Connecting hiring & onboarding in one product
I designed Zelt's first Applicant Tracking System, taking it from an early concept to a shipped product available to every customer. The experience connects job creation, candidate screening and onboarding without moving data between separate platforms.
Role
Lead Product Designer, IC
Platform
Web
Period:
2025-2026
Shipped
Beta in November 2025,
GA in May 2026
Opportunity
Hiring stopped at the edge of the HR platform
Customers were paying for a separate ATS, then manually moving successful candidates into their HR system. This created duplicate work and broke the employee journey at the point of hire.
The opportunity was to make recruitment part of Zelt's all-in-one model: attract candidates, review them fairly, make a decision and start onboarding from the same record.
My approach
Prototype the full journey while building features
I mapped the product from job setup and public application through to screening, hiring and employee onboarding. Early prototypes helped align product, engineering and customer-facing teams, and supported a customer commitment before development was complete.
The first version focused on the core journey rather than matching every feature in mature standalone ATS products.
Creating a job post
The end-to-end experience.
From job post to employee record.
Create a job and application form.
Publish it to a branded careers page and job boards.
Review candidates in a visual pipeline.
Screen applications, CVs and notes in one focused view.
Advance, reject or communicate with candidates.
Onboard the successful candidate using pre-filled employment data.
Company public page & Application form
Iterating the Screening Mode. Make one-at-a-time review focused, clear and honest.
Screening Mode brought the application, CV, cover letter, notes and decision actions into one view. During iteration, I clarified what counts as Reviewed, simplified distracting avatar colours and removed a progress bar that made candidate review look like a linear checklist.
I replaced it with clearer status signals and direct Advance and Reject actions. This kept the interface fast without suggesting false certainty in a human decision.
"Super impressed with ATS so far." - Zelt’s customer feedback, Mar 2026
Shipped by default to every Zelt customer
Outcome and honest next step
The product was strongest for companies that wanted a simple, integrated alternative to a separate ATS. Its limitation was high-volume recruitment, where bulk actions and deeper workflow controls still needed development.
After GA, I also designed a mobile-first swipe interaction for screening candidates on the go. Customer demand was validated, but the complete mobile ATS experience was still being built, so I would present this as Next, not shipped impact.
A few more shots of the work in progress:
