Helping Recruiters Stand Out in Crowded Inboxes
Designed candidate outreach tools for SearchDx that helped recruiters transform dry job descriptions into compelling visual postings—convincing passive executives to consider opportunities they weren't actively seeking.
This feature was part of a larger executive recruitment platform that would have enabled Alioth to scale from 70 manually-served clients to hundreds.
Business Context
Alioth was solving a crisis in executive recruiting: 50-70% of placed executives fail within 18 months, primarily due to cultural misalignment. Traditional firms matched resumes to job descriptions, then disappeared. Alioth differentiated by using deep cultural assessments and post-placement support, achieving dramatically better retention across 70 clients with a NPS of 100.
SearchDx was designed as a full-lifecycle platform—from stakeholder alignment through post-hire support—to scale this proven process. With one developer and limited runway, I prioritized the candidate outreach tools first because it addressed critical user needs—standing out in crowded inboxes and attracting quality passive candidates—without disrupting recruiters' current workflow. We could save recruiters the time spent rewriting job descriptions so that they could instead build the relationships that closed placements.
The Challenge
Most candidates Alioth targeted weren't looking for jobs. Recruiters needed to make opportunities compelling enough to overcome candidate comfort—translating dry client job descriptions into materials that highlighted innovation, and presented clear career progression.
But this translation work—rewriting descriptions, adding branding, creating shareable documents—took hours per candidate and wasn't what recruiters enjoyed. Time spent word smithing meant less time doing the work that mattered: building the relationships.
Before and After
My Approach
Solved pain points without disruption:
Kept LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing. It was an integral part of the existing workflow that recruiters were happy with.
Focused on the marketing pain point. Recruiters received dry job descriptions from clients that required rewriting to sell to passive candidates.
Designed full platform vision but validated core value first. We could provide value with this use case, and build support for an expanded workflow.
Solved technical complexity that our small team could actually build:
Let recruiters personalize materials without requiring complex content management
Designed a system with standard content sections but lightly customizable visual treatment
Recruiters could select industry-relevant hero images and color schemes to match the opportunity
Chose stepped authoring over WYSIWYG to reduce cognitive load:
Explored WYSIWYG editor but testing with product leadership revealed it was overwhelming
Stepped approach grouped related content so recruiters focused on one thing at a time
Automated entry of client branding and recruiter details by pulling them from existing user and client records.
Adapted the design when business strategy shifted:
Initially designed for Alioth's internal recruiters only
When the company explored spinning out as a standalone product, I redesigned for white-labeling
Added client account system where brand assets (logos, colors, fonts) auto-applied to postings
Lo-Fidelity Exploration
Key Decision
Why We Chose Stepped Authoring Over WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG seemed like the obvious choice—let recruiters see exactly what they're building while they build it. So, I designed a version where the job posting appeared as it would look published, with inline editing. But when we reviewed it with product leadership, the VP and PM immediately saw the problem: it was overwhelming.
For recruiters authoring content, seeing the full page meant cognitive overload—too many decisions visible at once.
Stepped authoring solved this problem. By breaking creation into focused steps of related decisions (e.g., title, subtitle, and hero image) recruiters could concentrate on one thing at a time.
The trade-off: recruiters couldn't see the full page until the end. But the hand-holding was more valuable than the preview—especially for a tool they'd use repeatedly and learn over time.
Hi-Fidelity Designs
Validation & Outcome
What didn't ship:
Feature was fully designed and in development when company ran out of runway
White-labeling system and stepped authoring flow were built but never launched to recruiters
Company closed before we could validate the approach with real users
What this validated despite not shipping:
Internal stakeholders (recruiters and leadership) were enthusiastic about the design
Account management foundation enabled the broader platform vision
The design system facilitated rapid build out of new page designs.
What I Learned
Watching recruiters work manually showed me exactly where software would help vs where it would hurt. What responsibilities were "work" rather than points of pride and enjoyment.
The failure to ship taught me the importance of engineering capacity as a design constraint. In retrospect, I'd have pushed harder to narrow our product focus to get market feedback faster.
This project reinforced one of my core design principles: the best solutions don't replace experts—they free them to do the parts of the work they enjoy or make them feel like they have super powers. For recruiters, that meant nurturing client relationships instead of wrestling with Word documents. This principle was also instrumental to how I approached designing OrgDx, where analysts could gain powerful insights from survey data without needing a degree in data science.
