SaaS Platform for HR Management
Skills
User Research, UI Design, Design Thinking
Tools
Figma, FlowMapp, Optimal Workshop, Qualtrics
INTRODUCTION
Brief
For this project, I collaborated with a consulting firm using their internal SaaS platform for recruitment and employee engagement. The platform primarily served employees by providing visibility into job openings, projects, workshops, and events. However, the client saw an opportunity to enhance the experience for resource managers responsible for assigning employees to various projects.
The brief was to conduct in-depth UX research focused on understanding the unique needs of resource managers. The insights gathered would help the stakeholders decide whether to build a new, dedicated platform or enhance the current one with tailored features to support resource management.
My Role and Process
I was deeply involved in every stage of the product lifecycle, working closely with a product owner, tech lead, and development team. My role began with conducting user research to uncover pain points and user needs. Leveraging design thinking methodologies, we tested our hypotheses through iterative design sprints, using prototypes of varying fidelity to refine solutions that balanced user needs with business goals.
To ensure the platform could scale effectively and maintain consistency across all touchpoints, I developed a comprehensive design system. This included a UI kit, component library, and grid system, enabling seamless integration and uniformity across the product.
DISCOVERY
Where did we start?
User Research & Contextual Inquiry
I began with interviews involving resource and project managers, as well as employees, to uncover process pain points and complexities. This research guided our design approach, ensuring we addressed key user frustrations.
To further inform our solution, we conducted a contextual inquiry. Remote users participated in a diary study, sharing photos and videos of their work environments, providing valuable real-world insights to shape a user-friendly and context-aware platform design.
DEFINE
Key Findings
01
Inconsistent process Across Enterprises
The current SaaS platform is used by multiple enterprises, each with its own unique departmental structure, staffing levels, and resourcing processes. The challenge was to develop a unified solution that could adapt to diverse organizational needs while focusing primarily on the resource managers’ pain points.
02
Heavy Workload for Resource Managers
I discovered that much of the resourcing process was still handled offline, relying on personal networks, relationships, and in-depth knowledge of employees' individual situations. Managing an avg of 100 employees, this time-consuming process made it difficult for managers to quickly match the right talent to the right roles. Our goal was to streamline and accelerate this process, allowing managers to work more efficiently.
03
Limited Access to Crucial Information
Resource managers are responsible for recommending the best candidates for specific roles and justifying their choices to project managers. However, they had limited access to up-to-date employee data, such as skills and experience, which often resulted in printing profiles and comparing them manually. My objective was to empower resource managers by creating a platform that provided them with real-time, comprehensive data to make informed decisions quickly and confidently.
Persona
I summarized the information I collected and created a short bio for the main persona, highlighting their motivation, needs and frustrations.
DESIGN
Early Concepts
Once we defined the current users and their behavior I was able to define the issues we want to solve and how to tackle them. I marked the users frustration points on the user flow to highlight areas of “bottle neck” within the process. With the team we started hypothesising solutions that could help make the resourcing process easier.
Testing and Validation
Following brainstorming sessions, I created a prototype and was ready to test our solutions. The prototype included new features such as a “best matches” for a role, a task bar with daily “to do” tasks and a dashboard summarising the current week. I tested the prototype with the same users I interviewed previously. Each given the same task: to try and find a suitable employee for a specified role. We recorded the sessions (video, audio and screen) and asked a few more questions at the end to gain further feedback on specific areas.
Based on feedback from the user testings I was able to optimise the user flow, created a list of features divided into “must have” and “nice to have” and iterate my designs, increasing usability and users satisfaction. I presented the findings to the stakeholders, including my recommendation to create a new separate tool dedicated to resource managers.
Final Design
Open Roles and Resources
Search Result
Profile Comparison
DELIVER
Successful Launch and Impact
The client successfully launched the MVP, and the platform is now in active use, delivering tangible results. We provided a comprehensive product roadmap, outlining future feature releases informed by extensive user testing. Additionally, the design system we developed is now live, offering developers a consistent framework across both this platform and other products.
Since launch, resource managers have reported a 17% reduction in the time it takes to make an offer, with many achieving same-day interviews—a significant improvement in efficiency. Reflecting on this project, the MVP launch has proven to be a success, laying the foundation for continued growth and optimization.