January 2023 - Feb 2023
PS Alpha: Talent Management Solution
In this case study, you'll see how I transformed a Talent Profile Management tool and created an engaging experience for managing risks through a dynamic dashboard and data-driven insights for Goldman Sachs. This project is part of an umbrella platform called PS Alpha, designed to streamline various needs and simplify the user experience.
Research, User Experience Design, User Interface Design | Company Project
Problem Statement
The current Individual Talent Profile (ITP) tool and risk management processes are fragmented and inefficient. Supervisors face challenges with manual tracking, low engagement with the ITP tool, and offline coordination for rejected requests. Additionally, using Excel for risk management leads to late actions on high-severity risks, which affects performance and even causes attrition.
With the introduction of the PS Alpha platform, there is a critical need to redesign the ITP tool and create a new Risk Management tool to provide a unified, user-friendly experience for Supervisors, Reviewers, and Account Leads.
Early stage debriefing
PS Alpha is a Talent Management umbrella platform for multiple solutions of Publicis Sapient. Starting with integrating ITP and Risk Management tools for the first phase.
Individual talent profile tool is an existing product in use by Goldman Sachs currently. Individual talent profile is used by supervisors to assess growth as well as performance of their supervisee. The performance report further goes through a review process which can be accessible to account leads as well.
Risk Management tool is a new solution which needs to be designed and integrated into PS alpha. Supervisors can use the tool for risk assessment of their supervisees and account leads can keep a track of the the attrition rate as well as the risk trends.
Team & My Role
UX/UI Designer, 4 Product Managers, 1 Product Owner, Engineering Team of 52
Secondary Research
Secondary research seemed essential for this project because there were three elements to be taken care of. One, the existing ITP tool experienced significant fallouts due to its lack of an intuitive and efficient user experience. Two, Excel based management of risk registration was majorly hampering business through attrition and productivity of supervisors. Lastly, introducing an umbrella platform for the tools required a clear understanding of its impact on the business. Since the platform would be commercialized, adopting a data-driven approach was both urgent and critical.
Supervisors have to keep track of their supervisees' in various aspects. The primary one is to closely observe their performance and help them grow within the company.
Individual Talent Profile Assessment
- One ITP(Individual talent profile) is created for each employee and is assessed quarterly
- Individual is assessed based on 2 types of skillsets: Base Skills & Engineering Skills
- Each individual is rated on 3 levels: Managed performance, valued contributor & top performer
Flow
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Supervisor submits itp for their supervisee
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Itp is sent to the reviewer for approval
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Reviewer approves or rejects the ITP
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Rejected ITPs are resubmitted till approved
Another important aspect would be to stay updated on the supervisees' needs. These needs could be counted as risks which would require attention and might even require an urgent action. If these risks are not mitigated in time, the supervisee might quit the company directly contributing to the overall company's attrition rate.
Risk Registration
- Risk assessment is done once every month
- Risk needs to be mitigated to avoid attrition.
- Risk profile of an individual can be based on multiple factors and be judged on different levels of severity.
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Factors: promotion, compensation, type of work, on-site opportunity
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Severity of each risk: Mid, High, Low
*Attrition is the departure of employees from the organization for any reason (voluntary or involuntary), including resignation, termination, death or retirement.
Flow
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Supervisor registers risk for a supervisee monthly
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One supervisee can have multiple risks factors
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Risk assessment of supervisees is currently maintained in excel.
Market Evaluation
Market evaluation included understanding common features amongst similar solutions in the market as well as taking a note of USPs of leading products in the industry. Few of the solutions researched upon were Success factors SAP, Oracle talent & risk management, Lattice, Keka, Omnigo & performance management by Trakstar.
- Assessments are usually based on competency, potential, performance & derailers
- Avoid any kind of interaction offline & incorporate features to bring most flows onto the platform
- Primary focus is the individual performance although data on team progress and projects adds significant value.
