Roy van Balen
20 years in UX
Lots of candidates. And only a handful are worth your time.
The best don't apply, get overlooked, or drop out before you can hire them.
Sounds harsh, but in 2026 this is the reality for many organisations.
Here's what I've learned when it comes to hiring high performers in UX:
1. They don't apply. Because they don't recognize themselves in generic vacancies.
2. They are overlooked. Because recruiters are not equipped to screen UX profiles.
3. They are mistakenly rejected. Because recruiters are not equipped to qualify UX professionals.
4. They drop out before you speak to them. Because the process is too slow when recruiters have to process a lot of candidates.
5. They feel undervalued. Because the response time does not meet their expectations.
6. They loose interest. When the role appears to be shifting, because the story was not clear enough in the early stages.
7. They get scooped by others. While recruiters and managers are occupied with the pile of low-quality candidates
8. ...
The full list includes 21 drop-off points.
Recruiters are not the cause of this.
Neither did hiring managers.
The problem is the recruiter-first setup.
UX professionals have a complex, multidisciplinary and strategic role. They combine research, psychology, product strategy and design skills. It takes years of experience in UX to reliably screen, select and qualify UX professionals.
Recruiters usually have no experience in UX.
The result is lots of low-quality candidates. And while you two are busy handling them, the best ones are disappearing from the pipeline.
Recruitment becomes your second job.
When organisations call me in, this changes.
I have 20 years of experience in UX and 6 years in UX talent acquisition.
I take over the workload of the recruiter and the hiring manager in one go.
Sourcing, screening, selection, qualification, scheduling interviews, follow-up, rejections.
This means that most of those 21 drop-off points disappear.
Instead of a stack of resumes, the hiring manager gets one strong candidate at a time.
They usually hire the 1st candidate, sometimes the 2nd. Very rarely does it come down to 3rd.
1. Recruiters have more time for non-UX roles.
2. Managers have more time and headspace for other goals.
3. The organisation hires stronger UX professionals.
4. Teams achieve better results.
In this way, I've helped more than 300 organizations.
Would you like to get acquainted to see if this suits your organisation?
Then book a UX hiring call for us.
Sincerely,
Roy
Roy van Balen
20 years in UX
Lots of candidates. But only a handful are worth your time.
Here I learned:
- That being able to reach, recognize, and assess UX talent requires in-depth knowledge of the field.
- That traditional recruiters are unfortunately not equipped for this because they lack sufficient knowledge of UX processes, principles, and roles.
- That this, in addition to a long and stressful recruitment process for both the hiring manager and the recruiter, has all sorts of financial consequences.
For example, a scrum team can easily cost 40,000 euros per 3-week sprint. There are more than 15 sprints in a year, so one UX designer who is 10% less effective costs the organization 60,000 euros extra for every year that the UX designer is employed.
Most UX designers operate at about 60 to 65% of their potential when it comes to effective design.
That is one of the reasons why I started Found UX.
When you hire Found UX, I personally recruit high-performers for you, allowing you to continue your work uninterrupted.
Since 2019, I have helped over 300 UX and Product leaders.
Would you be interested in connecting and/or talking about UX hiring?
Then book a UX hiring call. I’d love to tell you more about my unique approach and learn about your situation.
Best,
Roy
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