Success Story: BULLIT’s Personality Resume
BULLIT is a modern, professional social network focused on what makes you great at your job: your unique combination of personality and skills. We recently partnered with Laura Boyd (BULLIT’s Co-Founder) to feature BULLIT as a public Betabound Exclusive within our community. Over 2,000 Betabounders joined this beta test, and submitted tons of great feedback! So, we thought an interview with Laura would be a great way to learn more about BULLIT, and the Betabounders behind this Bay Area-based startup.
Q: What inspired you to build BULLIT?
A: Our team was really surprised to learn that about 46% of new hires fail within their first 18 months. Even more surprising was that when new hires failed, 89% of the time it was for a poor cultural fit. The team at BULLIT wanted to uncover the reasoning behind why this was happening. Our investigation led us to create a product that would allow people to share their personality information, which moved past the traditional, one-page resume format.
BULLIT’s goal is to take your resume, expand it, and show the personality behind your professional experiences. By 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be occupied by millennials. Our product, and team’s overall goals and values, aligns with these shifting demographics to help our users better show who they are in a digital environment.
Q: How would you describe your product?
A: BULLIT is a resume for your personality. It’s a way for you to show everything that makes you special and unique at your job — beyond just your work experience. We achieve that by asking users to share their references about themselves 24/7. We all have positive feedback waiting for us, and BULLIT is an easy place for users to showcase those recommendations.
Q: How would you describe your ideal BULLIT user?
A: Someone who thinks outside of the box. They’re good at what they do, but are also looking for new ways to showcase their unique personality and professional possibilities.
Q: How does beta testing help you market to this user?
A: Because BULLIT is trying to get close to people as they really are, it’s really important to us that our product is both intuitive and useful. The feedback beta testers give us based on their impressions of our product helps us reach our objective of helping users feel like they’re being seen by potential employers as they really are.
Q: What were some of the goals you were hoping to achieve by hosting your beta test within Betabound?
A: We wanted to make BULLIT a digital reflection of the modern professional. With Betabound, our goals evolved during our test. Initially, we just wanted feedback to make our product better. As the test progressed, the creative suggestions we collected from testers helped us get a broader picture of a long term product timeline. We not only achieved our initial goal of receiving feedback, but we also accomplished an even bigger, more unexpected, goal of observing our product pipeline.
Q: What most surprised you during your beta test?
A: I was pleasantly surprised by how active Betabounders are! It was amazing how many testers left multiple suggestions, bug reports, and discussion posts, and how often they engaged with other testers’ feedback. I was blown away by how positive and thoughtful the feedback was.
Q: What’s on the horizon for BULLIT?
A: During the test, adding a resume was so repeatedly requested by testers that the addition of that feature to our product has been moved up in our internal timeline. Right now, we’re working on an update so users can add their resumes to the platform. Our continued goals are for users to keep regularly using the platform and for them to recommend it to their friends. We just really want to make BULLIT as useful, and as close to our company’s ideals as possible. Our belief is that people matter — who they are and what makes them different. Our goal is to keep improving our product with new features so that users feel seen.
Q: How can Betabounders best follow your product as it moves forward?
A: Betabounders can best follow along by downloading our iOS app or using our product online. Our Blog also has great workplace tips, and we’re on Facebook and Twitter too!
Q: Do you have any closing thoughts you’d like to share with our testers?
A: Be bold! I wish more testers would be confident in suggesting long term strategies or out-of-the-box ideas for the companies they test with. The worst thing a company could say in response would be, “Hey thanks! But that idea just isn’t right for us right now.” Betabounders shouldn’t be afraid to be bold.
We loved partnering with BULLIT to host their beta test on Betabound, and hope you enjoyed exploring their personality resume platform. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to create your BULLIT account and share your thoughts with the BULLIT team regarding your likes, dislikes, and bold ideas about their product. If you have any questions or feedback about this product developer spotlight, please feel free to comment below or email us at hello@betabound.com.