How a Boutique Design Recruitment Firm Scaled Their Operations Without Losing Their Personal Touch
The anxiety was palpable during that first video call. Stephanie and Elisa from Unvisible had reached their breaking point with their recruitment database. Despite managing relationships with some of New York and California's top design studios, their internal systems were holding them back from growth.
"Someone recommended Airtable for scale, but nobody showed us how to use it properly."
From Spreadsheet Chaos to Breaking Point
Picture this: Two experienced recruiters, over 6,000 contacts, and endless scrolling through spreadsheet columns to find crucial information. Unvisible had already taken the first step toward modernization by moving from Google Sheets to Airtable a year ago. But without proper guidance, they'd essentially created a more complicated spreadsheet.
"Every time we needed to track something new," Stephanie recalls, "we'd just add another column. We ended up with this massive table that was impossible to navigate." The breaking point came when they realized they couldn't properly track candidates interviewing for multiple positions. "We might reject someone for one role but have them in second interviews for another. There was no way to track that clearly."
The Breakthrough Moment
"This is going to change everything!"
During their first call with Andrés, something clicked. Then "Paul showed us we were thinking about our data all wrong," Stephanie explains. "He asked us simple questions like 'Is this information about the person, or about their application to a specific job?' Suddenly, everything started making sense."
Over just three focused sessions, Paul worked with the team to transform their system. But rather than forcing them to change how they worked, he built the system around their natural workflow. The moment of true excitement came when Paul revealed they could create filtered views in every table, not just their main contacts list.
Small Changes, Big Impact
The transformation happened through a series of "aha" moments:
- When a simple "Connect to Role" button replaced complicated data entry across multiple tables
- The first time they saw a candidate's complete interview history across multiple roles at a glance
- Watching their email drafts automatically generate while maintaining their personal touch
- Discovering they could finally keep their LinkedIn data current automatically
"Now we can instantly see if a candidate has interviewed with a client before, how it went, and what feedback they received."
The Human Side of Technical Solutions
What makes this story special isn't just the technical solution - it's how it preserved the human element of recruitment. "We were worried automation would make our process feel impersonal," admits Stephanie. "Instead, it gave us more time to focus on relationships while keeping all the crucial information at our fingertips."
The transformation took just three sessions - a modest investment that completely changed their business trajectory. Today, Unvisible efficiently manages over 5,000 contacts and 20+ active job postings with the same small team, but with much less stress and much more impact.
Growing with Confidence
"Training someone new felt impossible because our process was so convoluted."
Perhaps the most telling sign of success came when the team started thinking about growth. "Before, the thought of training someone new was overwhelming," Stephanie shares. "Now we have clear workflows and views that make perfect sense. We can finally see our path to scaling up."
"We finally have a system that works the way we do, instead of forcing us to work around it."
The story of Unvisible demonstrates what's possible when technical expertise meets human-centered design. What started as a data management crisis became a story of transformation, proving that with the right guidance, small teams can achieve remarkable results without losing their personal touch.
For Connex, it's another example of our core belief: technology should adapt to how people work, not the other way around.
