Sidezy

Project overview

Sidezy is a mobile platform that connects local businesses with students and migrants for short-term, shift-based work. The product focuses on fast hiring, low-friction onboarding, and clear coordination on the day of work.

I worked on Sidezy as a product designer, responsible for discovery, UX architecture, user flows, UI design, and MVP scope definition. The project started from a real market problem and was developed with a strong MVP mindset, prioritizing speed, clarity, and real-world usability over feature completeness.

The problem

Short-term hiring in Poland is messy and inefficient.

Most employers rely on Facebook groups, Telegram chats, or personal contacts to find people for single shifts or short gigs. Workers scroll through chaotic feeds, send private messages, and often never get a response. Employers waste time repeating the same information, dealing with no-shows, and manually confirming who is actually coming.

There is no clear system of:

• trust

• availability

• confirmation

• accountability on the day of work

• 
  

Existing job platforms are built for long-term employment and are too slow and heavy for urgent, local shifts. The result is stress on both sides and a lot of manual coordination that should not exist.

Goals and constraints

Business goals

• Launch quickly in a single city (Kraków)

• Validate real demand before scaling

• Keep legal responsibility on the employer side

• Build a clear path to monetization

User goals

• Workers want quick access to nearby jobs, clear pay, and certainty

• Employers want speed, reliability, and control over who shows up

Constraints

• Small team

• MVP scope

• Mobile-first usage

• No legal automation or employment handling inside the platform

These constraints strongly influenced product decisions and tradeoffs.

Users and roles

Sidezy serves two very different user groups with different motivations and expectations.

Workers

Students and migrants looking for quick, short-term income. Their priorities are:

• clear pay

• location and timing

• fast application

• confidence that the job is real

Employers

Restaurants, clubs, hotels, and event organizers. Their priorities are:

• reliability

• fast hiring

• clarity around attendance

• minimal admin work

A core challenge was designing one product that serves both roles without confusing either of them.

Key product decisions

Role-first onboarding

From the first interaction, users choose whether they are looking for a job or hiring. This decision defines the entire experience and prevents mental model conflicts later. Trying to serve both roles in a single generic flow would have caused constant confusion.

Status-driven job lifecycle

Each job moves through clear states such as open, applied, accepted, checked-in, and completed. This reduces ambiguity and prevents the common “are you still coming?” problem that dominates short-term hiring.

QR code check-in

To reduce no-shows and confirm real attendance, workers check in on location using a QR code provided by the employer. This creates a simple confirmation moment without introducing complex verification systems.

Platform as coordinator, not employer

Sidezy does not handle contracts or legal employment. The platform focuses on listing, matching, and coordination, while legal responsibility stays with employers. This decision significantly reduced complexity and allowed the MVP to launch faster.

Information architecture and core flows

The product was structured around three essential flows.

Worker flow

Workers browse available jobs, filter by location and timing, view clear job details, and apply in a few taps. Salary and location are always visible, as these are the primary decision factors.

Employer flow

Employers create job listings with minimal required information, using sensible defaults to reduce friction. Posting a job is designed to be repeatable and fast, especially for businesses that hire regularly.

Day-of-work flow

On the day of the shift, job status updates automatically. Workers check in via QR code, and employers can immediately see who has arrived. This flow replaces manual messaging and last-minute chaos.

UX principles

Several principles guided design decisions throughout the project:

• Reduce decision time

• Make status always visible

• Prefer defaults over configuration

• Design for use under time pressure

• Optimize for mobile, real-world conditions

These principles helped keep the product focused and consistent.

Monetization and business thinking

Sidezy uses a simple model:

• Free for workers

• Subscription-based for employers

Employers pay for access to job postings and management tools, with plans designed around business size and hiring frequency. This aligns incentives and keeps the worker side accessible.

Tradeoffs and limitations

To ship the MVP, several features were intentionally excluded:

• Advanced matching algorithms

• In-app contracts or payments

These were conscious tradeoffs to prioritize speed, clarity, and validation over complexity.

Outcomes

The project resulted in a functional MVP designed for launch in Kraków. Early feedback confirmed that the biggest value came from clarity, speed, and reduced coordination effort rather than advanced features.

Learnings

This project reinforced several key lessons:

• Designing for two-sided platforms requires strict role separation

• Clear status systems can replace a lot of human communication

• Speed and focus matter more than feature completeness in early stages

• Legal and business constraints are part of UX, not separate from it