Workhuman, and the Conversations team specifically understand the punctuated performance review is still needed by many, but that it is fundamentally broken. Using configurable workflows, powered by continuous Check-ins, Feedback and Priorities clients can fuel their employees future performance by taking a moment to pause, reflect and plot the best path forward. By revolutionising the end of year performance review, we could unlock sales, improve performance and drive revenue for all parties involved.
My role
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Understand extremely complex user needs and business desires in large corporate customers workforce and created functional requirements.
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Co-led discovery research into jobs to be done, and led client workshops to gather all requirements before work commenced.
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Defined feature functionality and execute roadmap with designers and engineers in collaboration with internal stakeholders.
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Planned sprints, wrote user stories and reestablished agile working methodologies on new teams with integrated design QA steps.
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Developed complex prototypes to get client and internal buy-in on proposed solution.
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Created a sub-design system component library for developers to speed-up the delivery of the solution.
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Defined user, business and engineering metrics to track how internal teams velocity as well as how the solutions was performing post release.
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Build relationships with key customers through effective communication and feedback loops for higher engagement and retention rates.
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Worked hand-in-hand with CSM, LSM and marketing to ensure clients onboarded, smooth roll-out and successful launch of solution.
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Provided design expertise to junior members of the team, and provided mentorship to others as the project progressed.
Key activities I led
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Held numerous all-hands to promote a team-led approach after unsuccessful top-down approach. This influenced stakeholders to give space and scope for team autonomy and bottom-up design / development.
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Conducted wide-scale primary research to understand complex functional requirements including working hands-on with our in-house product research team to investigate Jobs to be done, user flows, IA and competitor analysis.
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Used user experience workshops and facilitation skills as a sales technique to get client buy-in and ensure successful launch and roll-out of solution.
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Worked and led agile and design thinking methodologies to iterate on product solution, create stories and execute on features before analysing defined success metrics to ensure the correct direction of travel.
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Worked with junior designers and direct reports and oversaw creation of sub-design system component library, marketing and launch materials.
Design Process
The design process for Conversations involved identifying challenges with traditional end-of-year reviews, conducting client workshops to refine stakeholder visions, and leading an iterative design thinking process. High-fidelity prototypes were shared for feedback, and collaboration with engineering, customer success, marketing, and sales teams ensured a comprehensive approach. Rigorous testing, including industry best practices and client UAT, preceded a successful launch at Workhuman Live. The redesigned solution, Reflections, drove increased engagement and revenue, and fostered a more collaborative team dynamic within Conversations.
Skills utilised
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Product strategy & vision
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Interaction design
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Prototyping and user testing
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Visual design & Branding
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Mobile design
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Information architecture
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User research and analysis
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Design thinking
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Agile methodology
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Project management
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Communication and collaboration with cross-functional teams
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UX writing and content design
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Data analysis and interpretation
Key outputs and outcomes
- Sales pipeline expanded by 24, with 2 new clients and 5 retentions.
- Over 1 million reflections created to date.
- Product engagement increased 74% month on month.
- Seamless roll-out to all current clients.
- 5% increase in monthly recurring revenue
- View prototype below (hover top and click expand)
In depth details:
Introduction
Conversations was a product designed to help users take ownership of their performance development. After a period in the market and listening to our sales teams, many clients were apprehensive about a performance solution that didn't encompass a traditional end-of-year review.
Objective
The primary goal of the project was to introduce a revolutionary new way of doing end of year reviews that would replace the outdated process and unlock new sales. The current Conversations product offering was focused on continuous usage mainly for employees, whereas reflections leveraged this data to help managers focus on the future. Employees and managers could then use this data to build a story of their year and plan for the future.
Challenges
Initially, a stakeholder vision presented for the project was not user-friendly, extensible, or viable for successful iteration of the feature. After rounds of primary research and client engagement workshops that I led, I brought the team through an iterative design thinking process that resulted in a solution that surpassed our clients expectations.
Approach
Having understood the requirements, a high-fidelity prototype was shared with all interested parties for feedback. From here, I helped the engineering team scope the features, create user stories, delegate sub-tasks for design and generally prepare the ground work for sprint. In parallel, I was working with CSM, LSM and marketing to perfect the messaging and launch strategies that would accompany the feature launch and roll-out process. This included defining the success metrics and longer term strategy for the feature.
Results
Following the implementation of all functionality, the solution was vigorously tested against industry best practise, extensive usability testing, client UAT as well as accessibility testing from an independent 3rd party. The solution was unveiled at Workhuman Live to much acclaim (see below). Marketing materials updated with a new visual identity and communication strategy resulted in a successful roll-out to current clients and a bolstered sales pipeline.
Learnings
Over the course of this project it really tested my ability to delegate tasks, work on a much more strategic approach to product development as well as get buy-in from internal stakeholders. As the first version of the stakeholders vision was not successful, the eventual solution had to be exponentially better, which required a lot of empathy, persuasion and guile in order to be successful. Having led many workshops with clients, developers and many others in order to push a sense of collaboration, under my leadership we were able to create a widely successful feature that has resonated with many people.
Conclusion
Reflections launched to much fanfare and has drive much more engagement in the product in general. It has critically driven more revenue for Workhuman with over 1.3 million reflections created leading to increase spend in other areas of the platform. It has also driven business results for our clients who have provided much positive feedback on our solution. The Conversations team is a more collaborative team thanks to the work I done, and my reports are better designers and more experience people thanks to the work we completed on this project.