VERTA PRIME
Redesigned 13-page process → ~60% faster completion
Increased qualified candidate conversion and reduced manual review burden.
Why this project?
Verta Prime was losing top talent and money daily. Their premium subscription service connected leading employers with qualified candidates, but the 13-page application/profile process was so complex that candidates abandoned it halfway through while internal teams struggled with overwhelming manual reviews.
What I delivered
I redesigned the entire candidate experience, projected to reduce completion time by ~60% while streamlining internal workflows. The new flow eliminated redundant steps, added clear progress indicators, and automated approval decisions—transforming a frustrating barrier into a smooth pathway that builds confidence for both candidates and employers.
Role
Contract Designer focused on UX improvements for flows and internal processes.​
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Duration
12 weeks
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Team
In-house product design team
Sr. Product Designer acting as Creative Director, Product Manager, Engineering​​ Lead
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Deliverables
Findings document
Creative Brief
Wireframes
User flows
Design documentation
Jira stories/tasks
The application process was frustrating for everyone
Stakeholder interviews revealed the human cost behind the numbers. Candidates would start strong but hit walls when asked for pages upon pages of information they might have already provided in their resumes. They also had no clear next steps or sense of how much work they had left.
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An additional breaking point wasn't just poor completion rates—it was the downstream redundancy. Review teams burned hours on manual reviews instead of meaningful evaluation. When customers started questioning whether the platform's complexity reflected its overall quality, we knew the problem extended far beyond a few confusing form fields.
Activities & outputs
5 stakeholder interviews, Write creative brief
I reframed the challenge around our three main audiences
Stakeholder interviews revealed the core problem wasn't just UX—it was workflow inefficiency—I reframed the entire challenge from: "How do I make this form prettier?" to these three strategic questions:
For candidates
How might we eliminate friction from the application process so that candidates feel confident completing their profiles and joining the talent pool?
For internal teams
How might we reduce manual, repetitive work in the review process so that talent teams can focus on meaningful evaluation rather than administrative tasks?
For the business
How might we create a talent pipeline that converts more qualified candidates so that we can grow our subscription value and market reputation?
This reframe led to three design principles that guided every decision:
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Simplify: Remove unnecessary steps, eliminate redundancy, ask questions only once.
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Guide: Clearly show candidates where they are and what's coming next.
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Inform: Clearly communicate what to do and why.
These principles served as my north star when presenting to stakeholders and helped them understand the rationale behind design decisions.
Activities & outputs
Define core problems for three audiences, Establish design principles
Systematic changes transformed the entire experience
The three principles—Simplify, Guide, Inform—led to focused changes that addressed each audience's pain points without overcomplicating the system.
For the overall flow, I simplified the legacy 13-page application/profile process—which had multiple redundant pages—into a guided 5-page experience, a 62% reduction.
To reduce burden for internal teams, I introduced a 'soft' approval system that routes applications to appropriate backlogs, augmenting the manual review work and letting the humans focus on meaningful evaluation.
For the application process, I reduced the amount of form fields to gather only essential information needed for automated soft-approval decisions. This eliminated data entry that was frustrating candidates while giving internal teams the core data they needed upfront.
I also added clear, assistive content to remove confusion about information requirements and next steps.
For the candidate profile experience, I prepopulated form fields wherever possible and prioritized resume upload to avoid repetitive data entry—candidates could upload their resume and have key fields auto-filled. The new design included contextual messaging throughout the process that answered "what to do and why" at each step.
Most importantly, I added robust navigation that tracked progress and clearly showed completion status, so candidates always knew where they stood and how much work remained.
This transformation turned a confusing 13-page marathon into a guided experience that felt manageable and transparent for candidates while streamlining the review process for internal teams.
Activities & outputs
High fidelity wireframing, Interaction guidelines, Visual design
Desmond came on board and got to work on a number of large initiatives that would forever shape our product. The time spent working and collaborating with him were some of the most productive months our team has experienced.
— Sr. Product Designer, Verta
Redesigned screens using the Verta design system
Testing confirmed I solved the right problems
Throughout the project, I ran quick-turn usability sessions with stakeholders and team-external Verta employees. While scrappy, this approach let me validate whether improvements to navigation, messaging, and progress indicators would actually increase user confidence and promote task completion.
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The feedback was positive, especially around speed and ease of completion. Respondents loved that I streamlined the form to collect only essential information, and the new progress indicators eliminated the anxiety of not knowing how much work remained. Internal teams were excited about augmentation concepts that would reduce their manual review burden.
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The validation went beyond user feedback. I was invited to present to the General Manager/Director of Strategy—rare for a contractor. The presentation felt as much a progress report as it did a "roadshow" to prove the team was working on meaningful business outcomes.
Based on this validation, I projected the systematic changes would deliver ~60% faster completion times, reduced manual review load, and stronger brand positioning—transforming a broken process into a competitive advantage.
Activities & outputs
Guerrilla usability testing, Stakeholder validation, Leadership presentation
What I learned about working as a contractor
Working as a contractor with a small, fast-paced team offered a unique opportunity to quickly jump in and make an impact. Without prior history, I had to quickly build trust and rapport—focusing on telling my story through design principles and decision rationale helped immensely.
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A few key takeaways: This project was my top priority, but just one of many initiatives for the rest of the team. At times, I felt like a butterfly around their heads. Keeping discussions short and focused ensured I made steady progress. Low-fidelity, lightly annotated designs kept things loose and flexible—avoiding a false sense of finality and keeping conversations open.
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If I had more time, I would've loved to explore how talent review dashboards could be redesigned alongside the application flow. Connecting those pieces more tightly could have taken the proposed automation to the next level. I also would've liked to be involved in the launch and iteration phases—there's nothing like seeing how a design holds up in the wild.
Activities & outputs
Project retrospective
Next up : Design Critique at Duo Case Study