US-322: Applicant Pipeline & Feedback

1. Story Title

View applicants in pipeline stages with feedback

2. Context / Background

After publishing job (US-321), hiring managers need structured candidate progression.

3. User Persona

Primary: Hiring Manager Secondary: HR Manager

4. Problem Statement

Unstructured candidate tracking leads to missed follow-ups & inconsistent decisions.

5. Desired Outcome

Hiring manager sees applicants in columnar stage board (Applied, Screening, Interview, Offer) and can leave feedback notes per applicant.

6. Business Value

Improves hiring velocity and collaboration quality; foundation for analytics.

7. Scope (In / Out)

In: stage progression, feedback notes, basic filtering (status, job). Out: Custom workflow builder, interview scheduling integration, rating rubric scoring.

8. Acceptance Criteria (BDD)

Scenario: View pipeline board
  Given applicants exist for a job
  When manager opens pipeline view
  Then applicants appear under their current stages

Scenario: Move applicant to next stage
  Given an applicant in Screening
  When manager drags to Interview
  Then stage updates
  And event logged

Scenario: Add feedback note
  Given an applicant in Interview
  When manager submits a feedback comment
  Then note is saved
  And visible to HR & hiring manager

Scenario: Unauthorized access
  Given applicant for Job A
  When manager of Job B views pipeline
  Then applicant is not shown

9. UX Notes / References

Kanban-style board; drag-and-drop; feedback panel modal with timestamped notes.

10. Data / Domain Model Impact

Applicant entity: jobId, stage, metadata; FeedbackNote entity with author, text, createdAt.

11. NFR Touchpoints

• Performance: board load with 200 applicants < 800ms.
• Observability: StageChanged & FeedbackAdded events.
• Security: access control by job ownership.

12. Dependencies

US-321 job openings; employee/manager mapping optional for hiring rights.

13. Risks & Mitigations

Risk	Impact	Probability	Mitigation
Large pipeline board performance	Slow UX	Medium	Pagination/virtualization for >100 cards
Sensitive feedback visibility	Privacy	Low	Role-based access + redact on export

14. Estimation Support

1. Data model
2. Board endpoint & stage update
3. Drag-and-drop UI
4. Feedback notes CRUD

15. Analytics / Success Metrics

Stage conversion rates; time-in-stage averages.

16. Rollout / Release Strategy

Static stages pilot; refine ordering & add stage limits later.

17. Definition of Ready Checklist

• Stage list locked
• Feedback visibility rules confirmed

18. Definition of Done Checklist

• Scenario tests pass
• Events observable

19. Open Questions

1. Need rejection reasons taxonomy at MVP?
2. Should feedback be editable or immutable?

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Version: 1.0