In case you haven’t heard, at Zinc, we like to do things differently.
But do you know how?
As a product manager at Zinc, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Zinc users and our team of engineers and designers to make sure the platform is as user-friendly, comprehensive, and smooth as possible.
Our vision as a company is to change the way people prove their work identity. As a team, we’re empowered by anything that gets us closer to that, not just sticking to the status quo.
That means everything we do makes it easier for our users to run background checks, worry-free. Everything you see when you log on reflects intentional decisions by a talented team of designers and engineers, built as part of a thoughtful process and not a knee-jerk reaction.
If you’re curious to get a peek under the hood and find out what, exactly, makes Zinc different, keep reading.
Customer-first problem solving
Every week, each member of the product team — the team responsible for actually building the Zinc platform and making sure it works — spends at least two hours talking to our customers.
(If that’s you, thank you for your time! It makes a huge difference.)
When we get requests for new features, we like to take our time and understand the core problem. Our jobs are to dive deep into problems that our customers face and figure out all the ways it makes their work harder.
Once we’ve done that, product designers lead on solution generation workshops, where engineers, designers and PMs who are the team actually building the solution get together to brainstorm. We take the core problems, and collaborate until we’ve found the best solution. The more heads in the room, the better.
From a 60-minute session, our team will generate a high-impact solution to the core problem. One great idea is better than six low-impact ones, and we prioritise impact over output when it comes to developing.
No bloat, just value: The Zinc way
We’re not a feature factory. We rarely build direct feature requests, because we aim to find the why behind the what.
Our team is really lucky to have the space to think deeply about problems, find creative solutions, and build a forward-thinking product — not every company has that luxury.
We don’t build features that slow down the experience for our users or require manual intervention. Zinc is intentionally opinionated, in that we focus on delivering excellence for customers who are suited to our platform, not for mass appeal.
Speed, customer experience, and automation are the three core philosophies that drive us. If building a feature would require us to say yes to manual processes and slow down the experience for our customers, we don’t build it.
This sounds like a good philosophy for every background checking provider, but sadly it’s not.
Often background checking providers go for as many checks in as many locations as possible, all done manually by their teams. This leads to delays, lack of transparency and outdated UI. If a new innovation comes out, they can’t necessarily adapt towards it.
Case study: Automating PDF references
If you’re a platform built on automated referencing, PDF references are…at bit of a problem.
Some companies, whether by personal preference or policy, will respond to requests for references with standardised PDF and can’t use Zinc’s referencing tool as it was originally designed.
Our team needed to:
- Find a way to automate pulling details from PDF references
- Verify it comes from the right place and person
- Present the result in the same way as the original, so the experience is the same in the Zinc platform
- Ensure these references were instantly delivered to recruiters without putting load on our team to process them
These types of problems are often not the shiniest, but the ones that deliver immediate value to all.
It was great to work with all our internal teams and the engineers really took the lead on the solution. And along the way, we discovered more opportunities for automation, which makes any brainstorming session automatically better.
Designing Zinc for usability and transparency
How many times have you been stuck wondering what’s happening with a check, and whether or not you’ll be able to get a key hire started in time?
Well, hopefully not with Zinc.
We love recruiters and HR teams, and everything we build is centred around transparency. You should be able to log into Zinc, immediately understand what you need to do, and have the tools to do it.
At the same time, we deeply value clarity — which means not giving users too much information. We know you’ve got a lot on, so we don’t want to overload you with information. When you need to do something, you’ll know, and you won’t have to wade through extra details to find the solution.
From chat bubbles to updated status panels, the team have designed the platform to instill confidence and help you easily interpret check results.
And unlike other providers, Zinc offers live, dynamic, web-based reports. When traditional background checking companies provide a PDF it’s harder to update it with real-time information. Our web reports give you extra info and mean it’s always accessible and up-to-date.
No matter what, Zinc’s customer experience is driven by a relentless focus on solving real problems, and delivering on our promise of simplicity, automation, and ease-of-use.
If you’d like to join us as we re-define what it means to be fast, transparent and trustworthy in background checking, book a call with our team today.
