Full Renewal of Recruit Direct Scout
A full renewal that shifted Recruit Direct Scout from an agent-heavy service toward a database-led recruiting product where companies and candidates could connect more directly.
Contribution
Branding, Product Design
Company
Recruit
Year
2022 - 2024
Project background
A full renewal that shifted Recruit Direct Scout from an agent-heavy service toward a database-led recruiting product where companies and candidates could connect more directly.
Overview
A renewal for both job seekers and employers
For candidates
Make high-level opportunities easier to understand and respond to, starting from scouts that better reflect actual preferences and experience.
For headhunters / HR
Help employers and headhunters move from manual search toward recommendation, so strong candidates can be found faster and with less guesswork.
Project details
What the redesign needed to establish first
1. Setting the vision: from Search to Recommend
Before rebuilding the service, we aligned product, design, and engineering around a clearer direction for Recruit's HR experience as a whole. The core shift was from search-led matching toward recommendation-led matching.
2. Using MVP validation to sharpen the renewal
That direction was tested through MVPs for AI matching and through large-scale usability validation of the renewed UI, so key product bets could be evaluated before the full rollout.
Focused shift
What should this product become next?
The redesign starts from a stronger product point of view, then uses interaction and systems to make that direction durable.
Outcomes
What changed in the product
ATS-side shift
From Search to Recommend
This part captures the ATS-side product shift: how the matching workflow moved from manual search toward recommendation.
That B-side direction was validated through MVPs, usability testing, and client feedback before the full rollout.
Before: search first
After: recommend first
Candidate Side
Reply from stronger-fit scouts
Recommendation became part of the first contact itself, so the design intent was to make incoming scouts feel more relevant before users had to do heavy filtering.
Use chat to deepen mutual understanding
The interaction model shifted toward lightweight back-and-forth conversation, reducing formality and making it easier to build confidence before a bigger step.
AI company research as decision support
AI summarizes company traits, flagship services, recent news, and team culture so candidates can judge fit faster from one place instead of researching from scratch.
Design foundation
A system teams could keep extending
Design Tokens
The token layer established brand range first, then mapped those colors into neutral, interactive, semantic, and expressive usage.
Base
Neutrals for surfaces and text
Primary
Brand and interaction colors
Branding & Marketing
Branding and website design
Alongside the product renewal, I also worked on the broader brand expression for the relaunch. Shown here are two of the external websites: one for the renewed service and one for the brand vision.
Service website
Design and development: Liang Yicheng
Vision website
Design direction: Liang Yicheng / Designer: Sun