Hackathon to Production

The research was complete, and the need was clear, but it didn't fit into existing roadmaps, resources, or timelines. Everything changed after a company-wide hackathon, where our proof of concept won. This success gave us an immediate opportunity to build, bypassing the usual approval hurdles.

The ideal applicant tracker for small businesses.

Justworks customers with 6 to 20 employees often struggled to manage hiring. They had to choose between tracking candidates in spreadsheets and notes or using recruiting tools that were too expensive and offered more features than necessary.

Justworks ATS offers a balanced solution. It is lightweight, so a founder or operations lead can manage hiring tasks easily, even without a dedicated recruiting team or platform.

Building with intention

Clearing the way for a new interaction

In just two days, we built three essential workspaces: a job dashboard, job creation, and applicant profiles. We kept the design simple by avoiding edge cases and custom components. We pulled every interaction directly from the component library, letting engineering focus on one new feature: a WYSIWYG rich text editor, the first of its kind in Justworks.

We shipped this editor from hackathon to production without changes, and it now serves as the foundation for automated applicant emails and offer letter creation.

Fast pass to production

Our project won the hackathon and caught the attention of the CEO and leadership, earning us a fast pass to production; no approvals, lengthy reviews, or roadblocks. Just build it. We had four weeks to move from hackathon quality into customers' hands through an early access program.

The roadmap to all customers.

🏁 First, Early Access

Minimum of 50 customers sourced from expressed interest in concept testing, noted hiring plans, and requested an ATS in the past.

Launched May 6, 2026

  • Public-facing careers page

  • Pay range visibility

  • Self-Identification questions

  • EEO statement template

🏁 Then, Beta

Broader adoption by customers and validation that the product can support consistent, end-to-end hiring outcomes.

Launched July 17, 2026

  • First-time experience helper text

  • Edit applicant feedback

  • Edit job post publishing

🏁 Finally, General Availability

Available to our entire customer base of 14,000 customers, with a large-scale marketing push to get customers onto the product.

Launched: TBD

  • Coming soon…

  • Careers Page

    Companies can host all of their open jobs within their Justworks account. All jobs published through the ATS appear in Careers.

  • Job tracking

    In the Hiring dashboard, admins can view all company jobs, whether open, closed, or in draft.

  • Applicant Feedback

    Hiring managers can see all feedback, while those with lower permissions can only see their individual feedback.

  • Keeping compliant

    Admins are able to pick which Voluntary Self-Identification questions they would like to appear on every job post.

Design-Driven Velocity

The ATS moved from a two-day hackathon project to early-access customers in four weeks. This rapid progress was no accident. We set clear constraints by using existing components and sticking to a consistent layout. These choices unlocked our team's full potential. The result set a new standard at Justworks, proving what a small, focused team can achieve when barriers are cleared away.