Human-Centered Design: Transforming the Candidate-to-New-Hire Journey in a High-Tech SaaS Organization

Michelle and I recently had an incredible opportunity to collaborate on a consulting project that utilized human-centered design principles. Our task was to enhance the candidate-to-new-hire journey at a leading public high-tech SaaS organization. Embracing empathy, creativity, and innovation, we aimed to create a seamless experience for potential candidates and new hires alike, while collaborating and creating new skills amongst the People team.

Step 1: Building Trust and Introducing Key Concepts

To kick off our project, we designed a team warm-up exercise that fostered trust among the stakeholders involved. This helped ensure everyone was on the same page and open to embracing new ideas. Additionally, we introduced key human-centered design concepts and the tools we would use throughout the process.

Step 2: Pre and Post-Work Design

Given the timeline and project goals, we carefully planned pre and post-work activities. These tasks allowed us to gather essential information and insights while maximizing the efficiency of the project.

Step 3: Defining Scope and Goals

We collaborated closely with the key stakeholders and participants to define the scope and goals of the project. Throughout this phase, we remained mindful of the users and their needs, ensuring that our solutions would resonate with them effectively.

Step 4: Utilizing Mural for Joint Remote Collaboration

To facilitate remote collaboration, we selected Mural as our go-to tool. This platform allowed us to gather all participants in one virtual space, enabling seamless teamwork and visualizations.

Step 5: Gathering Qualitative Research

In the quest for meaningful insights, we collected qualitative data through interviews, surveys, and various other research methods. Understanding the candidate and new hire experiences on a deeper level was crucial to our design process.

Step 6: Journey Mapping Workshop

We conducted an immersive journey mapping workshop to identify the current state of the candidate-to-new-hire experience. By placing the candidate at the center, we could truly empathize with their journey, uncovering pain points and opportunities for improvement.

Step 7: Empathy Mapping

In order to truly understand the emotions and perspectives of both stakeholders, candidates and new hires, we empathy mapped to understand each one’s perspectives and felt needs, as they are different based upon where the person is in the process and as they transition. By diverging and converging our thoughts, we gained invaluable insights into their needs and desires.

Step 8: Identifying Key Moments of Truth

Through comprehensive analysis, we pinpointed the key moments of truth in the candidate-to-new-hire journey. This critical step allowed us to evaluate issues and identify areas of opportunity where impactful change could be made.

Step 9: Crafting "How Might We" Statements

To guide our problem-solving efforts, we formulated "How Might We" (HMW) statements aligned with specific areas of opportunity. These statements acted as springboards for creative solutions that would address users' pain points effectively.

Step 10: Creating an Action Plan

With our priorities in place, we designed a comprehensive action plan to tackle the top-priority "How Might We" statements. This plan provided a roadmap for implementing impactful changes that would enhance the overall experience.

Our journey through this project was both enjoyable and rewarding, as we embraced the principles of human-centered design to their fullest extent. By placing people at the core of our problem-solving process, we were able to craft visualizations and artifacts that resonated deeply with our key audiences. Ultimately, our collaboration culminated in an improved candidate-to-new-hire journey at the high-tech SaaS organization, enhancing both their hiring process and overall user experience.? Human-centered design proved to be a powerful approach, highlighting the importance of empathy and innovation in creating user-centric solutions.

Feedback from the client was, “This looks so awesome! You are soooooo good at taking a pile of data and making sense of it; making it appear so simple and clear. You have a gift!” “The team really enjoyed this process and learned new skills.”

Michelle, what a delight it was to collaborate with you, thank you! ????