Hiring Helper for HarmonizeHQ
Project Overview
As an UX Research and Design intern for HarmonizeHQ, an HR management software startup, I conducted research for and designed a tool called Hiring Helper. Hiring Helper is an intern-led project and is a part of a suite of free tools to help small companies and startups with HR management. This tool was specifically aimed to assist startups with their hiring process because hiring new employees is an important growth step for startups, however, founders are often strapped for capital and time.
Client HarmonizeHQ
Duration 8 weeks
Responsibilities UX research, UXUI design
Team PM, Legal, Developer
We were asked to build a tool that helps startups reduce the time they spend on building new hire paperwork.
Challenge: starting with the solution?
One challenge I faced was that when this project began, the problem and scope were already outlined. Our team was asked to create an online tool that automates and speeds up new hire paperwork. Essentially I was just asked to create a UI.
I found myself asking, what problem does this product help solve and why are we working on it?
I advocated that we spend some time doing generative research to build empathy for our user and reframe our mindset about the problem.
Competitive Analysis
Online Investigation
Interviews
Creating a research plan to understand the broader opportunity space and build empathy for our users.
Instead of jumping directly to building a solution to the question how might we reduce the time startups spend on creating contracts, I created a short but succinct research plan to tackle a broader one. We wanted to know what barriers startups faced in hiring good people and which needs were not being met? Another benefit to conducting generative research was that it created empathy and helped us understand our users better.
Even though I reframed the problem, it still aligned with the stakeholders, mainly the CEO and PM’s, end goal of increasing awareness and driving adoption of free and paid products.