Upwork Picks.

What is the update

and our observations

Starting May 23rd, Upwork is testing an algorithm that badges successful projects as Upwork Picks in Project Catalog. The test will last 2 weeks.

How Upwork Picks work:

After clients select a category page in Project Catalog, they’re shown ’Top projects you may like’. Previously, these badged projects were randomly selected.

Now projects will be badged based on the following criteria:

  1. Clarity of deliverables
  2. Competitive pricing
  3. Freelancer responsiveness
  4. Project relevance to category
  5. Talent rating
  6. Amount of purchases for project

Our observations of Upwork Picks

  • Most Top Picks are also featured in the ‘Projects with great reviews’ section. Where this section exists at least.

  • Most Top Picks have at least 200+ reviews, but we also saw Tops Picks with only 2 reviews.

  • Not all Tops Picks have 5 stars, but we didn’t see any with less than 4.6.

  • The delivery time of the tops Picks can vary from 1 day to a month (within the same category).

  • The price also varies a lot within the same category. We saw two Top Pick projects next to each other where one had $15 price and 816 reviews, and the other one $1700 price and only 41 reviews.

  • Project details of some Top Picks only had 1 sentence in the description. But they do all have clear ‘What’s included’ section.

  • The freelancers’ rating does seem to matter, since a lot of Top Picks were by Top Rated and Top Rated Plus. However, some freelancers didn’t have these badges and their projects still managed to get into the section.

So, the main take away is that there is no single tip on what you should improve in order for your project to be featured in Top Picks. It seems to be the combination of the things, so you would need to work on improving all the above criteria.

Here is an article on everything a freelancer needs to know about Upwork feedback, that could be a good start.

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