Small changes. Big impact. 18% drop-off reduction at step one

Small changes,
big impact. 18% drop-off reduction at step one

Role

Founding Product Designer

Team

PM, Developers, HR Consultant, Busdev

Domain

B2B, HRTech, AI

Key roles

Recruiters, HRD, Hiring Managers & Candidates
Recruiters, HRD, Hiring Managers
& Candidates

Product Context

Potis.ai is an AI-powered recruiter that helps growing teams run structured, unbiased interviews at scale.

I joined 3 months after launch as the Founding Product Designer. There I owned end-to-end UX process and partnered with founders to evolve the product from early traction into a scalable platform.

Problem

After launching on Product Hunt and becoming the #2 product
of the day, the product had a massive flow of new users.

But over 50% of first-time users dropped off at the very first step — creating a job description. It quickly became clear that this was our activation bottleneck. And resolving this was one of my first and most urgent tasks.

Research

I kept it lean and focused. First, I reviewed session replays in Hotjar. Then, I ran usability tests asking HR professionals to hire a backend developer. Closely with the PM, we validated early hypotheses and uncovered what truly mattered.

Key research findings

  1. Creating a job felt long and complex — requiring a significant amount of manual input.

  2. Users wanted fast service — test the platform without putting
    in too much time and effort.

  3. No role available to test — recruiters without open roles preferred not to write random stuff, maybe return later.

Solution

The goal was simple: remove friction and build confidence from the very first screen. The original flow was a long, manual wizard where users had to enter everything themselves.

I redesigned the first step with AI-generated job descriptions,
a visual editor for easy refinement, and contextual alerts to reduce errors and cognitive load.

I redesigned the first step with AI-generated job descriptions,
a visual editor for easy refinement, and contextual alerts to reduce errors and cognitive load.

I redesigned the first step with AI-generated job descriptions,
a visual editor for easy refinement, and contextual alerts to reduce errors and cognitive load.

We had a few major iterations, where I improved the UI across the following steps — removing unnecessary actions and adding AI support where it created real value.

As a result, the flow went from 8 clicks down to 5.

Impact

Within 3 months of launch, results showed clear improvements:

  1. Drop-off at the first step decreased from 52% to 34%, making onboarding smoother and more intuitive.

  2. Number of clicks to complete a key task dropped from 8 to 5, reducing friction and improving efficiency.

  3. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) for the job creation flow reached 4.3, reflecting a more seamless and enjoyable experience.

Lesson learned

Once again, it became clear to me that small, targeted improvements at critical points can have an enormous impact, especially when they make the experience feel effortless
from the start.

Once again, it became clear to me that small, targeted improvements at critical points can have an enormous impact, especially when they make the experience feel effortless from the start.

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