SLB Awards

Enhancing Employee Project Recognition Experience

Case Study

In 2022, the company used to have more than five different recognition programs for various functions and divisions, which was quite confusing when submitting projects for recognition. Often, employees did not understand which program to apply to based on their project's scope, leading to project duplications and missed opportunities for recognition.

I was part of an ambitious project to merge and unify those programs into one, improving the experience for employees and project reviewers. We provided a unique solution and recognition process to submit, evaluate, and select the most valuable projects in the company.

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study.

A deeper look into the story

In a company of over 100k employees, recognition might be challenging. It's common for each division to have its way of recognizing employees, which is where the challenge began.

After extensive work from Human Resources to understand each existing recognition program within the company's divisions, the need to merge these programs was rised. Our team played a crucial role in helping design a process that unified all these programs into one, creating a unique digital solution for everyone.

The challenge was not only to merge the recognition program processes but also to align Program Owners in creating a unified path that worked for all company employees, regardless of their job codes, fields, or divisions, to award one major project among all projects in the organization.

Looking for clues: jumping into research

To fully understand stakeholders’ needs, we began by conducting a Design Thinking workshop where all Program Owners presented the details of their programs. Collaborating together, they compared and built a unique process flow for criteria, submissions, and project reviews. This activity allowed us to deeply understand the similarities among the programs, identify pain points, and generate further ideas for the upcoming solution.

A new challenge emerged!

While the Design Thinking workshop activities gave us good clarity on the details of each program and the requirement to merge them, Business Stakeholders wanted to expand the project scope.

Suddenly, a new, significant requirement for the project came up:

Program Owners should be able to set up their recognition programs from the digital solution, making this project even more extensive.

It was no longer just about designing a background process for submitting and reviewing projects; now, we needed to design a process for Program Owners to set up their recognition paths within the solution, aligning with the overall merged recognition processes.

Mapping the features

At the edge of this new challenge, a new phase of understanding started. After several rounds of conversations with business stakeholders, we recognized the need for a comprehensive visual representation of the solution. This would allow us to provide a better definition of the requirements and the project's real scope. To gain a deeper understanding of the design structure and features, we created a set of sitemaps based on our understanding of the overall recognition process.

This exercise proved extremely valuable as it gave us a bigger picture of the project and facilitated deeper conversations among all stakeholders involved, including business owners, product owners, team management, and program owners. As a result, we were able to negotiate a more realistic delivery timeline, allocate resources more efficiently, and define a clear project scope and requirements.

It's time to make it real!

With the features and screens mapped out from our previous exercise, we were ready to move into designing the screens. We divided the solution into three modules: an Admin Module for Program Owners, a Submission Module for users to submit their projects, and a Reviewing Module for judges and project reviewers. Following the project timelines, we started working on these screens. As a UX/UI Design Lead, I successfully implemented a design process for each project. For this particular project, the team followed these stages in the design process:

  • Screen design (UX/UI): Following the company's brand guidelines and applying the best UX/UI practices to meet business requirements, functionalities, and user needs.

  • Tech checkpoint: After designing the screens, we had a checkpoint with technical leads and/or developers to ensure the functionalities were feasible based on the tech stack, timelines, and requirements.

  • Business Approval: We presented the designs in prototype format to business owners, collected feedback, and iterated on the designs until the final screens were approved.

  • Handover to Dev Team: We held a session to explain the design structure to developers alongside the Product Owners to address any queries on the designs and user stories.

The result was a full-screen design of the app and an on-time handover to the development team.

A new era of project recognition

The close collaboration across all the teams involved on this project and the deeper understanding of the business, stakeholders and user needs, was the key of its success. As a team, we were able to built a great user-centric solution that addressed all the requirements and opened a door to a new unified process to recognize company’s projects.

After launching the new system, we engaged with stakeholders to gather feedback, identifying areas for improvement in the processes and potential new features for future MVPs. The project will continue to evolve through constant development and iteration to ensure it provides the best experiences and functionalities for all users involved.

The new system not only represented an improvement in the overall recognition processes but also brought highly valuable benefits such as:

  • Financial savings: Eliminating the need to build and maintain digital solutions for each recognition program annually.

  • Time efficiency: Allowing Program Owners to set up recognition programs themselves in one place.

  • Increased project submission rate: By unifying the process, users could easily submit their projects in one app, reducing confusion about which program to apply to.

This case study showcases how, through a combination of user research, iterative design, and close cross-team collaboration, it's possible to build an efficient and unified digital solution that enhances user experience and business processes.