Every person we surveyed named networking as their biggest job search challenge. I'm one of three on CareerCoachingPro's AI team building a coaching bot that lets clients practice it, trained on founder Carmelina Pietra's own methodology. Platform is decided; usability testing is next.

Role

AI Product Designer

Client

CareerCoachingPro

Team

Karina Morera, Jim Capone, Tariq Cilione, Founder Carmelina Pietra

Timeline

April 2026 – Present

Tools

Claude, Slack, Mural, MindStudio

CareerCoachingPro clients avoid networking even though it's the tactic that works. My team is building an AI coach that lets them practice it low-stakes, grounded in Carmelina's real frameworks. My part: the research behind it, the experience map, and the platform evaluation.

My goal: give CCP clients a low-stakes way to practice the exact thing they told us was hardest, in a voice that actually sounds like Carmelina's coaching, not generic advice, before this ever reaches a real client.

100% of survey respondents named networking their biggest challenge, ahead of resumes and interviews

Over 75% rated landing a first interview a 9 or 10 out of 10 in difficulty

Most respondents were experienced overall but new to their specific niche

83% would consider an AI tool alongside coaching; 100% said no to AI replacing a human coach

Teacher first, advisor second

The bot walks people through the reasoning, it doesn't just hand over conclusions.

Design against motivation collapse

Early, visible wins matter more than more advice, since burnout, not skill gaps, is the real barrier.

Honest over encouraging.

If something isn't working, the bot says so plainly instead of softening it.

Practice without real stakes.

A safe place to rehearse networking where failure doesn't cost anything real.

Persona-adaptive

Tone and approach shift based on who's talking, someone just laid off needs something different from someone advancing in place.

Carmelina reviews conversations and steps in where the bot shouldn't go alone.

Carmelina's voice, teacher-first, plainspoken, direct, doesn't show up in a feature table. Only in an actual conversation.

Platform decided. Usability testing and client interviews in progress. No launch yet.

We're keeping vendor relationships separate by product. Still working with Action Potential for the intake bot, but this one needed a different platform.

Our research found the real issue was motivation collapse, not a skill gap.

Doing real research before building anything paid off. It also made me realize there were more emotional components to this that were missed initially.

Recruit more participants, and more diverse ones, for the next round of research

Finish usability testing and the real client interviews already in progress.

Keep designing against public skepticism toward AI, not around it, since that skepticism showed up directly in the survey.

Explaining AI through an HCD lens, to my team and eventually to Carmelina, is harder than I expected. Still working on it.

Learning to pick the right research method for the actual problem instead of defaulting to the one I know best.

Users not knowing what they want isn't a failed research question, it's a real finding. Learning to design around that instead of wishing it away.