The Challenge: Bringing Textio’s writing guidance to external platforms and existing workflows
Textio built a great in-browser writing experience for job posts and other recruiting communications via our own web app, but struggled with consistent adoption and utilization by end users. Many noted that while they saw the value in using Textio’s writing guidance, their existing workflows were already complex enough (without adding another app).
Adding another application to existing workflows was seen by many users a significant barrier to adoption, especially given Textio’s relatively narrow focus on recruiting comms (and - since 2023 - performance feedback).
Defining a Solution
Rather than requiring users to draft their recruiting documents on Textio’s website, what if we brought our writing guidance to the platforms they were already working in today? What might a Textio writing experience look and feel like in Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMs, and other ATS/HRIS platforms?
Our design team worked closely with Textio’s product team to identify which ATS platforms we should build for first. That prioritization was primarily driven by platform usage among our customer base (ranked by ARR), with design offering additional input on potential UX complexities that might impact our ranking. We settled on two platforms - Greenhouse and Workday - for the initial release.
Similarly, we looked at our own metrics, along with industry data, in order to scope which browser(s) we’d consider building a Textio extension for. Based on our existing customer metrics, Chrome was the clear winner. We later added support for Edge as well.
Once the initial ATS platforms and supported browser was selected, we worked to finalize the scope of the project, identifying which Textio functionality should be supported by the new browser extension.
- Textio's interactive writing guidance (highlights and tooltips) should render in real-time on selected fields;
- Textio UI (our floating Textio pane, highlights, and buttons) should only appear on specific views/user flows;
- Users should be able to import saved drafts and doucments from their Textio library.
Working With (and Around) Existing UI
One challenge that we knew early was identifying which views within an ATS that Textio UI should appear. Our extension offered writing guidance for job posts and recruiting messaging, but not other writing types, so it was important that we "stayed out of the way" on other pages forms, etc.
The core Textio experience and feature set translates well to most platforms. Users can easily import existing content from their Textio library; highlights suggest changes or provide other feedback. The pop-up Textio Pane scores your writing and offers additional suggestions.
Expanding Features and Coverage
After the initial release of Textio extension support for Greenhouse and Workday, our User Expansion team continued to add support for other ATS/HRIS platforms, roughly one per quarter. Our order of expansion was based on annual recurring revenue (ARR) for existing customer accounts; our goal was to offer extension support for at least 50% of our customer base's applicant tracking systems.
In addition to expanding support to additional platforms, we also added a steady stream of new features, including:
- New guidance for writing performance feedback;
- Saving/exporting back to your Textio library from your ATS/HRIS;
- "Write with Textio" generative AI first drafts.
Additional Notes
We launched support for Greenhouse and Workday in early 2019, and followed with other platforms, including iCIMS, Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors, Lattice, Oracle Recruiting Cloud, and more.
Within 18 months of our initial launch of the new extension, we reached 63% coverage of customer accounts. In addition, the majority of customer accounts that were eligble for the ATS/HRIS extension added it to their Textio subscriptions. During that post-launch period, we also reached a notable milestone, where more than 3/4 of our ARR were accounts that purchased the extension.
The ATS/HRIS integrations became an indispensible sales tool and the single biggest contributor to our monthly active users (MAUs). In 2023, we launched our support for writing performance feedback, with that feature set available exclusively via the browser extension in Workday, Lattice, and SAP SuccessFactors.
