HireVue interview evaluation dashboard on a monitor and phone

Case Study — Product Design

HireVue

2013 to 2015


Hiring for Scale: On-Demand Video Interview Design

HireVue was my first UX role. I joined as a visual designer, and when the team needed someone to lead UX on Coordinate — a new scheduling tool for recruiters — I stepped into that alongside my visual design work. I was constrained to HireVue Coordinate's existing visual language, which I didn't design, but the flow and functionality of the product were mine to figure out. Onboarding and the HireVue Coach (formerly Accelerate) redesign were the visual design problems I solved elsewhere in the product.

2019

CARLYLE GROUP ACQUIRED HIREVUE

1K+

ORGANIZATIONS USE HIREVUE WORLDWIDE

40%

OF FORTUNE 100 COMPANIES

The Problem

Scheduling a group interview meant endless back-and-forth

HireVue Coordinate existed as a beta scheduling tool meant to save recruiters from the most time-consuming part of their job, but group interviews were still a hassle: a recruiter had to chase down every attendee's availability by hand, then redo that same back-and-forth the moment anyone's schedule changed.

I interviewed recruiters to understand their process specifically for scheduling group interviews — sharing my screen with them as they walked me through it — and mapped out where the real friction was before we touched a single screen.

The Solution

Let candidates and interviewers schedule themselves

Instead of a recruiter managing every attendee by hand, they'd simply log in to Coordinate and set up the interview once. Candidates and interviewers each got an email pointing them to a landing page where they could self-schedule — and if a schedule changed afterward, everyone just got notified and adjusted their own calendar, with no work landing back on the recruiter.

Recruiters using HireVue Coordinate to schedule an interview panel

The How

From journey maps to a flexible scheduling flow

After identifying the pain points, I worked with my product manager to build out user personas, then went through rounds of sketching, prototyping, and internal testing to land on a flow that could handle real-world interview panels — not just the simple one-recruiter, one-candidate case.

Research & Discovery

Two personas came out of that research, representing very different relationships to the scheduling grind — one person whose whole job is scheduling, and one who sees it as overhead standing between them and actual recruiting.

“Recruiting Support Specialist”

Offload the scheduling tasks so the recruiter can focus on recruiting

  • Young (20–30), 4-year marketing degree from a state university
  • Familiar with technology, but mostly the social & mobile side of it
  • Constantly switching between email, chat, Excel, calendar, ATS, and phone to do the job
  • Hired for social skills and ability to communicate
  • Aspiring to become a recruiter, hired with that intent
  • Supports 3–5 recruiters
  • Has other tasks, but 95% of the day is scheduling and rescheduling

“Talent Acquisition Partner”

Scheduling is a necessary evil and part of the job

  • Middle-aged (30–50), years of recruiting experience across several companies
  • Sick of technology, hates learning new systems
  • Would rather talk to people
  • Hired for connections and ability to recruit
  • Either satisfied at their level or eyeing HR leadership roles
  • Any time not spent recruiting feels wasted
  • Wants to creatively source talent, but 50% of the time goes to scheduling — creative work happens nights and weekends
Sketch mapping which interviewers could cover a given requirement

Mapping the Workflow

A lot of whiteboard sketching went into figuring out how a recruiter could define flexible interviewer requirements — specific people, whole departments, or a mix of both — without the flow feeling like a form.

Whiteboard sketches of the Coordinate interview template flow
Diagram comparing the old back-and-forth email scheduling flow to the new streamlined HireVue Coordinate flow

Key Screens & Interactions

A recruiter starts by typing a name or a tag — a department, or a preset group they've defined before — then sets how many interviewers are needed and whether it takes any or all of them. Predictive text speeds up interviewer selection, and the same rule-builder repeats until every requirement for the panel is met.

Coordinate flow: one interviewer from a tag Coordinate flow: choosing any or all tags
Coordinate flow: predictive text completing an interviewer name Coordinate flow: either-or interviewer logic

Also on My Plate

Visual design problems, elsewhere in the product

Coordinate was the UX-led project, but most of my time at HireVue was spent as a visual designer solving problems within an existing product. I explored layout and UI updates for HireVue Coach (formerly Accelerate), a coaching tool for sales teams, including all-new onboarding illustrations for its Android release. On the candidate side, I iterated on the self-scheduling email and help page with HireVue's support team until it measurably cut call volume, and worked on client integrations for partners like Chipotle and the Boston Red Sox.

HireVue Coach, Android Onboarding

HireVue Coach already had a polished iOS onboarding flow; I designed an Android equivalent from scratch, illustrations included, following Android's own design guidelines rather than just porting the iOS screens over. Here's a quick run through the sequence — entering an interview code, a round of interview tips, then the practice interview itself.

Candidate Registration for Chipotle's National Hiring Events

For Chipotle's National Career Day and National Hiring Day events, I designed the candidate-facing registration pages people used to sign up for a slot at their local restaurant — another persona worth designing for, distinct from the recruiters using Coordinate day to day.

Chipotle National Career Day and National Hiring Day candidate registration pages, desktop and mobile Candidate self-scheduling email from HireVue Coordinate

Outcome

Group scheduling that scales with ease

Coordinate's self-scheduling flow was one of the more complete problems I got to help solve at HireVue — taking recruiters almost entirely out of the scheduling loop for group interviews. HireVue itself went on to become a category leader in video-based hiring, used by over 1,000 organizations worldwide and 40% of the Fortune 100, and was acquired by The Carlyle Group in 2019.

What are others saying about Richard Kimball?

Jason Grotegut

Principal UX Designer

Richard is one of the most talented illustrators/designers that I have ever worked with. While here at HireVue he established and maintained a level of refinement that was critically needed for our product team. Beyond being a complete designer Richard was also a blast to work with.

Apr 17, 2017

John S. Haymore

Creative Director

Richard's methodical approach to UX brings highly fidelity design to our apps. His ability to visualize functional aspects of a project from concept to finished product with a heightened sense of emotional connection, creates a user experience that people react too. Richard's also a team player that fosters close collaboration across multi-functional teams. A must have to any organization.

Oct 8, 2018

Brandon Jeppson

Product Marketing & Research Director

Rich is the most pleasant designer I've had the pleasure of working with! He never let the constraints of a project discourage him from creating a beautiful solution. Plus, he did a masterful job of meeting project objectives while adding his own insight and vision, which made the finished product even more effective. I'm glad many of our projects benefited from Rich's skill and insight.

May 23, 2014

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