Helping recruiters spend less time clicking and more time hiring

0 to 1 Design AI Matching Slack Integration Salesforce CRM

The Talent Relationship Management is an internal enterprise tool built on Salesforce that helps recruiters import, source and manage candidates.

Goals
  • Increase efficiency in recruitment activities
  • Save third-party software licensing costs and own innovation opportunities
  • Better integrations and simplified processes with Gmail, Slack and Workday

Role

Lead Designer

Responsibilities

AI Product Design, End-to-End UX/UI, Prototyping, Design Systems, Accessibility

The Team

58+ collaborators including: Research, Design/Strategy, Product, Data and AI, Office of Accessibility, Engineering & QA, Marketing Cloud, SMEs and Business Stakeholders.

When

First Half of 2025

Slack icon indicating thousands of notifications

“We get thousands of applicants, but realistically maybe 5-10% are even worth looking at. The rest are noise, and the tools don't help me filter that noise fast enough.”

by Talent Delivery Recruiter, AMER
Gmail notification: 9999+ New Emails

“Most of my day is just moving information around. I'll find someone on LinkedIn, paste notes into Beamery, then cross-check in Workday to make sure they're not already in the system.

by Talent Acquisition Recruiter, EMEA
Workday Logo
Google Meet Notification: Interview Starting in 2 minutes

“When the system says "top match", I don't trust it. I still open the profile and read everything myself because I don't know why it thinks this person is a fit.”

by Talent Acquisition Recruiter, APAC
User research

The busy day of a tech recruiter

We conducted an initial round of 12 interviews with Talent Acquisition recruiters (sourcing) and Talent Delivery recruiters (from sourcing to hire).

After conducting a few interviews something became clear: recruiters are busy. Hiring fast is the expectation, and the industry is super competitive for finding top talent.

However, we learned there's a lot of friction that stands in their way of doing their job. Some of the key pain points are: constant context switching, unreliable search, low-trust AI recommendations, rigid workflows, and overwhelming volumes of unqualified candidates.

Day in the life of a recruiter video
Vision & Strategy

Our focus for fixing the recruiter experience

Own the Core Recruiting Platform

Replace Beamery to reclaim data, reduce licenses and unlock Salesforce AI innovation.

Meet Recruiters Where They Are

Leverage Slack for candidate collaboration and genuine mobility.

AI + Humans make the best pair

Use AI for discovery, transparency and efficiency, never for final hiring decisions.

Integrate all apps Seamlessly

Real‑time bi‑directional sync with Workday; zero‑friction Gmail & Slack extensions.

AI Matching & Explainability

HMW: help recruiters spot the right 15 out of 100 faster without replacing human judgment?

We had our problem definition, research to back it up and the vision for the new solution. However, how does AI fit into it all? See below how we partnered with the Data and AI team to create a prototype for a candidate matching model, using AI to try to match candidates with Job Requisitions.

32+ Interviews

With diverse recruiter roles

A-B-C-D Testing

Testing AI and non-AI variants

8 Usability Tests

For filters and searching

Screenshot of a recruiting dashboard with AI matching features.
Screenshot of a recruiting dashboard showing AI match features, including a candidate table with an AI Match column, a side panel explaining why a candidate is likely a match, and controls for the recruiter to accept or reject the suggestion.
Responsible AI Review

🚩 The AI team raised a red flag

Salesforce has robust ethics and legal guardrails for AI, and that's something I really appreciated. Before any AI feature ships, it goes through a thorough review by the Responsible AI team to ensure it meets the highest standards for fairness, transparency, and accountability.

Despite our careful design around explainability, opt-out controls, and recruiter oversight, the review classified AI candidate matching as high-risk. Using AI to score, rank, or filter candidates falls under Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT), a category facing increasing regulatory scrutiny:

🚩 NYC Local Law 144

Requires annual bias audits, public disclosure, and candidate notification. Violations cost $500 to $1,500/day.

🚩 Illinois HB 3773

Prohibits AI with discriminatory effects in hiring. Takes effect January 2026.

🚩 Illinois AIVIA

Requires consent when AI analyzes video interviews for behavioral signals.

🚩 EU AI Act

Classifies recruitment AI as "high-risk" with strict transparency requirements. Effective Feb 2025.

🚩 NYC Local Law 144

Requires annual bias audits, public disclosure, and candidate notification. Violations cost $500 to $1,500/day.

🚩 Illinois HB 3773

Prohibits AI with discriminatory effects in hiring. Takes effect January 2026.

🚩 Illinois AIVIA

Requires consent when AI analyzes video interviews for behavioral signals.

🚩 EU AI Act

Classifies recruitment AI as "high-risk" with strict transparency requirements. Effective Feb 2025.

AI matching models can inadvertently discriminate against protected classes, even with the best intentions. By catching this early, we ensured every applicant gets a fair shot, evaluated by humans rather than algorithms that might carry hidden biases.

Strategic Pivot

🔄 Improving search capabilities without AI ranking

We reframed our approach: instead of using AI to rank candidates, we focused on making recruiters more efficient at finding the right people themselves.

During user interviews, recruiters consistently told us that better search was more valuable than AI hype. So we invested in:

  • Vector search to find candidates even when skills are written differently across CVs
  • Fuzzy matching so typos and variations don't break search results
  • Radius search to find candidates within a specific distance from a location
  • Slack integration to bring recruiting workflows where recruiters already work
Screenshot showing improved search capabilities for finding candidates
Vector search finds candidates with relevant experience even when written differently across CVs
Slack Sales Elevate interface showing recruiting workflows in Slack
Recruiting CRM integration with Slack lets recruiters manage candidates, assign tasks, and collaborate with hiring managers without leaving Slack
Slack Integration

🚀 How I added Elevate to the roadmap

Slack Sales Elevate brings real-time Sales Cloud data into Slack, letting teams manage pipelines and leads.

When I learned we were only using Slack for basic alerts, I spotted an opportunity: recruiters track and convert "leads" too.

In 48 hours I mocked up a recruiting version and demoed it to the team. The concept landed, and "Recruiting Elevate" was added to the roadmap. I then partnered with the Slack team to design screens so recruiters can review, assign, and chat with hiring managers on the go.