Helping build the future of job search.
Designing a platform to simplify the connection between top talent and great companies.
Background & overview
Laskie is a fast-paced startup that aims to create a better and easier way to connect
companies with top engineering talent, by simplifying the recruitment process.
The goal of this project consisted initially on creating the UI elements and prototypes needed by the
engineering team, which later turned into researching and finding insights to improve the platform for
our recruiters, clients and candidates.
My role
UX/UI Designer
Visual design, prototyping, illustrations, marketing assets, and user research.
The challenge
The company, as a startup, is constantly changing and evolving their platform in order to improve and create various functionalities for their different users. To develop these functionalities, the team consisted of four engineers... And only one designer.
The 80-20 rule + rapid prototyping
As I began my work with Laskie, the engineering team already had a backlog with requirements that needed
a design. By applying the 80-20 rule, my job consisted of creating very quick and simple prototypes on
Figma, based on UX best principles and previously created brand guidelines. These prototypes would be
reviewed by the team in order to gather feedback and iterate on them.
Once the design was approved, a final hi-fidelity prototype was created and delivered to the
corresponding engineer. This method helped us create the best solutions possible in the least amount
of time.
How this worked for me:
Each engineer had their own projects, requirements and deadlines, which meant I needed to prioritize and constantly communicate with my team in order to deliver the designs on time.
Research phase
During team calls, I noticed that some of the processes were not 100% clear for the team (including myself), which sparked the idea of creating User Flow Diagrams. In order to do this, some User Research was required.
My first step was making a list of the different roles throughout the company. This allowed me to have a broader and more structured view of the sections that I needed to research. I mainly focused on the roles that used the platform regularly: talent partners, biz-ops and account managers.
After sectioning the roles, I prioritized the ones that were in most contact with our candidates: the recruiters, better known as Talent Partners in Laskie; and the ones that managed the companies’ profile: Biz-Ops. I then scheduled a 45-minute call with 3 talent partners and 2 biz-ops employees. The discussed topics on the calls were:
- A step-by-step guide of their activities on the platform.
- Locating pain-points on each step and discussing possible solutions.
- Feedback on features that were recently redesigned.
Once we were done with each call, I would go back to the recordings and start taking notes on post-its and creating a preliminary diagram on Miro. This allowed me to organize and connect the dots between activities, feedback and pain-points, before jumping into User Flow Diagrams (created on Figjam, to centralize information within the team).
Ideating and prototyping solutions
Once the insights and pain-points were discovered, I worked closely with the senior engineer to ideate, prototype and iterate on different solutions to try and solve as many pain-points as possible.
When designed and implemented by devs, we made user tests to validate if the redesign was successful. As an example, by redesigning the candidate profile editor, we reduced the time spent by Talent Partners in calls and filling forms by more than 30 minutes.
Key Takeaways
Using the 80-20 rule and rapid prototyping
Spending less time and effort by creating lo-fidelity prototypes, allowed the team to come up with several solutions and gather as much feedback as possible in the least amount of time and with less effort. This resulted in reducing the production and delivery times of the entire team for the different features.
Background & overview
Laskie is a fast-paced startup that aims to create a better and easier way to connect
companies with top engineering talent, by simplifying the recruitment process.
The goal of this project consisted initially on creating the UI elements and prototypes needed by the
engineering team, which later turned into researching and finding insights to improve the platform for
our recruiters, clients and candidates.
My role
UX/UI Designer
Visual design, prototyping, illustrations, marketing assets, and user research.
The challenge
The company, as a startup, is constantly changing and evolving their platform in order to improve and create various functionalities for their different users. To develop these functionalities, the team consisted of four engineers... And only one designer.
The 80-20 rule + rapid prototyping
As I began my work with Laskie, the engineering team already had a backlog with requirements that needed
a design. By applying the 80-20 rule, my job consisted of creating very quick and simple prototypes on
Figma, based on UX best principles and previously created brand guidelines. These prototypes would be
reviewed by the team in order to gather feedback and iterate on them.
Once the design was approved, a final hi-fidelity prototype was created and delivered to the
corresponding engineer. This method helped us create the best solutions possible in the least amount
of time.
How this worked for me:
Each engineer had their own projects, requirements and deadlines, which meant I needed to prioritize and constantly communicate with my team in order to deliver the designs on time.
Research phase
During team calls, I noticed that some of the processes were not 100% clear for the team (including myself), which sparked the idea of creating User Flow Diagrams. In order to do this, some User Research was required.
My first step was making a list of the different roles throughout the company. This allowed me to have a broader and more structured view of the sections that I needed to research. I mainly focused on the roles that used the platform regularly: talent partners, biz-ops and account managers.
After sectioning the roles, I prioritized the ones that were in most contact with our candidates: the recruiters, better known as Talent Partners in Laskie; and the ones that managed the companies’ profile: Biz-Ops. I then scheduled a 45-minute call with 3 talent partners and 2 biz-ops employees. The discussed topics on the calls were:
- A step-by-step guide of their activities on the platform.
- Locating pain-points on each step and discussing possible solutions.
- Feedback on features that were recently redesigned.
Once we were done with each call, I would go back to the recordings and start taking notes on post-its and creating a preliminary diagram on Miro. This allowed me to organize and connect the dots between activities, feedback and pain-points, before jumping into User Flow Diagrams (created on Figjam, to centralize information within the team).
Ideating and prototyping solutions
Once the insights and pain-points were discovered, I worked closely with the senior engineer to ideate, prototype and iterate on different solutions to try and solve as many pain-points as possible.
When designed and implemented by devs, we made user tests to validate if the redesign was successful. As an example, by redesigning the candidate profile editor, we reduced the time spent by Talent Partners in calls and filling forms by more than 30 minutes.
Key Takeaways
Using the 80-20 rule and rapid prototyping
Spending less time and effort by creating lo-fidelity prototypes, allowed the team to come up with several solutions and gather as much feedback as possible in the least amount of time and with less effort. This resulted in reducing the production and delivery times of the entire team for the different features.