Executive Search Platform:
Unified Hub for Executive Search
Built a unified hub that consolidated executive search tools and data. Strong adoption led to one of the largest expansion deals in Findem's history, establishing ESP as a leading solution.
Building a centralized hub for executive search
Executive Search Platform (ESP) brings AI-powered search, candidate information, and market insights into one place. Researchers can find the right candidates faster without jumping between tools or dealing with outdated spreadsheets.
Leading end-to-end product design
I led end-to-end product design from scratch, building the platform from early concepts through launch and continuing to drive improvements. Working closely with Product, Engineering, and Consultants, we maintained strong relationships with co-innovation partners to evolve the experience.
From Co-Innovation
to Leading Solution
In 2024, we started co-innovating with one of the world's leading global executive search firms to reimagine how their teams find and assess executive talent.
In 2025, we launched Executive Search Platform to 1,000+ users globally. Adoption was strong and immediate — users exceeded their first-year usage minimums in just three months.
This success led to an $8.5M expansion deal, doubling the size of the client's largest vendor investment ever made. The platform then expanded to additional firms and became one of Findem's top solutions.
Learn more:🔗 Reimagine the next generation of executive search
🔗 How Findem is elevating executive searchWhy We Started
When we began co-innovating with them, we found their teams faced slow, fragmented workflows. Without a central hub for candidate and market data, delivering qualified talent quickly was difficult.
User Challenge
Users relied on multiple disconnected tools and data sources to find candidates and track market insights. Constantly switching between tools made the process inefficient and time-consuming. They manually added candidates to spreadsheets, where data quickly became outdated.
Business Challenge
Speed is crucial for executive search. When teams can't deliver results quickly, they risk losing placements to competitors and disappointing clients who expect to find the right candidates quickly.
Goal
Build a centralized hub that streamlines the executive search process and helps teams deliver faster.
Design Goal
Create a platform that integrates trusted data and unifies workflows, so users can find candidates and market insights in one place without constantly switching between tools.
Business Goal
Speed up the search process so users can deliver the right candidates quickly, giving them more time for strategic work and improving client satisfaction.
Who We’re Solving For
We stayed close to researchers from discovery to launch. Our primary users are researchers who source and assess candidates, build talent pools, and track progress for consultants and clients.
Early research and conversations helped us understand where their workflows break down and what they needed to work more effectively.
What we heard
Fragmented sourcing:
"I'm constantly jumping between platforms to find candidates and gather market data. It's slow and frustrating."
Outdated, manual tracking:
"I use spreadsheets to build candidate lists. It's all manual, and by the time I share it with my consultant, half the data is already outdated."
Design Approach
Information architecture: Organizing workflows in one platform
We started by designing My Apps and the App Catalog, giving users control over which tools they want to access most frequently.
We then structured the executive search process around projects. Each project is a workspace for a specific client engagement where users conduct searches, save candidates, view profiles, and track progress. All the data and tools they need (search filters, candidate profiles, market insights) live inside the project, so users never have to leave or switch to another tool. Everything stays in one place.
This structure helps users stay focused on their work without losing context or duplicating effort across multiple systems.
Core Features
My Apps & App Catalog: Control which tools to use
To reduce time spent switching between tools, we let users choose which tools they want to access most frequently. My Apps is where users access their most-used tools, and the App Catalog lets them browse and add apps to personalize their workspace.
Projects: Centralized workspaces for each engagement
Each project is a workspace for a specific hiring search. Everything related to that search (finding candidates, tracking progress, sharing updates) happens in one place instead of scattered across multiple tools.
Within each project, users have access to:
Project Visibility: Track progress in one place
Jumping between tools meant researchers couldn't easily see the big picture of each search or quickly reference what the client needed.
We designed the project overview to show progress at a glance.
The left side displays activity metrics and how candidates are distributed across the search.
The right side keeps client information and search requirements visible, so users always have key context while they work.
Unified Search with Integrated Data:
Find candidates without switching tools
Researchers relied on multiple disconnected platforms to find candidates and gather market data. We integrated data from sources like BoardEx, PitchBook, LinkedIn, and Crunchbase directly into the platform. Users can filter, explore rich candidate profiles, and access market context without switching tools.
AI-Powered Insights:
Complete view of candidates faster
To help users review and validate candidates quickly, we combine data from multiple trusted sources (BoardEx, LinkedIn, etc.) into a single profile, giving users a complete view of someone's background.
Users can ask AI questions about a candidate's experience or generate a summary pitch for consultants, making it easier to assess fit and communicate findings.
Save and Track Candidates: Build pipeline within projects
Instead of manually tracking candidates in static spreadsheets, users can save candidates directly within their project.
Saved candidates stay in the project, and when ready, users can add reviews and comments and export profiles directly for the next step.
Track and Manage Candidates:
Keep data current automatically
Manual spreadsheets meant data quickly became outdated. We designed an interactive table that feels like a spreadsheet but stays automatically up-to-date.
The system automatically captures viewed, saved, or exported candidates in one place, so users never lose track of their work. Familiar spreadsheet features like filtering, reordering columns, and exporting as CSV help users adopt it more easily.
In-app education: Guiding first-time users
To help first-time users onboard smoothly, we introduced in-app education when launching the platform.
New users see a greeting and step-by-step guide upon logging in. A help center with product documentation is available, and we continue to expand these resources.
Results & Impact
We launched Executive Search Platform to over 1,000 users globally across the US, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Australia, and beyond.
Strong adoption drove one of the largest expansion deals in Findem's history, and the platform expanded to additional firms, establishing ESP as a leading solution for executive search.
Reduced time to source executive roles by 59%
Here's what we heard from users:
“I'm just starting to play around with Findem, but you can really see how it will be a game changer. It is a one stop shop. You are able to search by parameters from various databases, quickly go to links, and even see board service or if a person is in custody on a search.”
– Research Director
“I think the Findem platform is great and has the potential to transform our research workflows. The enriched data that it also provides (e.g., company descriptions, CapIQ) data also take it beyond just a simple tool that aggregates information into one spot.”
– Research Consultant
Learnings & What’s Next
This was Findem's first co-innovation project, and it became one of our flagship solutions. Working closely with researchers from discovery through launch gave me a deep understanding of how people build trust with new tools — and how design can accelerate that.
The platform's success opened a bigger question: what if the system didn't just support the research process? That's what led to AI Agents for Executive Search, designing agents that deliver complete reports, shifting the user's role from builder to editor.