Stepstone

Enabling large companies to create job adverts at scale

Stepstone's job adverts drive €514M in annual revenue, but the existing builder was designed for SMBs. Larger customers struggled with speed, reuse, and control.

I redesigned the job ad builder to support medium and large enterprises, enabling faster creation and higher quality output.

My role

  • —Lead Product Designer
  • —End-to-end ownership — discovery through delivery
  • —Collaboration with Product, Research, and Engineering
  • —Sep – Dec 2024

The problem

Large employers struggled to create effective job adverts.

  • —Slow, multi-step process
  • —No way to reuse existing content
  • —Unintuitive text editing
  • —Forced AI content generation
  • —Lack of guidance on what 'good' looks like

Insight

Users weren't just creating adverts — they were trying to write better ones, with little support.

Opportunity

Simplify the experience and support quality at scale.

  • —Reduce time to create adverts
  • —Enable reuse of existing content
  • —Provide flexibility — not force AI
  • —Guide users toward better outcomes

Approach

  • —User testing + prior research
  • —Competitor analysis (LinkedIn, Workable, Otta)
  • —Monthly test-and-learn cycles

Insight

Stepstone required far more steps than competitors.

Explorations

Explored multiple entry points and AI patterns to balance flexibility with guidance—testing document upload, URL parsing, and reusable templates.

Document and URL inputs performed well, but real usage skewed heavily toward Word docs. Prioritising document upload aligned with behaviour and maximised impact.

Testing also showed AI should guide, not prescribe—shifting focus from static market scores to contextual, AI-driven recommendations.

URL parsing

Market insights

AI recommendations

Solution

Speed at scalePrioritised document upload (reuse existing specs)
Flexible inputsImportance scaling + optional AI
Simpler editingClearer, more intuitive text editing
LayoutSingle-column for focus and scalability

Impact

+15%
Customer satisfaction
8 → 2
Job creation steps
-5 mins
Average creation time
  • —Faster, more flexible job advert creation
  • —Improved text editing experience

Key learning

Broader communication matters.

Early on, I didn't engage widely enough across the organisation, missing key insights from Sales.

  • —Presented work at Quarterly Business Review
  • —Built stronger cross-team collaboration
  • —Gained deeper customer understanding

Result

Better alignment and stronger outcomes

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