UX Match

An enterprise software utilizing professional services to help startups with little UX knowledge find the best candidate for their company.

I participated in Dubstech’s 10th annual Protothon, where, in just over a day, my team and I designed an applicant tracking and hiring platform optimized for startups recruiting UX designers.

My Role

UX Research, UX/UI Design

Team

4 Designers

Tools

Figma, Photoshop

Timeline

30 hours

Introduction

The prompt and constraints

For the protothon, our team chose to take on the Enterprise Track. Our task was to design and prototype an entirely new applicant tracking and hiring platform that makes it easier to manage and evaluate top talent from a sea of job applications, reducing time-to-hire and improving the candidate experience. We decided to further challenge ourselves by using startups as our target audience. We were allotted just over a day to complete this task. Below is an overview of our process for this design sprint.

The Problem

Existing platforms fall short

The current recruiting software market features numerous platforms to aid companies in their search for new hires. However, these options aren’t tailored for hiring UX Designers, lacking support for essential aspects such as portfolio evaluation and diverse interview stages like take-home challenges, app critiques, and more. Startups often lack the knowledge to effectively identify and assess proficient UX talent, so without these capabilities, they can’t be sure who to hire.

“The average cost of a bad hiring decision is at least 30% of the individual’s first-year expected earnings” - Northwestern HR

Project goals

Defining success

  1. Facilitate hiring designers for startups who don’t know how

  2. Reduce the time and effort it takes

  3. Improve the experience for the design candidates

Research & Analysis

Talking to stakeholders

In order to fully understand the problem, we needed to empathize with those at stake. Even with such short time constraints, we were able to conduct interviews and collect some qualitative data to drive our design. The following are some of the key pain points we found:

Startups

  • Limited UX Knowledge: Lack of expertise to effectively evaluate skills and suitability

  • Time & Energy: Limited resources and tight schedules make it difficult to give the necessary attention

  • Lack of Reach: Startups have the need for talent yet often encounter limitations in their ability to reach a wide range of candidates.

UX Designers

  • Lack of Transparency: Unclear job descriptions, vague requirements, and limited information about the company

  • Inadequate Design Evaluation: Participating in generic or irrelevant interviews that don't effectively assess UX skills

  • Poor Communication: Hiring platforms hinder communication and leave applicants in the dark

Evaluating existing solutions

Prior to designing our own applicant tracking and hiring software, it was crucial to first analyze solutions that were already on the market. This enabled us to recognize strengths, weaknesses, and unmet needs which informed our eventual creation of a platform more specialized for startups hiring UX designers.

LinkedIn Recruiter uses recommended matching but is not tailored for UX designers

Uxcel incorporates a promising assessment for evaluating UX-specific skills and reporting results

Greenhouse has a convenient hiring process curator but lacks key stages for designers

Design

Streamlining the user journey

We kickstarted our design by constructing a user flow, charting the essential touchpoints and stages for startups engaging with our hiring platform. This flow was carefully guided by insights gained from our user research phase. Our focus was to ensure that each step was purposeful and seamlessly aligned with the demands of startups in search of UX designer talent.

Optimizing consistency and efficiency

In our limited timeframe, we aimed to ensure our product maintained a cohesive look while optimizing our time and resources. To achieve this, we prioritized creating key design system components. These standardized elements not only contributed to a more effective design sprint but also enhanced visual consistency. Examples of these are pictured below:

Side Navbar

Pills

Buttons

Block Elements

Final Design

Empowering startups through expert UX hiring

In just over a day we created UX Match, an applicant tracking and hiring platform tailored specifically for startups in search of UX designers. What sets UX Match apart is its inclusion of seasoned designers who actively engage in interviews and skill assessments, providing startups with limited UX knowledge the assurance of a well-matched talent pool. With UX Match, startups can streamline their hiring and confidently connect with skilled designers, propelling their growth and innovation.

“Every dollar invested in UX yields an ROI of 9,900%” - Forbes

1. Job Posting

Craft a precise job posting that aligns with your own criteria to attract the ideal design candidate.

2. Interview Process

Intuitively curate your interview process by simply arranging various ways to evaluate UX designers.

3. Expert Evaluation

Veteran designers are used to conduct technical assessments, sparing the startups with limited UX expertise the time & effort.

4. Talent Alignment

Startups receive top matches, who they can then message directly and schedule interviews with.

5. Hire!

Hire the perfect candidate while providing notices of rejection with feedback to the other applicants.

Reflection

What I’d do with more time and resources

It was rewarding to see how much progress we were able to make in just a single day. The condensed timeline emphasized the essence of efficiency and collaboration, showcasing how much can be achieved with focus and determination. Given additional time, this is what I would've done:

More advanced prototyping - This would involve creating interactive and high-fidelity prototypes that simulate real-world interactions, providing a clearer representation of the user journey and facilitating more informed design decisions.

Implement user testing - With extended time, I would conduct comprehensive user testing, gathering insights to refine the platform's user experience and continue to iterate. This would help fine-tune the platform in its entirety.

Algorithmic matching - Additionally, I would invest time in developing advanced algorithms for precise candidate matching. These algorithms would consider skills, experience, cultural fit, and collaboration potential, fostering even more accurate and rewarding matches.