Creating assessment centers of tomorrow
NEW PLATFORM
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BRAINSTORMING
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Testing
Introducing SmartADC
Introduction
Overview
SmartADC is a digital platform designed to modernize Assessment & Development Centers (ADCs), making the evaluation of candidates more efficient, scalable, and data-driven.
Traditional ADCs require significant manual effort, leading to high setup time, logistical challenges, and inefficient assessment tracking.
SmartADC eliminates these pain points by enabling customizable workflows, real-time monitoring, and automated reporting, helping organizations streamline talent assessment.
Problem statement
Why SmartADC?
Assessment & Development Centers are widely used in corporate hiring and educational institutions to assess candidate competencies through structured exercises. However, the traditional approach has major inefficiencies:
Time-Consuming & Manual Setup: Configuring ADCs often takes days due to complex workflows.
Inefficient Communication: Coordinating between assessors, candidates, and administrators is cumbersome.
Lack of Customization: Existing solutions don’t allow flexible assessment workflows tailored to different organizations.
Difficult Report Generation: Compiling assessment results into structured reports takes significant effort.
SmartADC solves these problems by offering an intuitive, end-to-end digital ADC platform that reduces setup time by 90% while improving assessment accuracy and usability for all stakeholders.
benefits
Key features
SmartADC was designed with three core principles:
Efficiency – Reduce manual effort in ADC setup, assessment tracking, and reporting.
Customisation – Enable organizations to create flexible workflows suited to their unique assessment needs.
Scalability – Support large-scale assessments with multiple user roles, automated reporting, and live monitoring.
Impact
What it lead to
With these improvements, SmartADC has helped organizations like Mercer Italy, CP Plus, and Telkom Indonesia modernize their talent assessment process, reducing attrition rates by 50% and improving decision-making speed.
quick links
Primary focus areas for the project
Understanding gaps & issues
Problem statement
Challenges in traditional ADCs
Assessment & Development Centers (ADCs) play a crucial role in evaluating candidates for hiring, promotions, and competency development.
However, traditional ADCs face major inefficiencies that impact both organizations and test-takers.
Time-Consuming & Resource-Heavy
Setting up ADC workflows manually took 8+ hours per session.
Assessors struggled to track candidate progress in real-time.
Limited Customisation & Scalability
Existing solutions had rigid assessment structures that did not adapt to different industries.
No way to personalize workflows or reporting formats based on client needs.
Inefficient Candidate & Assessor Experience
Assessors had to manually record observations, leading to errors and inconsistencies.
Test-takers lacked an intuitive assessment environment, affecting their performance.
Complex & Delayed Report Generation
Manually compiling reports took 2+ hours per candidate.
Decision-makers had to wait for assessment results, slowing down hiring and talent development.
MY ROLE
What did I do?
As a Product Designer & UX strategist, I was responsible for:
Research & discovery
Conducted user interviews with HR professionals, assessors, and candidates.
Identified top pain points in ADC workflows and assessment tracking.
Analysed competitor solutions to find differentiation opportunities.
UX & Product Design
Designed a persona-driven user journey for assessors, candidates, and administrators.
Created wireframes & high-fidelity UI focusing on ease of use and efficiency.
Developed a modular ADC workflow builder & report configurators that allowed full customisation of workflow & reports.
Collaboration & implementation
Worked closely with developers, product managers, and business stakeholders to align UX with business goals.
Led usability testing and iterated on designs based on user feedback.
Ensured the platform was mobile-responsive for seamless access across devices.
Research process & findings
To create a solution that truly improves ADC workflows, I needed to deeply understand user pain points and needs.
My research process followed a structured approach, which involved competitive analysis, user research and iterative prototyping.
User research
Research Objectives
Before designing, we defined key questions to guide our research among the personas:
🥸 For administrators
How long does it take to set up an ADC today?
What reporting and analytics tools do they need to make data-driven hiring decisions?
👩🏼🎓 For candidates
What difficulties do they experience in the assessment process?
How can the assessment environment be made more intuitive and less stressful?
🧑💻 For assessors & evaluators
What challenges do they face in setting up and conducting assessments?
How do they currently evaluate candidates, and where do inefficiencies arise?
What features would make assessment tracking easier?
User RESEARCH / INTERVIEWS
Finding qualitative insights
We conducted user interviews to understand the workflow of ADC & what are some common pain-points they face on daily-basis.
Interview details
Interview type: Structured
Interview format: 1-on-1 virtual interview
Duration: 45-60 minutes per session
Interview questions
We defined questionnaire with intent of learning as much as we can from the people who interact with ADC.
You can view questionnaire from button below
User RESEARCH / INTERVIEWS
Interview insights
Through these interviews, I was able to get enough insights that spanned across the personas which gave various insights.
🥸 For administrators
70% found manual report generation time-consuming
Assessors struggled with tracking multiple candidates simultaneously
HR teams wanted customized ADC workflows tailored to their organization’s needs.
Existing platforms offered limited flexibility, making it hard to adapt assessments for different roles.
Data insights were limited, making it difficult to analyze results at scale.
👩🏼🎓 For candidates
Unclear instructions caused anxiety, impacting performance.
