Overview
At Vyaguta, I led the redesign of the performance evaluation system used by 450+ global employees, shifting from inefficient annual reviews to a transparent, continuous feedback ecosystem. This transformation tackled fairness, engagement, and administrative burden across employees, managers, and HR.
Challenge
The annual review process suffered from recency bias. Q4 performance outweighed year-round contributions leading to overlooked talent and frustrated teams. Administrative overhead and lack of visibility further hindered effective evaluations.
Role & Team
Mid-Level UX Designer collaborating with 1 designer, 4 developers, QA, Product Manager, and Project Manager over 4 months under the Director of Design.
Research & Insights
Conducted stakeholder interviews with 15 employees and feedback sessions with 8 managers
Audited existing system pinpointing 12 major friction points
Competitive analysis of 5 tools revealed timing—not UI—as the core issue
Identified conflicting needs among employees, managers, and HR
Design Strategy
Built a Continuous Performance Ecosystem focused on:
Real-time feedback vs annual snapshots
Contextual, project-tied feedback vs generic forms
Transparent progress tracking for all users
Simplified workflows reducing administrative load
Key Features
Team Pulse Dashboard: Real-time insights for managers on team health and performance trends with smart categorization and filtering
Continuous Feedback Timeline: Year-round achievement tracking with contextual conversations and progress monitoring
Personal Performance Dashboard: Employees can own their narrative with clear goals, achievement logs, and feedback metrics
Impact
Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
Evaluation Completion Time | 3-4 hrs | 15-30 mins | 85% reduction |
Manager Prep Time | 2 hrs/emp | 20 mins/emp | 83% reduction |
Fairness Rating | 2.1/5 | 4.3/5 | 105% improvement |
Feedback Frequency | 1x/yr | 12x/yr | 1200% increase |
The impact was measured through post production surveys, user interviews, usability testing, time taken for evaluation completion compared to the previous years, retention rate analysis taken from people management team and overall performance of the employees in the company.
User Feedback
"Finally, my Q1 project success counted towards my promotion." — Software Engineer
"I can now assess my team's health in 5 minutes instead of hours." — Engineering Manager
"Now I don't have to dedicate 4 hours to put my evaluation on the system" - Fellow Designer
"The timeline made it easy to view the insights of my teammates and easy to refer them for the promotion" - Project Manager
Design Highlights
Progressive disclosure tailored by user role
Conversational feedback replacing rigid forms
Data storytelling with clear visual performance trends
Accessibility-first approach with high contrast and screen reader support
Learnings
Tackling root causes (timing and methodology) leads to lasting solutions
User engagement requires designing for behavior change, not just features
Balancing diverse stakeholder needs is critical to system success
