Introduction
In early 2020, I served as the Lead Designer at Tribepad, a UK-based HR software company, working within the New Innovations team. My primary responsibility was to design and develop a new user experience for hiring managers, aimed at streamlining and optimising the candidate progression process.
Act 1
The Inconvenient Experience
Getting Through Core Hiring Tasks Should Be Fast
For hiring managers using Tribepad's classic ATS system, it was anything but. While HR and recruitment teams navigated the full platform with ease, hiring managers—who lead hiring decisions and manage applicant workflows—only needed a handful of critical functions. Yet they faced the same cluttered interface built for power users, turning simple tasks into time-consuming obstacles.
The challenge was clear: how might we streamline the hiring manager experience without overhauling the entire ATS? Stakeholders tasked me with creating focused design patterns that cut through complexity, helping this crucial persona complete their most important tasks quickly and confidently. My mission was to transform their experience from frustrating to effortless.
Act 2
The Discovery
Understanding the Current Experience
I began by walking through the hiring manager's journey in Tribepad's classic ATS, cataloging every obstacle. The problems stacked up quickly: users spent excessive time writing feedback and navigating approval steps between each interaction. The platform offered extensive functionality, but hiring managers rarely touched most pages. Most critically, 16% of users operated completely disconnected from their email, calendar, and notifications—working blind to updates that should have been automatic.
Learning from Other Platforms
Next, I studied how competing recruitment systems tackled similar challenges. Many used Kanban boards and filterable tables to manage applicant data—solid approaches that pointed toward clearer information architecture. Three pages consistently proved essential across platforms: job descriptions, hiring flow, and calendar view. The insight was becoming clear: hiring managers didn't need everything—they needed the right things, working together seamlessly.
Act 3
The Process
In this phase, we closely examined how hiring managers move through the hiring process and where friction commonly occurs. We identified three core responsibilities that shape their experience: defining and specifying job details, managing their schedules and making key hiring decisions. While these tasks are essential, the existing process often forced managers into rigid, linear workflows that slowed progress and created unnecessary barriers for advancing candidates. Our design approach focused on enabling flexibility—allowing hiring managers to seamlessly switch between planning a role and reviewing applicants—so momentum was never lost. By reducing friction points and supporting natural task-switching, the process better aligned with how hiring managers actually work, resulting in a more efficient and confident decision-making experience.
Act 4
The Result
The final outcome addressed key challenges uncovered during the design process, particularly the lack of clear applicant stage labeling, which had previously made it difficult for hiring managers to track candidate progress. Through interviews with hiring managers and How Might We exercises, these pain points were reframed into actionable insights that guided the solution. This research highlighted three critical opportunities: automating applicant communication, improving visibility and notifications around job openings, and refining UX interactions to better support everyday hiring decisions.
In response, the solution introduced simplified stage labels and a Kanban-style workflow, with columns representing each step of the hiring process to create a clear, visual overview. Recognizing that hiring managers wanted flexibility to manage applications in ways specific to their roles, customizable workflows were incorporated. Integrated candidate previews—such as CVs and social profiles—allowed hiring managers to assess role status and candidate details at a glance. Together, these improvements reduced friction, streamlined the hiring process, and delivered a more intuitive and usable recruitment experience.