Lack of progress tracking left candidates unsure about their status during assessments.
Some found navigation on existing ADC platforms confusing.
🧑💻 For assessors & evaluators
Tracking multiple candidates was challenging, as assessors had to rely on manual notes.
Inconsistency in assessment criteria made it difficult to compare candidates fairly.
Reports were manually compiled, taking 2+ hours per candidate.
User RESEARCH / Competitive analysis
What others are doing
With the help of Product managers, we started exploring other platforms available in the market to identify market gap and potential opportunities to make improvements.
Arenas to explore
Use Cases
Who are primary users
Primary usecase - hiring, L&D or assessments?
Customisation & Flexibility
How easy is it to set up, customise, and manage ADCs?
Can users design their own ADC workflows?
Can users modify competencies, exercises, and evaluation criteria?
User Experience (UX) & Accessibility
Is the platform intuitive for HR, assessors, and candidates?
Does it have a intuitive controls for ADC setup?
Is it mobile-friendly or mobile-first?
Are there multi-language support and accessibility features?
Reporting & Analytics
What kind of assessment insights and analytics does it provide?
Can users create custom reports & dashboards?
Does it support exporting data to external tools
Candidate Experience
Are ADCs easy to navigate for candidates?
Does it provide real-time feedback to candidates?
User RESEARCH / COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Analysis Insights
Through extensive analysis, we were able to get worthwhile insights about our competitors and a general direction as to how to proceed.
General direction to focus on
Hyper-Customization & Workflow Flexibility
A key gap in SHL, Talogy, and HireVue.
SmartADC can offer a fully customizable ADC design system to stand out.Advanced Reporting & Real-Time Feedback
Aon's dominance in this area means SmartADC should offer AI-driven analytics, real-time performance insights, and integrations with external data tools.Superior Candidate Experience with Multi-Language Support
Competing with Aon requires a seamless user experience across global markets.
Implementing adaptive interfaces, accessibility enhancements, and multilingual support can be a game-changer.
User RESEARCH / CONCLUSION
Concluding resarch
These were final insights we gathered from our research before heading towards platform planning.
Pain-points identified
Time consuming & Manual setup
Configuring traditional ADCs often takes days due to complex workflows.
Inefficient Communication
Coordinating between assessors, candidates, and administrators is cumbersome.
Lack of Customization
Existing solutions don’t allow flexible assessment workflows tailored to different organizations.
Difficult Report Generation
Compiling assessment results into structured reports takes significant effort.
Where current solutions fall
Inefficiency
High manual effort and time consumption in setting up and managing assessments.
Rigidity
Inability to customize workflows to align with specific organizational needs.
Poor Communication
Challenges in seamless coordination among stakeholders.
Cumbersome Reporting
Difficulty in generating structured and insightful reports.
Opportunities to stand out
Efficiency
Reduces manual effort in ADC setup, assessment tracking, and reporting.
Customization
Enables organizations to create flexible workflows suited to their unique assessment needs.
Scalability
Supports large-scale assessments with multiple user roles, automated reporting, and live monitoring.
Existing ADC platforms fail to provide real-time candidate feedback and customisable workflows, making them rigid and less engaging.
SmartADC can bridge this gap by offering an adaptable, data-driven and user-friendly ADC experience.
People & Problem
PERSONAS
People of ADC
Our users includes, business owners, administrators, assessors (who scores the candidate tasks and generate reports), operations team, competency management team, and finally the customers of the business.
However since ADCs are widely used in education institutes and internal training purposes, our clients' customers (end-users) also fall under our personas.
Problem statement
How might we?
After concluding research, we uncovered various pain-points and found ourselves asking "How might we"
Solution
Brainstorming & Prioritisation
A comprehensive list of tasks across personas from start to end of an ADC was created. This exercise laid the foundation for our MVP
This list was created in collaboration with product managers, operations team with deep knowledge about the ADC history and how the process flows.
This gave us a diverse and comprehensive perspectives and list of potential features that we can plan for MVP.
Solution
Feature bucketing
These tasks from the exercise helped us see patterns and map out the user journey into five broad buckets.
For the MVP we ideated concepts under each of these buckets.
Solution design
What to keep first?
In conjunction with Product Managers and Tech leads, we devised an Impact vs. Feasibility matrix that segregated the brainstormed features in each bucket according to priority for an MVP and defining later phases.
This is a rough list of features that were discussed and prioritised.
Ideation & Solution
User journey
Updated ADC flow
With thorough ideation with product managers, we formulated user flows for each persona that tries to resolve highlighted pain-points during the research phase.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Updated Information Architecture
We also created in-depth IA to get clear understanding of the features, information and the content user needs contextually.
Solution design
Sketches & Ideas
Now that we have a list of features we need to include in our MVP, and the Information architecture, we moved on towards sketching possible designs of the core screens.
We started with paper sketches and iterating using guerrilla testing to ensure we are moving in the right direction.
Solution design
Low-fidelity & Experiments
I started experimenting with different ideas & thoughts — some based on the sketches and placing features on the screens without making it overwhelming.
