SWOB

The Problem

Shift-based businesses rely on job boards designed for salaried roles, then manage schedules through group texts and spreadsheets. Hiring takes weeks when it should take hours. Shift swaps require manager approval chains that cause no-shows. There's no unified system connecting who you hire to how you schedule them.

What I Learned from Users

• Interviewed 6 restaurant and retail managers — all described the same pattern: post on Indeed, wait 2-3 weeks, get 50+ unqualified applicants, then hire whoever shows up to the interview
• Managers said they make hiring decisions in under 30 seconds based on availability, proximity, and vibe — not resumes. Traditional job boards force a workflow that doesn't match how they actually evaluate candidates
• Shift workers reported applying to 10+ jobs at once and ghosting interviews because they had no visibility into application status. The candidate dashboard was built to solve this transparency gap
• The #1 scheduling pain point wasn't creating schedules — it was last-minute shift swaps. Managers spent evenings texting through their staff list to find replacements. Peer-to-peer swap removed them from the loop entirely

Why I Built This

As a consulting PM on SWOB, I'm responsible for building prototypes that serve as living specs and managing delivery across the product suite. Hiring in shift-based businesses is broken because the tools are built for office jobs. SWOB reimagines the whole flow. Managers swipe through pre-qualified candidates like a dating app. The candidate dashboard gives applicants a clean view of their applications and upcoming shifts. A pipeline tool tracks every applicant through customizable stages. And when someone can't make a shift, the swap system handles it peer-to-peer. I built 5 product prototypes because the problem isn't just hiring or just scheduling — it's the gap between them.

Strategy

Target customer: Independent restaurants, bars, and retail shops with 10-50 hourly employees — high turnover, always hiring, and managing schedules manually. Competitive landscape: Indeed and ZipRecruiter own job posting but stop at the hire. When I Work and Homebase own scheduling but don't touch hiring. No platform connects who you hire to how you schedule them. Go-to-market: Start with the swipe-to-match hiring tool as a free standalone product — it's the sharpest wedge and easiest to demo. Once a manager hires through SWOB, upsell the scheduling and shift-swap tools. The candidate dashboard creates a two-sided network: candidates prefer SWOB because they get transparency, which attracts more managers. Business model: Free hiring tool, paid scheduling suite. Per-location pricing for multi-unit operators. The white-label system enables B2B2C distribution through staffing agencies.

What I Built

SWOB is a consulting project where I serve as the product manager. I build prototypes and manage delivery for the team. The platform tackles shift-based hiring and scheduling — a Tinder-style swipe interface lets managers match with candidates in seconds, a candidate pipeline tracks applicants from first contact to first shift, and a shift-swap system lets employees trade hours without manager bottlenecks. Each product is a standalone Next.js app sharing a Supabase backend. The sites and prototypes serve as living specifications for the engineering team.

Key Decisions & Tradeoffs

• Split into 5 apps instead of feature flags in one app — each product serves a different persona (manager, candidate, admin) with its own deployment cycle
• Chose swipe UI over traditional list/filter because restaurant managers hire on gut + availability, not keyword matching
• Built the white-label system before finding customers — a deliberate bet that B2B2C distribution would be the growth lever
• Used PostHog over Mixpanel for analytics because of the self-hostable option and session recordings at no extra per-seat cost

Outcomes & Results

• 5 standalone apps sharing one Supabase backend — proving a micro-frontend architecture for small teams
• White-label theming system with 8 color themes, 4 font themes, and 7 layout templates — designed for multi-tenant SaaS
• PostHog funnel tracking from marketing site visit → sign-up → first candidate match, identifying a 3x drop-off at onboarding
• Swipe-to-match prototype tested with 3 restaurant managers — average time to shortlist dropped from 'days' to under 2 minutes

What Didn't Work (And What I Changed)

• First version had a single monolithic app with all 5 features behind tabs. User testing showed managers were overwhelmed — they wanted to hire OR manage shifts, not both at once. Splitting into separate apps with focused UIs solved the cognitive overload problem
• Built an AI-powered candidate ranking system that scored applicants on 12 factors. Managers ignored the scores completely — they said 'I just need to see if they're available Saturday night.' Replaced the ranking with a simple swipe interface filtered by availability. Usage tripled
• The white-label theming system was built before talking to potential B2B partners. In retrospect, the 8 themes and 7 layouts were over-engineered — early customers just wanted their logo and brand color. Learned to validate demand before building the premium version
• PostHog revealed a 3x drop-off at the onboarding step. The original flow asked for business details, team size, and scheduling preferences upfront. Reduced onboarding to just email + business name, then collected the rest progressively. Drop-off decreased significantly

Technical Highlights

• 5 standalone Next.js apps sharing a Supabase backend — each deployable independently
• Tinder-style swipe-to-match hiring interface for rapid candidate screening
• Multi-stage candidate pipeline with customizable columns and drag-and-drop
• Peer-to-peer shift swap system that removes manager bottleneck from schedule changes
• 8 color themes, 4 font themes, and 7 layout templates for white-label customization
• PostHog analytics pipeline tracking conversion at every funnel stage

Tech Stack

Products Built