Variner is a boutique talent agency within the financial industry. They do the leg work and find the best candidates and then connect them with their clients. This project was to create a front end face to their existing internal CMS. They wanted to be able to let their clients interact and see a job's candidates that they are currently looking to fill. The candidates go through multiple stages, with multiple sub stages within. The terminology and amount of stages can vary from client to client, so a flexible interface is a requirement. This was a freelance project completed in 2020, I worked alone as designer with the cofounders of Variner over 2 months.
The initial wireframes explored a few different approaches. The two primary concepts presented were a traditional table format and a kanban style board. After much discussion, and vetting with current clients, the kanban was shelved. While the style was fresh and visually interactive, the most common users were not highly tech savie and more comfortable with traditional table views. Another main point of exploration was visual representation of the "applicant funnel" -- a more literal representation, simplified, and hidden options were explored.
With the existing CMS structure in place, certain proposals I made ended up not being feasible without a major backend overhaul. One change I proposed was to separate out stages and statuses. Currently only stages exist, even though states that I would classify as a status ( a state of an object that could exist in multiple stages) already exist. Again this idea was shelved for future consideration in order to keep scope and timeline in check.
The primary task within the product is to move applicants through the funnel stages. This concept showed the stages along the top of the table, with the ability to turn on and off stages. When a stage change is made, you are prompted to enter a note before completing. These notes are appended to the applicant and viewable in their details.
The final design incorporated a line graph of the primary stages with ability to hover and show a breakdown. The jobs important dates and contact information is also prominent across the top. One last request was the ability to make "quick decisions" on candidates in this first stage. The green and red check and X allow the user to quickly scan and make decisions.
The 3 main stages are shown along the top left of the table and act as tabs, switching between the different data sets. They also act as custom filters of the sub stages within. From directly within the table rows, you can drill into the details of the applicant and make a stage change directly in the grey box in the stage column.