Problem
Qualified applicants were dropping off before they could be fairly evaluated and hired
As a part of the hiring process in public safety, applicants are required to fill out 25–30 pages of detailed background questions covering education, addresses, family, employment history, and more.
While the legacy product digitized these forms, the experience was visually dense, inaccessible on mobile, and difficult to navigate, leading to incomplete submissions and delays in investigations.
Goal
Streamline the applicant process to boost completion and hiring rates
We aimed to make the background investigation process simpler, more efficient, and accessible across devices, ultimately helping agencies boost recruitment conversion rates and reduce drop-offs.
Although the MVP timeline expanded from 4 to 9 months due to underestimated development effort, we used the additional time to deepen our understanding of both applicant and investigator pain points—ensuring the final experience directly addressed their most critical challenges.
4 key revisions
1
Reduced onboarding from 8 steps to 3, making it easier & faster for applicants to complete
2
Created an investigations dashboard so applicants could track progress and action items.
3
Enabled autofill capabilities from previous investigations to save time and reduce friction
4
Designed a fully responsive experience, accessible across desktop, tablet, and mobile
Impact
Increased form completions, product generated $500k within 4 months of launching
Despite launching later than planned, the demand was clear; over 400 agencies joined the waitlist during announcement and marketing rollout. The product reached $500K in revenue within four months and is projected to generate $1M in its first year, on track to become NEOGOV’s most profitable product.
PHS stands for Personal History Statement; this is the name of the form for background investigations