Heuristic Evaluation (ITP Tool)
The Existing ITP tool's heuristics evaluation revealed the tool has an unintuitive and confusing User Experience which has contributed to it's limited utilization by the supervisors. The information seems scattered with similar terms used for different tabs. User doesn't seem to have any control over slips and mistakes made while registering ITP. There is no consistency in the interface as both vertical and horizontal tabs have been used with no visual heirarchy in multiple screens. Navigation is complex and vague and there was no clarity on the current status of the user. Increased cognitive load during filling the ITP assessment form
Stakeholder Interview
Insights
- There are a total of 3 personas to cater to: Supervisor, Reviewer & Account Lead
- Different capabilities require a personalised approach for assessing people belonging to it
- A templatized approach is also required which is flexible enough to adapt to other capabilities other than engineering in the future
- Reporting is done for 3 different levels: Portfolio, Project & Account
Eg. AMD is one portfolio which has 7 projects under it currently: Asset Management Division (AMD) Digital Engineering, GSAM Sales, etc
- One point interaction for multiple taskflows & overview at one glance
Quotes from Stakeholder:
"Today, If a supervisor has 15 supervisees under him. Then it becomes really difficult to go through each and every detail. Rather if a supervisor can have some consolidated data, it will give him a good picture "
"In case a supervise has moved across supervisors. There's no automated way of having historic data available. There are a lot of manual efforts that need to be put to reach out to earlier supervisor. Collate that feedback."
Pain Points
- No track/reminder for aging pending profiles
- Manual tracking & registering ITP in time is a hectic task especially for the supervisors with 8+ supervisees.
- Maintaining risks of individuals is difficult on excels and high severity risks easily get overlooked
- Existing ITP tool lacks usability. There is low engagement of the stakeholders on the tool & most tasks are completed on mail.
- The supervisor needs to submit multiple assessments. Lengthy forms are difficult to understand & are time consuming.
- Hassle of offline coordination for rejected ITPs
Goals
- 360 view: Holistic view of the risk, promotion, attrition related to each individual at each career stage level & data-level
- Simplified, automated and fast ITP submission & Risk registration
- Regular on-time tracking & submission of performance & Risks
- Capture feedback to connect and accelerate ITP process
- Reduced Attrition rate with regular risk registration and in-time mitigation
User Story
Supervisor
As an Engineering Lead at Goldman Sachs, I struggle with managing Individual Talent Profiles (ITPs) for my supervisees due to the lack of a centralized craft-focused dashboard. It's challenging to track pending approvals, completed, not yet initiated, and submitted profiles effectively.
Additionally, without tools to track and maintain detailed Individual Talent Profile (ITP) data or monitor risks (such as type of work, on-site opportunities, and eligibility for promotions), I find it difficult to ensure continuous growth and development for my team members.
Reviewer
As an Engineering Account Lead at Goldman Sachs, I find it tough to manage ITP requests received from multiple supervisors. Currently, I lack a consolidated view of all information and face challenges with manual tracking and offline communication of rejected ITP feedbacks.
Without alerts for aging ITPs or a system to capture action items, it's difficult to efficiently approve or reject ITPs and provide relevant feedback to supervisors on time.
Account Lead
As a Program Account Lead at Goldman Sachs, I need to have a surface level idea of all that is going on under my account. A unified platform to collaborate with supervisors using real-time and accurate data for a smooth Individual Talent Profile (ITP) journey.
Currently, I lack ways to track exceptions, receive notifications on what urgently requires my attention, and access beyond the web version. Without these, it's challenging to maintain a holistic view of risks, promotions, and attritions for individuals across all career levels throughout the ITP cycle.
I would hope for a mehcanism to also track O3s.
Final Concept
After several discussions on the structure of the main product as well as the global navigation, the Dashboard concept seemed to be the best way to have one point of interaction. All workflows can be directed from dashboard of two separate modules: ITP & Risk
This case study will only focus on the Persona 'Supervisor' for better understanding of the UX process followed.
