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GOALS

The ideal solution is to streamline the recruitment process by moving applications from Inbox to a dedicated tool, enabling recruiters to work more efficiently while providing Viki with actionable data on recruitment workflows. Most importantly, the new tool must be user-friendly enough to ensure widespread adoption by recruiters.

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Overview

Problem

Viki, a streaming service specializing in Asian entertainment, offers a unique Contributor Community feature that allows users to form teams and contribute subtitles in various languages.

While applicants use a tool named Project Finder to discover shows to join, recruiters receive applications via the Inbox, a communication tool not designed for recruitment workflows. This presents significant challenges for multiple parties:

  • Recruiters must manually manage applications, sifting through messages and tracking statuses on their own. This inefficiency is compounded by other unrelated Inbox use cases.

  • Applicants face delays in responses, as recruiters struggle with the manual process, often leaving applications unanswered.

  • Viki risks delayed subtitle production due to slow recruitment, which can lead to viewer drop-off. Additionally, the current process lacks the ability to track or analyze recruitment data, leaving significant gaps in identifying process inefficiencies.

My Role

Zing Yang - UX Designer
Valerie C. - Product Manager
Fionna C. - Data Analyst

Methods

Usability Testing
Wireframing
Iterative Release

Tools

Figma

Miro

Zoom

Timeline

Jan - Sep 2023

HYPOTHESES

If we streamline the process for recruiters to find and review applications for recruiting shows, we can significantly reduce decision-making time, enabling recruiters to confidently accept or reject applicants more quickly.

IDEATION

How are recruiters currently reviewing applications?

Recruiters first notice new applications via a red dot on the navigation bar. After navigating to the Inbox, recruiters review applications that could pertain to multiple shows and languages. They must manually identify the specific language and show for each application.
Once they review an application, recruiters may:

  • Accept the applicant by copying their username, navigating to the show's team page, and manually adding them.

  • Contact the applicant for further clarification via Inbox.

  • Reject the applicant for various reasons, sometimes choosing not to respond to avoid potential conflict.


Understanding these steps clarified the details recruiters needed to organize applications and highlighted inefficiencies, such as manually adding applicants to teams.

What are recruiters’ pain points with the current process?

From recent research, we identified the following pain points:

  1. Inbox clutter: Recruiters struggle to isolate applications from other system messages or notifications.

  2. No batch actions: The inability to mass-delete or mark messages as read means recruiters must open each message individually, potentially making the Inbox red dot permanently active.

  3. Rejection discomfort: Rejecting applicants feels personal within Inbox conversations, discouraging recruiters from responding.


These insights highlighted opportunities to improve recruiter experience while addressing specific root causes:

  • Recruiters want to isolate applications from other messages to reduce noise.

  • The persistent red dot diminishes its utility as a notification system when it cannot accurately indicate new messages.

  • Rejections should feel less personal to encourage communication and provide constructive feedback.

What were our limitations for the solution?

This project was scoped as a proof of concept, meaning:

  • Any features requiring significant engineering effort, such as a messaging system overhaul, were excluded.

  • Improvements to Inbox itself were deferred, as the platform may eventually adopt a third-party solution.

  • Messaging features like follow-ups would remain within Inbox.

SOLUTION

Using a low-fidelity prototype, we designed Applications Manager, a tool for managing applications outside of Inbox while integrating with it as needed.

Shows View

Recruiters can:

  • View all shows they manage.

  • See pending application counts on show cards.

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Applications View

Within each show, recruiters can filter applications by:

  • Pending (default view for immediate attention)

  • Contacted

  • Accepted

  • Rejected

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Opening an Application

Recruiters can:

  • Take actions (contact, accept, or reject) directly from the application view.

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Contacting an Applicant

Recruiters can:

  • Send a customized or pre-typed message to initiate contact via Inbox.

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  • Access Inbox conversations via a "View conversation" button for continued communication.

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Accepting an Applicant

Accepting an applicant automatically:

  • Sends an Inbox message to convey instructions or welcome them with a customized or pre-typed message.

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  • Adds them to the team, eliminating manual username entry in the show’s team page.

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Rejecting an Applicant

Rejecting an application:

  • Allows recruiters to tick predefined reasons for rejection and add optional comments.

