My Talent tile appears on Jobs home. This tile shows relevant lists to the client user depending on their interaction with VTB.
- Est impact (#users):
-
- September 9, 2021: Roll-out begins to 20% of clients at 50-50 (i.e., 10% of clients in treatment)
- September 16, 2021: Roll-out increases to 100% of clients at 50-50 (i.e., 50% of clients in treatment)
- Week of September 27, 2021: Default to treatment (pending successful QT readout)
Test Cells
Control (50%): No changes: Jobs Home has job posts, drafts, contracts on the left, right rail with Welcome Guide (for clients with 0 hires), cross-sell (everything as it is now)
Treatment (50%):
The client sees their most recently updated list, their latest hires, and the list with all their saved talent. The client will be able to visit VTB pages directly from Jobs home. It should strengthen client-talent relationships.
- What customer problem is this solving: This enables clients to progress their relationships with talent towards contractual relationships directly from their Virtual Talent Bench (i.e., directly from their curated lists of talent lists) through a structured, product-guided interaction centered around the clients’ specific job needs. More specifically: Today, there’s no direct connection between clients’ VTB lists and the job post. This is problematic because VTB gives clients the opportunity to find talent before defining their project needs, but we’re not making the next step of hiring clear.
- Target audience: Client, excluding Enterprise clients
- Current experience: No changes: Clients retain current list capabilities, such as: searching within the list, changing the list name and adding a list description (where allowed), deleting the list, and removing talent from the list. There is no ability to initiate the job post flow or invite talent to a job from within a list.
- New experience: Clients are able to mass-invite talent from their list to an existing job post or a job post they create on-the-fly. This functionality is available on all lists that contain exclusively talent: Your hires, Company hires, BYO talent, Saved talent, and all custom talent lists (lists uniquely created by the client user). This functionality is not available on the Recently viewed or Saved projects lists as these lists can contain Catalog Projects.
-
Est impact (#users):
- October 28, 2021: Roll-out begins to 20% of clients at 50-50 (i.e., 10% of clients in treatment)
- November 4, 2021: Roll-out increases to 100% of clients at 50-50 (i.e., 50% of clients in treatment)
- Week of November 29, 2021: Default to treatment (pending successful QT readout)
Test Cells
Control (50%): No Changes
In control, clients retain current list capabilities, such as: searching within the list, changing the list name and adding a list description (where allowed), deleting the list, and removing talent from the list. There is no ability to initiate the job post flow or invite talent to a job from within a list.
Treatment (50%):
In treatment, clients are able to mass-invite talent from their list to an existing job post or a job post they create on-the-fly. This functionality is available on all lists that contain exclusively talent: Your hires, Company hires, BYO talent, Saved talent, and all custom talent lists (lists uniquely created by the client user). This functionality is not available on the Recently viewed or Saved projects lists as these lists can contain Catalog Projects.
The following screenshots show the key components of the workflow.
In the above screenshot, “Message All” functionality has been added to the talent list. Clicking this CTA enables the client to connect with the talent on their list around their job need.
The client has the ability to select all or a subset of the talent on their list before sharing their job requirements.
- What customer problem is this solving: This test addresses the customer pain point of difficulty finding their most meaningful talent (those they've worked with previously, talent they've saved).
- Target audience: Client
- Current experience: No changes: Clients can still access their saved talent and lists anywhere it appears today: from Jobs home, from the Talent tab, and from the post-save success notification.
- New experience: Clients are now able to access their saved talent and talent lists directly in the main navigation by clicking on the intuitive "heart" icon. Please note that the "heart" icon replaces the "invite a coworker" icon in the main navigation; the "invite a coworker" action is moved to the context/profile menu.
- Est impact (#users):
- November 18, 2021: QT launch to 20% at 50/50 allocation
- November 22, 2021: Continue roll-out to 100% at 50/50 allocation
- Week of January 3, 2022: Final QT read-out and go/no-go decision on forcing to treatment
Test Cells
Control (50%): No changes
Treatment (50%):
Desktop: The heart icon appears in the main navigation where the “Invite a Coworker” action was previously located. The “Invite a Coworker” action is now accessible in the profile settings menu. Clicking on the heart icon redirects the client to the “Saved talent” page.
Mobile: “Saved Talent” (heart icon) appears between “Notifications” and “Invite a Coworker”. Clicking “Saved Talent” (heart icon) redirects the client to the “All your saves” page.
- What customer problem is this solving - This epic closes the gap between clients’ Virtual Talent Benches and the job post, enabling clients to progress their relationships with talent towards a contract by making it easier for clients to see and invite talent from their Virtual Talent Benches to their jobs directly from the Proposal Manager.
Why focus on enhancing the capabilities of the Proposal Manager? 18% of saves are coming from the Proposal Manager, indicating that this high-hiring-intent space is where clients want to start building relationships. Today, we enable clients to build their Virtual Talent Benches from the Proposal Manager (saving talent that appears in the Proposal Manager to custom lists), but we don't facilitate hiring from lists in the Proposal Manager.
- Target audience: Client
- Target launch date: April 8, 2022
- Current experience: No changes
- New experience: Clients can now navigate between their VTB lists in the Proposal Manager on the "Saved Talent" tab of the "Invite Freelancers" step of the Proposal Manager to invite saved Talent to their job. A tooltip is shown explaining this functionality.
- Est impact (#users):
- April 8, 2022: Launch QT to 20% of clients at 50-50 (10% of clients allocated to Treatment)
- TBD: Increase allocation to 100% of clients at 50-50 (50% of clients allocated to Treatment)
- TBD: QT analysis and go/no-go decisions on forcing QT to Treatment
Control 50%
No changes:
- Clients can access all of their saved talent on the "Saved" tab of the "Invited Freelancers" step of the Proposal Manager (these saves are shown as one catch-all list without associated VTB list context).
- Clients can invite talent from this catch-all list to their job.
The below screenshot shows the Control experience where clients are able to access a catch-all list of all of their saves on the "Saved" tab of the "Invite Freelancers" step of the Proposal Manager. These saved talents are shown without context on what VTB list(s) they're saved to. For example, as a client, I can access all 49 of my saves and invite those I choose to this job. However, I cannot see that Nikan S. is part of my "Developers - E-Commerce" list. I also cannot navigate to my "Developers - E-Commerce" or other list, either.
Treatment 50%
- "Saved" tab on the "Invited Freelancers" step of the Proposal Manager is renamed to "Saved Talent" for additional clarity.
- Clients can navigate between their custom VTB lists on the "Saved Talent" tab of the Proposal Manager.
- Clients can invite talent from their custom VTB lists to their job.
- Clients are provided with a tooltip that explains how to navigate lists in the Proposal Manager.
