Performance Management

Role: Design Lead
Project: Performance Management
Duration: 2023
Location: London, United Kingdom

Service Design | UX | Research | Strategy

In 2023, I led the initial user research and design work for a large banking organisation’s performance management transformation. The objective was to redesign performance conversations, feedback, and goal setting to better support employee growth. Initial observations indicated that the process was bureaucratic, assumption-driven, and disconnected from development. Our goal was to understand user needs and organisational realities to guide evidence-based decisions.

The organisation aimed to transform performance management across the business. Existing digital solutions prioritised workflow efficiency over employee experience. I led a discovery phase to ground decisions in evidence, reframing performance management as a system of behaviours and relationships rather than a compliance process. As the sole designer and researcher in a multidisciplinary team, I also used the project to build capability in discovery methods among colleagues.

Process and Activities:

Research Planning and Coordination:

Developed a flexible, mixed-method approach adapted to agile sprints.
Collaborated with other teams to integrate overlapping research questions, reducing duplication and participant burden.
Scheduled interviews and focus groups with employees, line managers, and senior leaders (30–45 minutes each) to maximise engagement.

User Research:

Conducted interviews exploring preparation for performance discussions, trust, motivation, and engagement.
Ran focus groups to identify shared experiences and organisational patterns.
Reviewed academic and industry research on feedback and performance management, and benchmarked competitor practices.

Mapping and Analysis:

Applied Human-Centred Design tools: experience mapping, behavioural mapping, and systems thinking.
Mapped organisational rhythms (e.g., bonus periods, summer holidays) to reveal hidden influences on participation and motivation.
Identified patterns that informed small-scale experiments and iterative design.

Experiments and Validation:

Tested alternative feedback rhythms and conversation formats with selected teams.
Gathered early evidence to inform design iterations and support senior decision-making.

Agile Discovery Approach:

Created a lightweight, repeatable Discovery Approach with templates, tips, and guidance.
Enabled non-designers to conduct quick research, gather insights, validate assumptions, and adjust approaches without a full discovery phase.
Integrated evidence reviews into sprint ceremonies to ensure insights continually informed decisions.

This project demonstrated the impact of embedding evidence-based, human-centred research within a complex organisational transformation. By introducing a discovery phase, we challenged assumptions, uncovered hidden patterns, and grounded decisions in real user needs and organisational realities. The agile Discovery Approach enabled teams—including non-designers—to conduct lightweight research, validate assumptions, and gather insights even under tight timelines, building organisational capability and fostering a culture of evidence-informed decision-making. Combining design thinking with agile delivery ensured that people-focused outcomes were prioritised alongside business objectives, while systems thinking helped map the broader organisational context affecting performance behaviours. The result was a transformed performance management model, adopted organisation-wide, that embedded continuous feedback, developmental conversations, and flexible goal setting, improving engagement, leadership capability, and perceptions of fairness, while creating a lasting shift in how research and design inform strategic change.

Highlights

Reframed performance management from a compliance-driven exercise to a growth-focused system that emphasised meaningful conversations and development.

Developed an agile Discovery Approach that enabled non-designers to run lightweight research, validate assumptions, and gather actionable insights quickly.

Applied systems thinking to map organisational rhythms and behaviours, uncovering hidden patterns that influenced engagement, motivation, and participation.

Results

New performance model piloted, refined, and adopted organisation-wide.
Embedded continuous feedback, developmental conversations, and flexible goal setting.
Digital tool redesigned to support behaviours and reinforce the new model.
Improvements observed in perceived fairness, engagement, and leadership capability.