  • Sends feedback via a system notification instead of a direct Inbox conversation between recruiters and applicants, ensuring communication is professional and less personal.

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  • Rejected applicants may click a link to appeal, fostering transparency while maintaining recruiter comfort.

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USABILITY TESTING

What are recruiters’ thoughts on Applications Manager?

We conducted usability tests with five recruiters to validate the solution, uncover issues, and address stakeholders’ questions. Recruiters were tasked with accepting and rejecting applications.

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Key findings:

  • Adoption potential: Recruiters appreciated how Applications Manager reduced Inbox clutter and improved tracking but noted it didn’t help much with finding subtitlers for recruiters with established teams.

  • Unforeseen issues: No major issues arose, and feedback aligned with anticipated pain points and design assumptions.

  • Stakeholders’ questions: Recruiters were divided on whether they would redirect Inbox applicants to Applications Manager—some preferred it for better tracking, while others stuck to familiar workflows. They also found the option for rejected applicants to appeal fair, acknowledging determined applicants would reach out regardless.


Overall, recruiters responded positively to Applications Manager’s ability to streamline workflows and capture valuable data, which supported the decision to proceed with the solution.

ITERATIVE RELEASE

With confidence from usability tests, we converted low-fidelity wireframes into high-fidelity designs and presented them to stakeholders. We agreed on an iterative release approach, prioritizing must-haves, should-haves, and good-to-haves. This allowed us to gather feedback from each iteration and make necessary improvements for future releases.

Iteration 1: The Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The MVP introduced essential functionalities, allowing recruiters to view all managed shows, filter applications by status, and accept or reject applicants. A feedback button was added to collect recruiter input via surveys.

However, these features were not prioritized:

  • Pending application counts on show cards

  • Ability to contact applicants before deciding to accept or reject them

  • Editable templates for acceptance and rejection messages


Feedback Received:

  • Recruiters missed red dot notifications from the previous Inbox workflow, making it hard to track new applications

  • Many were unaware of the shift to Applications Manager as announcements were only made in the discussion forums

  • Manually checking each show for pending applications was inefficient

  • Recruiters wanted to communicate with applicants before deciding

  • The rejection process felt harsh without an option to provide reasons

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Iteration 2: Introducing Applicant Communication

Although notifications were a high priority, their complexity required further discussion and alignment. Hence, the team chose to prioritize an equally important feature, the ability to contact applicants before making accepting or rejecting applications.

We still had the following features to prioritize for the next iteration:

  • Pending application counts on show cards

  • Editable templates for acceptance and rejection messages


Feedback Received:
Recruiters appreciated the ability to contact applicants, but concerns about the lack of notifications persisted.

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Iteration 3: Customizable Templates

With the discussion for notifications still ongoing, the team decided to prioritize editable templates for acceptance and rejection messages in this iteration.

Feedback Received:

  • The ability to tick the reason for rejection was well received by recruiters, but desires for red dot notifications and clearer pending application indicators remained high.

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Iteration 4: Email Notifications and Pending Application Indicators

With most features released, the team analyzed recruiters’ needs regarding red dot notifications. While implementing them proved too complex for the proof-of-concept scope, the team identified that recruiters primarily wanted to be notified of new applications, especially when not using Applications Manager. To address this, an opt-in email notification feature for new applications was introduced.

Recognizing that tracking pending applications was equally critical, the team added the pending application counts on show cards feature to address earlier feedback about manually checking each show.

Finally, to improve awareness of the transition from Inbox to Applications Manager, a banner was added in the Inbox to inform recruiters of the change.

Feedback Received:

  • These updates addressed key recruiter concerns, such as identifying pending applications and improving awareness of the shift, although some still preferred red dot notifications as that’s what they were accustomed to.

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RESULTS

Applications Manager enabled data tracking across the recruitment process. While adoption wasn’t as widespread as hoped, reducing pending applications is now a measurable goal.

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NEXT STEPS

  1. Monitor Applications Manager data to identify workflow leaks.

  2. Gather ongoing feedback to inform future iterations.

TAKEAWAYS

This project highlighted the importance of maintaining feature parity when transitioning users to a new tool to ensure adoption. Additionally, using discussion forums alone for communication was insufficient; future launches should leverage more direct methods, such as targeted email updates.

Check Out My Other Works

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