01
Client and role intake
A structured way to capture client requirements, role details, hiring criteria, and internal ownership before sourcing begins.
AnonymizedRecruitment & Staffing
Recruitment Agency Operating System
A recruitment agency needed more than a generic CRM. Their data was scattered across Excel sheets, individual consultants, management files, and operations workflows. We consulted with the team, mapped the real workflow, helped centralize and migrate their operating data, and built a company-wide recruitment operating system around how the agency already worked.
Built around the agency workflow
Users
Recruiters, managers, and internal administrators
Before
Excel sheets split across consultants, management, and operations
Core asset
Shared candidate and recruitment database
Primary value
Centralized data, fewer duplicate lists, and clearer handoffs
Before
Generic CRMs had never worked for the agency. The off-the-shelf tools they tried were too clunky and could not be shaped around the way the team actually operated, which is what led them to commission a custom build. Their operating data was also fragmented. Client requirements, candidate status, recruiter ownership, notes, follow-ups, and operational reporting were spread across Excel sheets, consultant-owned files, management trackers, and informal operations processes. Recruiters also needed to collaborate on each other's cases without losing context, duplicating candidates, or rebuilding the same candidate database in separate files. The team did not need another generic database. They needed one shared system and a practical migration path into it.
After
The agency gained a company-specific operating system for recruitment work: one place to manage client requirements, migrated candidate and operational data, a shared recruitment database, pipeline status, recruiter ownership, co-working across cases, and management oversight.
Operating system
The system was organized around how recruiters actually worked.
The build was not positioned as a generic CRM replacement. It became the internal place where client requirements, candidate records, ownership, co-working, and management oversight came together.
02
Shared candidate database
One recruitment database for candidate records, notes, history, and status so recruiters stop rebuilding separate Excel lists.
03
Data migration
A practical migration path from scattered Excel sheets and consultant-owned files into shared company records.
04
Collaborative case work
Recruiters can co-work active roles, transfer ownership, and pick up context from another recruiter's activity without long handoff messages.
05
Pipeline and shortlist flow
Candidates move through sourcing, review, shortlist, interview, follow-up, and closure stages with visible status.
06
Manager oversight
Managers can see role progress, recruiter ownership, active pipelines, and stuck cases without asking for manual updates.
07
Admin controls
Internal users can maintain workflow options, statuses, and operational data as the agency's process evolves.
Collaboration
Recruiters could work from the same truth.
One shared source of candidate data meant the team could move work between each other without losing context or rebuilding lists.
A shared candidate database reduced duplicate records and scattered recruiter-owned lists.
Candidate notes, ownership, status, and history stayed attached to the record instead of living in private files.
Recruiters could help progress each other's roles because case context was visible in the system.
Managers could see active roles and stuck cases without asking recruiters to prepare manual updates.
Build detail
What the engagement actually covered.
From workflow mapping and data migration through to the production web app the team now runs on day to day.
PRD & requirementsWorkflow mappingData migrationExcel data consolidationProduct architectureRecruitment pipeline designShared candidate databaseCollaborative case managementRole-based viewsAdmin toolingDatabase designDashboard viewsProduction web app
How we approached it
- A product consultant worked through the PRD in detail with the non-technical founder, turning their business knowledge into clear product requirements.
- Mapped the real workflow, from client requirement intake through sourcing, shortlist, interview, and closure, before designing any screens.
- Defined which scattered records had to become shared company data, and cleaned them before migration.
- Designed shared candidate records that kept ownership, notes, and case context clear as recruiters co-worked roles.
- Separated recruiter and manager workflows so daily execution and oversight didn't compete in one interface.
What shipped
- A central web app for the agency's core recruitment operations, with client and job requirement tracking built around their intake process.
- Candidate records with status, ownership, notes, and pipeline movement.
- Migration of records previously scattered across Excel sheets and team-owned files into one shared, reusable database.
- Collaboration flows to co-work cases, transfer ownership, and pick up context from each other's activity.
- Recruiter screens for daily work, manager views for oversight, and admin controls for internal data.
- The full production infrastructure stood up and handed over, leaving the agency owning and holding the keys to their own system.
Why this builds confidence
- Built from the agency's actual workflow instead of forcing the team into a generic CRM.
- Tackled the data problem first: scattered Excel and consultant-owned files consolidated into shared records.
- Case ownership stayed visible without blocking collaboration, so recruiters could progress each other's roles.
- The first release centered on daily adoption, the screens people open every day, not a broad feature wishlist.
- Consulting and implementation happened together, so product decisions stayed tied to operational reality.
- When the agency chose to bring maintenance in-house, we trained their new technician from the ground up so the team could run and extend the system independently after handover.
Have a similar workflow?
Send the rough version: documents, screenshots, spreadsheets, notes, or the workflow your team is working around. We can help turn it into scope, tradeoffs, and a first release plan.