Challenge
A French-speaking Swiss HR and headhunting firm has spent decades helping professionals find their next role. Its method works, but it was delivered by hand: an early prototype, spreadsheets, a separate coaching tool and links sent by email, stitched together for every candidate by the consultants themselves.
The market had also changed. Candidates now need to know not only what they are good at, but whether they are ready for a job market reshaped by AI. The firm wanted to answer that question for many more people, without losing the human judgement that made its method worth trusting.
Solution
We redesigned the candidate journey end to end, as one platform. A candidate measures their competencies and their readiness for today's market, and receives one clear report that brings every piece of evidence together. From there the journey continues into coaching, a subscription that keeps them measuring their progress over time, and, for those who are placed, a platform that handles their employment.
AI does the heavy lifting where it helps most: it reads what candidates write and turns it into qualitative feedback, not just a score. A consultant reviews every report and signs it off before the candidate sees it.
Execution
Discovery, in three sessions
We worked through the firm's method with the founders in three sessions: first the vision and what the platform must never lose, then the candidate journey and what to build first, then the final scope and roadmap. Each session ended with a working document the founders could react to, so decisions were made on something concrete.
Designing the journey end to end
We mapped every step a candidate takes, from the first assessment to being placed and staying in touch, and every step the consultants take behind it. That map covered the assessments, the user experience of each screen, coaching, subscriptions and the employer-of-record platform, so each part was designed knowing what comes before and after it, even the parts built later.
Putting AI where it helps
The AI's job is qualitative: reading free-text answers and evidence, and turning them into feedback a candidate can act on. It drafts; it never decides. Every report goes to a consultant first, which keeps the firm's judgement at the centre and makes the feedback something the firm can stand behind.
Building in stages
The first release is the core of the journey: the assessment and the report, with the consultant review built in. Coaching and subscriptions come next, and the employer-of-record platform after that. Candidate data is hosted in Switzerland and handled under Swiss and European data protection law from day one.
