Challenge
Build an automated technical assessment tool using Mimir’s automated code evaluation.
Role
User research, wireframing, UX, visual design, overseeing the front end implementation.
In 2017, the technical hiring landscape was underdeveloped, with most companies still relying on resume screens and manually distributing technical assessments. Resumes are not always reflective of a candidate’s skill and hence were partially accurate. Yet resume screens were necessary because the cost of administering technical assessments was too high. Mimir wanted to improve the screening stage of technical hiring by building an automated technical assessment tool.
Opportunities
Existing hiring practices required homemade solutions and workflows to administer technical assessments. These were costly because:
- Resume screens potentially filtered out qualified candidates while promoting unqualified candidates.
- Hiring Managers spent time solving administration problems that already have answers.
- Recruiters spent time coordinating schedules between candidates, hiring managers, and engineers.
- Engineers lost time due to context switching between work and hiring.
Goals
We wanted to build an affordable technical assessment tool that is more accurate than a resume screen. Our technical assessments needed to be comparably priced to the cost of a resume screen in order to drive user sign ups. To do this we wanted to:
- Boost throughput of candidates with automation
- Allow assessment of a large range of technical skills
- Increase objectivity of technical evaluations
Numerous techincal assessment tools already existed, though none were focused on the beginning of the hiring pipeline. Most were positioned as a replacement or enhancement to the final technical interview. While these tools were effective at lowering interviewing costs, improving screening results was essential to improve hiring success at scale.
By speaking with hiring managers, recruiters, engineers, and staffing firms, we observed that many were struggling the most with junior to mid-level hiring. This helped us understand how the hiring and evaluation process differentiates between experience levels and company type. For the first version of the product, this helped us identify a specific set of assessments and a specific company persona.
Solution
Sending an assessment to a candidate
Reviewing a submission
This write-up is a work in process, more words and images coming very soon.
Last edited on March 6, 2019