Talendary: AI Recruitment UX
Increase engagement in the app by making more users view and review candidates on the platform.
Objective
The number of candidates viewed on the platform went up by over 100%.
Result
Lead UX Designer in an interdisciplinary team, collaborating with stakeholders and developers.
My role
Scope
April - June 2025
01/Project Overview and Goal
Who is Talendary?
Talendary is an AI startup focused on transforming recruitment. Its SaaS platform helps recruiters source and evaluate candidates more effectively. To fit seamlessly into existing workflows, Talendary also offers a Chrome extension for LinkedIn and integrations with applicant tracking systems. By combining these features, Talendary enables recruiters to identify stronger candidates faster, reduce bias in hiring, and work more efficiently overall.
An AI SaaS platform that helps recruiters to find stronger candidates faster and allows for more time to make human connections.
The Challenge
Our team noticed an interesting pattern: recruiters were active, but not where it mattered most. Most candidate reviews happened on LinkedIn, while Talendary’s platform was primarily used for project setup. With new features being added, we wanted to understand why the platform wasn’t the place recruiters turned to for reviewing candidates. Solving this problem was key to increasing in-app engagement and helping Talendary reach its long-term vision.
Why weren’t recruiters reviewing talent inside the platform and instead opting to rely on the Chrome extension?
By utilizing an iterative design process relying on user feedback, we were able to increase the number of in-app candidate views by over 100%
Overview of the Design Process
02/Research & Soultuion
Starting with What You Have
I began by reviewing recently created personas and customer feedback documentation. This gave me a quick problem overview, exposed gaps in our understanding, and helped refine the target users and identify what questions to ask.
Talk to the Users
With my existing foundation, I reached out to recruiters, scheduled interviews, and asked questions targeted at the gaps. This way, every conversation added fresh and relevant insights.
What Did I Learn from the Users?
Recruiters view hundreds of candidates every day and need to be able to quickly identify the most relevant information.
Having information that backs up the AI scores makes their work easier.
Limitations in LinkedIn force recruiters to actively search for information elsewhere from time to time.
*High-level overview only; details omitted for confidentiality.
Working on the Solution
One of the most effective ways, in my opinion, to find solutions to users’ problems is to brainstorm while shifting focus. Starting with ideas from existing solutions and standards, and then shifting to creative, out-of-the-box solutions. Often I find that the true solution is somewhere in the middle.
In this case, I moved between prototyping and ideation, moving back and forth between the two and iterating. I also decided to loop in the development team and leadership from time to time to make sure the most impactful and effective solution was decided.
Fail Quick and Early
After the first prototypes, I brought in second opinions to try and evaluate the idea, including input from users. This provided quick feedback and ensured that we could validate and improve on the solution without expending too many resources.
03/Implementation and Aftermath
Implementation and Aftermath
After rolling out the new design in production, we noticed a clear increase in the number of candidates viewed on the platform, meaning that the design was successful. But no design is ever truly finished, and each discovery brings new questions.
Currently, we are working on further improving the efficiency of how recruiters view candidates and exploring new innovative collaboration opportunities that will give the platform an advantage over other tools..
Key Takeaways
This project taught me the importance of balancing user needs with business goals. Not every user request has the same impact, some drive real change, while others are more “nice to have.” I learned to evaluate which needs truly move the needle, and how to navigate trade-offs so that both recruiters and the business benefit in the long run.
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