TIAAGO : Connecting Elite Talent with High-Growth Startups

SHIPPED

The Beginning of a Problem

It started with a pattern we noticed across countless startups: brilliant ideas held back by the inability to hire the right people, not for lack of effort, but due to inefficiencies in how talent was sourced, evaluated, and onboarded.

On the other side, we saw incredible talents stuck in the noise, candidates with solid skills but no real way to stand out, prove themselves, or access opportunities that matched their capabilities.

This widening gap wasn’t just a hiring problem. It was a growth bottleneck for businesses and a frustrating maze for individuals trying to advance their careers.
So we asked ourselves: What if we could forge elite teams by connecting the top 3% of technical and non-technical talent with the businesses that need them most, on a platform designed with care, logic, and empathy?

Role

Founding Designer (Research, Design System, UI/UX)

Team

Justus Oyinlola - PM
Olawuyi Ismail - C.T.O
Timilehin - F.E

Location

Nigeria

Year

2023 -2024

Website

Tiaago.com

The Core Challenges of Modern Hiring

Despite countless platforms promising to simplify the hiring process, both startups and job seekers continue to face deep-rooted issues. Here are the three biggest challenges both sides face:

Quantity Over Quality
Startups are overwhelmed by applications that don’t meet the role’s actual needs.
Skill Validation
Resumes, portfolios, and job titles don’t always reflect real ability. Startups can’t verify skills quickly.
Fragmented & Slow Process
From job listings and email threads to interviews and assessments, everything lives on a different platform.

TALENT

TIAAGO

STARTUP

Our Goal: Two Worlds, One Platform

Our design challenge became clear: build an experience that feels intuitive and trustworthy to two very different types of users.

For Talents

Skilled professionals in tech and non-tech industries
Freelancers and recent graduates seeking global opportunities
Users frustrated with generic job boards and one-size-fits-all resume

For Businesses

Startup founders juggling product and hiring simultaneously
HR teams overwhelmed with unqualified applicants
Platforms needing embeddable, scalable assessment systems

We developed parallel user journeys for both sides, ensuring that each user type felt like the platform was built just for them.

Our Solution

I’m unable to share most of the solutions we worked out because of NDA and fear of competition

Skill Based Assessment
TIAAGO’s level-based skill assessments allow talents to prove their capabilities through structured, real-world challenges. Each test is tied to an automatic certification, giving both candidates and companies tangible proof of skill.
AI-Powered Matching Engine
Our AI-powered engine analyzes skill profiles, certifications, experience, and company needs to surface high-fit matches in seconds. Whether it’s a startup hiring a founding engineer or an HR firm filling multiple roles, our system makes finding the right fit faster and smarter.

Other Screens

Impact: Turning Intelligence Into Better Outcomes

We didn’t launch TIAAGO and hope it worked, we tested it in the wild. Over the course of several months, we partnered with early-stage startups, mid-sized HR teams, and a diverse group of job seekers across Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

In our beta phase, we ran cohort testing across six countries, partnering with emerging startups, HR teams, and talented individuals hungry for better opportunities. We observed not only how users interacted with TIAAGO, but how it reshaped their perception of what hiring could feel like, efficient, validating, and human.

Today, TIAAGO is more than a tool. It’s a trusted bridge, serving thousands of users, across borders and time zones, with the same goal: To forge elite teams and unlock human potential, one smart match at a time.