Each design was iterated with product managers to get their views and any feedback they want to share.
Here are some early iterations of the ADC platforms for all users involved.
Creating next-gen of ADCs
High-fidelity
Solving pain-points, one feature at a time
Slowly, I started to get a good picture of what the new-generation of ADC platform looks like as all the pieces started to click and getting structured for a cohesive platform.
smartadc: Setup
A custom workflow builder with support of all assessment tasks
An intuitive visual workflow builder, with ability to add various tasks with the each workflow and the ability to customise added tasks to get exactly what users wants.
smartadc: Setup
User management with E-mailer customisation for each persona
We designed an utility which allowed teams to bulk invite candidates & assessors to specific ADCs.
E-mail creator is designed to make sure to provide customised experience to each persona
smartadc: Setup
Report builder with templates for competency management
A comprehensive report builder which allowed our users to map competencies to specific section of report linked with tasks added in an ADC.
Each report is customisable from scratch - with ability to create standard reports to complex 9-box models with enhanced control over the report design.
smartadc: Manage
Live monitoring of the ADC progress and personalised dashboard for all users
With the creation of persona-specific dashboard, we created multiple live-monitoring widgets that allowed users to keep track of the event progress, candidate reports, scheduling and other operational data.
This allowed users to enhance accessibility of the important information which was a huge bottleneck of the operations team.
smartadc: PUBLISH
Users can create batches for smooth evaluation
Candidates can get divided into mutiple virtual batches, which allows evaluators to effectively manage huge scale of candidates who are participating in an ADC.
smartadc: PUBLISH
Custom instruction panels for candidates and assessors
People can access dedicated panels containing general event instructions & specific task-level instructions - for candidates and assessors.
These instructions contains assessor guidelines and reference documents.
smartadc: Engage
A calendar with assigned tasks with filters
With filters applied, candidates & assessors can easily scan their calendars for tasks and pending work with just a few click.
The Impact
Launch
Preparing for launch
Product Managers carefully orchestrated a strategic phase-wise launch for the new platform, which was thoughtfully structured around our early-adopting clients. These initial clients, who had signed up first, were given priority access to plan their Assessment and Development Centers (ADCs) using the new platform.
This approach was specifically designed to gather immediate and actionable feedback from real users, helping us identify and prioritize potential features and improvements that could be systematically incorporated into subsequent phases of the rollout.
The phased implementation strategy allowed us to refine the platform iteratively based on actual user experiences and requirements.
Platform scalability
Our platform features a robust, scalable architecture that efficiently handles workforce assessments across your organization.
With over 6,000 customers worldwide and 25 million annual assessments processed, our system demonstrates proven reliability and performance.
ADC Reports
SmartADC delivers comprehensive analytics through easy-to-understand, customizable reports that provide deep insights into individual potential, strengths, and development areas.
The platform generates reports in 12+ languages with features including:
Individual development plans customized to organizational needs
Group analytics and leadership development recommendations
Objective insights based on the Johari window framework
This multilingual support ensures clear communication of assessment results and development plans across global organizations, transforming assessment data into actionable insights for effective talent management decisions.
Time & efficiency
SmartADC's digital platform delivers significant time and cost benefits compared to traditional assessment centers.
By eliminating physical venue costs, travel expenses, and manual administration, while automating test delivery, scoring, and reporting, organizations can streamline their assessment process and make faster decisions.
This efficiency is especially valuable when evaluating large numbers of candidates.
User experience
Our platform delivers an exceptional user experience that puts both administrators and participants at ease.
Through its intuitive interface and customizable features, SmartADC transforms traditional assessment complexities into a seamless digital journey.
The platform's user-friendly design not only enhances engagement but also ensures that everyone—from HR professionals to candidates—can focus on what truly matters: delivering and demonstrating their best performance.
Impact on Business outcome
Transforms talent identification and leadership development processes within organizations
Enables more informed decision-making about personnel and helps diagnose workforce development needs
Improves job performance prediction accuracy and provides realistic job previews to candidates
Helps reduce employee attrition rates
Contributes to organizational effectiveness through optimized talent management
ROI & Impact of SmartADC
The SmartADC platform delivers measurable ROI through both quantitative and qualitative benefits through these key metrics
15% improvement in team performance
24% higher profit margins through targeted training
50% reduction in time-to-hire
80% reduction in unnecessary interviews
Beyond these metrics, the platform strengthens organizations through improved talent acquisition, development, and succession planning. This comprehensive approach leads to increased productivity, better engagement, and higher retention rates.
The platform aligns with current industry trends, as highlighted in the "State of Learning and Development Report 2022", which emphasizes the growing importance of assessment tools in identifying skills gaps and measuring training effectiveness.
The Clients
It helped organisations like Mercer Italy, Godfrey Phillips and CP Plus have cut attrition rates by up to 50%, while Modern and Telkom Indonesia have successfully identified high-potential talent through SmartADC.
Clients value our robust assessments, seamless integration, and intuitive reports, as seen with SRL Diagnostics and Averda.
By taking a holistic approach to talent management, SmartADC positively impacts the entire talent lifecycle and contributes to long-term organizational success.
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