Async is a product that was originally dreamed up by UX Cabin founder and project client Seth Coelen. He has a hands-on approach to hiring and envisioned an asynchronous interviewing app to make interviewing more efficient and effective. But the product changed and evolved as the sprint progressed.
Role: UX Design Lead
Timeframe: December 2022 – February 2023
Project: Async Phase 1 was an 8 week sprint performed by a cross-functional Tech Fleet team in an agile environment.
Deliverables include: Competitive heuristic evaluations • style guide and design system • research analysis workshops • user flows • lean design sprint • usability/concept tests • mid-high fidelity mock ups and prototypes
Hiring new employees is a time consuming and tedious process. It can also be mentally tolling on everyone involved. This is especially true if you’re hiring as part of a small to mid-sized agency that may not have dedicated recruiters on staff.
Hiring new employees is a time consuming and tedious process. It can also be mentally tolling on everyone involved. This is especially true if you’re hiring as part of a small to mid-sized agency that may not have dedicated recruiters on staff.
Although still somewhat in discovery phase, the team determined that the solution may not be in asynchronous video as the client first thought, but in empowering candidates first. This includes the ability to record and practice answers to UX interview questions and getting feedback from the site’s community. Later on employers can come to the site to find great candidates that have proven themselves on the site.
The nature of the site was still up in the air in the beginning, so we wanted to study all sorts of job related sites including:
Asynchronous interview sites • Interview practice sites • Job posting sites • Elevated resume sites
1. Making the value proposition for candidates clear throughout the experience is important.
2. A simple flow is powerful. Flexibility is important as well.
3. A clutter free UI is best to keep users focused.
4. Quality opportunities for Junior Designers and the companies looking to hire them is an unmet need.
5. Competitive market is saturated with products catered to employers but lacking products catering to candidates.
In order to make sure we were ready to wireframe as quickly as possible when the product vision was solidified, we decided to create a design system including typography, swatches, and various components.
It continually evolved but having the foundation was very helpful.
Having a rough design system would enable wire framing to go more smoothly and appear consistent. This would also make the prototype look realistic, giving test participants more of an immersive experience.
As the research team started to get valuable insights from their interviews and surveys, and the product team’s personas began to change from proto-personas to “real boys”, we started to act on these insights by going through ideation workshops. This included:
A lot of important features and concepts were realized.
The design team took the most popular ideas and created user flows to realize what screens would need to be wire framed to prototype these features.
With important pain points and HMW statements the design team conducted a week-long lean Google Design Sprint. Here’s what we did:
1.Concept of the asynchronous interview “imagine you’re sent an email from a company after applying to a job to complete an interview asynchronously…”
2. The flow of asynchronous interviewing.
3. The flow of practicing interview questions to prepare.
Findings:
3/3 of users responded positively to getting tips and sample videos before answering questions.
“When I prepare for interviews I go to YouTube to see tips and videos so I think this page is helpful.”
2/3 Thought asynchronous interviews were dehumanizing and suspicious.
“I would prefer a live screening call because it feels a lot better to have someone to talk to.”
2/3 Liked having an introduction video before process. It made them feel more welcomed and more secure.
“It made the process feel intentional and welcoming”
3/3 Liked the community aspect; being able to get feedback when practicing interviews.
“I like the opportunity for quick feedback as opposed to booking appointments on ADP List.”
The research team was yielding very similar results with their concept testing:
• Asynchronous interviewing is thought to be dehumanizing
• There’s a need for candidates to feel more empowered in the interviewing process
Our MVP for the sprint started to focus more on the community interview practice and less on asynchronous interviews. This way candidates can feel more confident and get closer to their goals together. It will be the job of the Async Phase 2 team to determine the best way to include hiring managers.
A hypothesis, whether from the client or the designers, isn’t worth much until it’s validated. In this case we found that asynchronous interviewing may not be the solution we’re looking for.
We also learned that there’s always something you can be doing throughout the sprint process to bring value or clarity, whether it be ideation, testing, or simply preparing.
The project had its share of twists and turns, but we are confident in the foundation of what we started as a team.