User Journey
Information Architecture
Supervisor ITP
Supervisor Risk
Flow 1: Supervisor ITP
Key Requirements of Dashboard
- High level KPIs and track ITP progress
- Current and historical rating trends
- ITP status breakdown by Career stage
Content
- List of supervisee
- Status for each ITP in different career stages & different projects
- Status: 1. Approved 2. Rejected 3. Pending for submission(Pending could either be in progress or haven't been started yet)
- No. of ITPs in respective status
- Rating distribution: Supervisee performance graph of 3 ratings(Top performer, Valued contributor, Managed performance)
- Next cycle details
- Submission percentage of the user
- Average Submission percentage of Goldman Sachs supervisors
Features & Functions
- Create, Update & View ITP
- View list of ITPs of respective supervisees
- Configure(Customise & Group) Listing & multi-select Filters for Project, Portfolio, Status & career stage
- ITP Details of each supervisee: Basic Details, ITP, Risk & History
- Supervisee Performance: Graph ratings with top 3 Performers which will help the supervisor to have an idea of his best supervisees and add to the recall value. Days left for next cycle to start
- Quarter status or something on similar lines to induce the thought 'I need to manage time to finish ITPs faster'. Positive message/nudge for successful process completion.
- Alert for sections that require attentions or action.
- Click through on any KPIs to see pre-filtered detailed view
Explorations
High fidelity Explorations
Dashboard
Configure: Customise
Supervisee: ITP
Supervisee: ITP History
Supervisee with ITP submission pending status
ITP Form: Engineering Skills
Supervisee with ITP submission pending status
ITP Form: ITP Outcome
ITP Listing
Configure: Group
Supervisee: Supervisee Details
Supervisee: ITP History > Old ITP Summary
Supervisee with ITP submission pending status
ITP Form: Base Skills
Supervisee with ITP submission pending status
ITP Form: Supervisee Details
Supervisee with ITP submission pending status
ITP Form Submission Summary
Flow 2: Supervisor Risk
Key Requirements of Dashboard
- High level KPIs and track risks
- Current and historical rating trends
- Breakdown Risk status by risk factors
Content
- List of Total Supervisee
- Risk Trends
- Severity of risk metrics. Severity: High, Medium & Low
- Risk Factors: Onsite, Promotion, Compensation, type of Work
- Risk Status: Ongoing or Mitigated
- There is no role of a reviewer in the process, neither do they need any idea on the risk process.
- Both supervisor and account lead roles require similar clarity on the process, just supervisor needs information more specific to his employees and a provision to register new risks.
- Average Submission percentage of Goldman Sachs supervisors
Features & Functions
- Register, Update & View Risk
- View list of Risk Assessments of respective supervisees
- Risk Details of each supervisee: Risk & Additional Details
- Provision to Mitigate risk
Explorations
High fidelity Explorations
Dashboard
Supervisee: Risk Assessments
Supervisee: Risk Assessments > List of Risks
Register Risk: Assessment
Risk Listing
Supervisee: Additional Details
Supervisee: Risk Assessments > List of Risks > Close Risk
Register Risk: Supervisee Details
Challenges
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Reconsider Features based on MVP Scope: Notifications center, Save old Configuration feature, ITP Historic Data kept for post MVP release
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Clarity on Product structure
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Navigation bias of the Stakeholders
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Ps color palette as per Design guidelines
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It's difficult to create visual hierarchy in graphs with the standard colours
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There were too many attributes to consider and maintain multiple shades of standard colors.
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Learnings
When working with dashboards it’s important to consider the following points:
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There are multiple kinds of graphs and each has a specific use case. It is very important to identify and match your information with the graph.
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Tooltips play an important role for graphs
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UX Writing: Avoid overuse of Acronyms such as ITP.
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Graphs: Tooltips, Notes or Subtext for better clarity, Clickable legends to highlight color in the graph
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Comparison: Clear visual UI on what are the two values being compared
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User Interface
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Consider creating cards for subsections to create visual hierarchy
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Keep the Ui flexible enough to not look odd in case of missing information
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