JHPeople
How to revitalize culture in a fast-growing company
I led the design for JHPeople, an internal resource CMS and social media platform tailored for employees of JHP Architecture.
Product
JHPeople
What I did
Product design
User research & testing
Feature prioritization
Interactive prototyping
Team
UX/UI designer (Me)
Backend developers (2)
Marketing manager (1)
Duration
Q4'19 - Q2'22
Context
Declining company culture & lack of company standards
At JHP Architecture’s 2018 staff retreat, the CEO presented the results of a companywide culture survey, highlighting significant declines in company standards and culture quality. Employees were divided into groups to discuss contributing factors and potential solutions. It became evident that rapid company growth and transitioning to a new architectural platform were the primary causes.
Following this realization, I proposed the development of a digital solution to address these challenges to the company president. Shortly after, I received approval to conduct internal research and lead a small team in implementing this initiative.
Numbers for context
35
80
Company headcount growth over 3 years
90%
Employees working in a new platform with no prior experience
Project goal
How might we create a digital platform to revitalize company culture and increase standards utilization that supports all employees of a fast-growing company?
Research
Methodology & insights
I invested time in interviewing a large base of employees to delve deeper into their pain points regarding company culture and resource utilization. Collaborating with my team, we developed the following insights and requirements.
Research questions
- 01 / How would you describe the current company culture?
- 02 / What do you believe contributes to a healthy culture?
- 03 / How do you currently access company resources?
- 04 / What improvements would make finding resources easier?
Key insights
Resources are hard to find
Due to a significant growth in the company headcount it is difficult to know who to go to for specific resources.
Employees are difficult to get to know
People don’t often get a chance to switch project teams for years at a time, the majority of their interactions are spent with a small project team.
WordPress is already a technology the company uses
If we continue using WordPress we can reuse technology, save money on training, and maintain the site more easily.
Personas
Who are our users?
Through user interviews, it quickly became clear who we were designing for. The ’New designer’ and ’Seasoned architect’ needed to find resources while the ’Architectural coordinator’ produced resources for the office.
Project definition
Feature prioritization & phasing
The team determined that organizing resources and fostering community were crucial aspects of the project. However, we prioritized resources as the foundational functionality of the platform to ensure a solid base for future development phases.
User flows
Resource contribution & group creation
We focused on two primary flows: contributing resources to the platform & creating a new group to share interests with others in the company. These flows are pivotal in fostering collaboration and enhancing resource accessibility within the JHPeople platform.
View / contribute a resource
View / create group
View/contribute a resource
View/create a group
Phase 1 - MVP
Initially, the website was overloaded with corporate jargon and value statements, such as groups named 'Research and Development Group' and 'Marketing Group.' User feedback indicated that creating a "fun" group seemed inappropriate because it did not align with existing corporate topics. I advocated to stakeholders that offering too many forced options was overwhelming for users.
Phase 2 - COVID relaunch
As the COVID lockdown began, I noticed the growing trend of online connections and recognized an opportunity to emphasize the social aspect of the website. I proposed shifting the landing page focus to the social media feed, making it more prominent.
Within just one week of the relaunch, site traffic increased by over 600% throughout the lockdown period.
Usability testing
We found that challenges in obtaining resources and information are major obstacles to user collaboration.
After returning to the office following the lockdown I began another round of testing & feedback on JHPeople, which led to the following insights:
Key insights
Resources are spread out on the site difficult to find
Resources are dispersed across different pages on the site, making it challenging for users to navigate and locate specific resources efficiently.
Groups are difficult to stay updated with
Once users join a group, there are no notifications for updates. Users must manually check the group page to stay updated.
People wanted to learn more about teammates
Users expressed a desire to better understand their smaller project teams to enhance collaboration and workflow.
Users wanted mobile access when collaborating
Although much of the work is done individually, users desire mobile access to resources for collaborative efforts with teammates outside of traditional desktop settings.
Final design (Phase 3)
Pre-filtered resources
Clicking links on the Discover screen now directs users to pre-filtered tabs on the resources screen, facilitating quicker content discovery. For example, selecting "Newest Resources" displays different content from "Popular Recordings."
During testing, users found that adding estimated read-time metadata made the content more approachable.
Group invitations
Previously, users were not notified when a group was created in earlier phases, causing friction in group participation.
In the refined flow, users can immediately send group invites following group creation to the social media feed to encourage more users to join.
Quick access to your team
On the Discover screen, the "Your team" section offers dynamic content, allowing users quick access to learn about and communicate effectively with their teammates.
Metrics
Performance highlights
As of Q4 2021, 1.5 years from launch, we have measured the following impacts:
85%
Website adoption rate among employees
+600
Number of community posts (~2 per day)
600%
Increase in social feed usage during the COVID lockdown
+35
Number of uploaded documents
+35 hrs
Number of hours of uploaded videos
90%
Standards usage rate among employees
Retrospective
01 / Defending your research & designs
In the initial stages of the website, I faced challenges in advocating against ideas that could potentially add friction to the user experience. It was only after gathering concrete metrics that I could effectively push back and refine the design. While initially frustrating, this process improved over time, enabling me to preempt UX issues based on past experiences.
02 / Documentation Maintenance
Starting the project in 2018, I was relatively new to the UX process and didn't prioritize retaining early interviews and documentation. I learned firsthand the critical importance of thorough documentation, capturing even the smallest details throughout the project lifecycle.
03 / Build it and they won't come
Introducing "another tool in the office" initially met resistance, but over time, skeptics became regular users as the platform addressed genuine organizational challenges. Addressing the right problems proved pivotal in winning over initial skepticism.
04 / Revolving leadership
Changes in leadership towards the project's conclusion sometimes necessitated adjustments that I couldn't challenge. In such situations, the best approach was to defend decisions based on research and educate stakeholders on the rationale behind them.