Defining a Mobile Hiring App Strategy

Client confidentiality prevents sharing specific artifacts and impact metrics, but the following overview provides a representative look at my process and the results achieved. Please reach out for a verbal walk-through if you’d like to learn more.

The Challenge

As part of a broader initiative to modernize digital hiring tools, a leading recruitment platform needed to better understand how employers use mobile throughout the hiring journey.

With growing expectations for flexibility and speed in talent acquisition, the client aimed to design a mobile hiring app that truly met the needs of its users, seeking clarity on who those users are, what needs mobile could fulfill, and which features would deliver the most impact.

Approach

I led the execution of a rigorous, three-phase research project designed to build on existing knowledge, fill key gaps, and ultimately provide a predictive, data-driven roadmap for mobile product development.

Phase 1: Meta-Analysis of Existing Research & Analytics

  • Reviewed prior employer research (both app-specific and general), along with analyzing the analytics of current mobile app and site engagement.
  • Interviewed internal SMEs to understand business needs, contextualize user behavior, and to access recent analytics (e.g., platform usage, employer demographics, activity patterns).
  • Synthesized findings from across a variety of sources to create a baseline understanding of mobile tool usage across the hiring journey.
  • Identified known pain points, employer segments, and gaps that shaped the next phases.

Phase 2: Qualitative Exploration

  • Conducted exploratory interviews with employers to fill knowledge caps from Phase 1, such as unmet needs and perceptions of mobile usage during hiring.
  • Structured discussions around each phase of the hiring journey to probe what users currently do, wish they could do, and perceive as limitations of mobile tools.
  • Uncovered scenarios and language that would feed into survey design in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Quantitative Survey & Modeling

  • Designed a comprehensive survey to quantify needs and predict mobile feature usage across employer segments.
  • Leveraged MaxDiff and TURF analysis to surface the most valuable and broadly appealing features.
  • Survey fielded in the US, UK, and Germany to assess if roadmaps needed to differ by region.
  • Survey responses were segmented by app usage experience and hiring behavior segments to identify distinct patterns of need and opportunity.

Output

  • A data-backed roadmap of mobile features prioritized by employer segment and hiring stage
  • A predictive model of mobile feature adoption and frequency of need across use cases
  • A feature demand heat map to guide design and future roadmap decisions
  • Audience overviews for whom the app should be optimized
  • Reinforcement of users’ self-reported behaviors and needs of mobile app in the hiring journey
  • Strategic alignment across product and internal teams based on shared visibility into employer needs

Impact

  • Provided clear product direction for a mobile hiring app, rooted in employer needs and actual usage patterns.
  • Identified under-served employer segments and validated assumptions from prior internal work.
  • Enabled cross-functional alignment between Product, UX, Marketing, and technology teams by delivering an evidence-based strategy.
  • Ultimately drove realignment of teams/individuals within the client organization to accomplish the strategy.

Reflections

This study exemplified the power of a phased research approach, from building on what’s known, exploring what’s missing, to then quantifying what matters most. By integrating qualitative depth with quantitative precision, it helped the client move beyond anecdote and assumption toward a roadmap that was both strategically sound and deeply grounded in user needs.

Understanding how mobile tools fit into complex, real-world hiring processes allowed the client to prioritize with confidence and design for meaningful impact across segments.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/hands-of-a-woman-with-red-nails-typing-on-a-smartphone-6963601/

Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-people-near-wooden-table-3184418/

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