New Product Direction for AI Startup, Acquired in 12 months

AI
SaaS
Web
HR Tech

Company

Chosen AI is an HR tech startup using big data to help enterprises retain talent and future-proof their workforce.

Challenge

How might we help enterprises future-proof their workforce?

Team

Product Designer (me)
CEO
CSO
COO
Lead Engineer
Illustrator

Skills / My role

UI/UX Design
Workshop Facilitation
User Research
JTBD
Design Sprint
Data Visualisation
Product Discovery

Results

Company acquired

12 months

A brand new vision for Chosen AI.

Investment round closed

£500,000

Company future secured.

Teams

Aligned

Ready to sell, pitch and build.

Challenge

Company runway was decreasing and the existing proposition wasn't connecting with prospective customers. A rethink of the company direction was needed to ensure a successful upcoming investment round.

Chosen AI's existing offering helped enterprises use external services (like LinkedIn) to headhunt new employees. Enterprise HR teams were more concerned that their workforces would adapt to fast moving technology advancements. Chosen AI decided to pivot their product to suit customer needs better based on customer feedback.

The big question:
How might we help companies with 1000+ employees recognise and pro-actively fix future skill gaps?

Process

The design process this project went through:

Workshop
1. Collate research
2. Map key stakeholders
3. Jobs to be done analysis
4. How might we…
Wireframes
Mock-up prototype
Usability testing
Build

Workshop & JTBD

During a one-day workshop, I facilitated a design-sprint style workshop to get the team on the same page, review key insights from our research and develop creative solutions to our problems.

The day was centered around our key challenge and decisions were led by insights from the customer interviews.

One notable moment of insight during this workshop was a significant misunderstanding between the CEO, CSO and COO. Each had a different understanding of the key stakeholders including the end user. By mapping stakeholders and key workflows we developed a unified perspective.

We used Intercom’s “job story” format to get united on our key JTBDs.

Key jobs to be done

The team explored and discussed solutions to key jobs to be done through a series of sketching exercises, voting and discussions.

The outcome of the workshop was a united team, assumptions that needed further investigation and a collection of rough wireframes I was able to develop further.

Wireframes, Mock-ups and Prototype

Visualising comprehensive predictive AI data sets so users could understand data and take action with minimal training was a key challenge. Working closely with the Lead Engineer, we broke down complex data into human readable forms that were easily understood and digestible presenting them in prototypes.

Below are a selection of screens from the final designs.

Talent search screen (mock up)

Employee search screen (mock up)

Employee details screen (mock up)

Talent search screen (mock up)

Client feedback
Ashleigh Otter
COO
“Fraser's product design expertise was nothing short of transformative! He guided us through rounds of usability testing, helping us crystalize our vision and pivot in a direction that resonated deeply with prospective clients. His ability to bridge user insights with business goals inspired the tech team to develop a working prototype in record time. The clarity he brought to the product vision was instrumental in securing new customers, impressing investors, and ultimately driving the company to a successful acquisition. A massive help.”

Leadership

I led the product design process from research through ideation and prototyping. I worked closely with C-suite to get their unique perspectives and experience on the problem space whilst advocating for the user experience and best design practice.

Outcomes

After a couple rounds of usability testing and positive feedback from prospective clients, we were confident in the new direction of the company. With such clear direction (and being involved from the start) the tech team had an initial build developed within a month.

The new Chosen AI helped enterprises build a workforce to meet future demands.

→ Understanding what is required from a future workforce through human resource planning.
→ Analysing skills in the existing workforce through big data and AI to check employee profiles.
→ Clearly surfacing skills and opportunities for individual and collective staff training.

The CEO started pitching to investors and customers immediately with help from the clear prototype and product vision. New customers signed up, a new investment round was closed and the company was acquired soon after.