A team first approach

Things nobody wants at work:

1. More tools. We're already spread thin as it is, not only in the amount of work we do but in how many tools our work is spread across.
2. We don't want to be tracked by our managers. We want our managers to trust that we are doing our best work. We don't want to check in just so they have a number to base your performance at the end of the year. People and their contribution cannot be measured by a number.

In the OKR, HR performance, goal tracking market, one thing is clear: the people who are shopping for these sorts of solutions are CEOs and manager level people. Naturally, marketing is focused on selling to these personas. How can you track performance? How do you know what's broken? How can you get an overview of your business? These are the types of problems that the persona is looking to solve. It's a top-down perspective; that's how it's sold and therefore that's how they are often built as well.

But that leaves the team aside. You optimized for leadership, and forgot to think about what the rest of the organization needs. Managers love you, but users hate the tool.

This needs to change. We are focused on making your team happy first. You'll get a clear picture at the top, but with minimum disruption and effort for your team — they need to focus on doing the work they love.

Our problem here is as much a culture problem as it is a software one, so it becomes a matter of how to create software to influence the culture. We've come at this issue with a few different approaches:

1. Making our product low friction. Nobody wants another tool, more work, more chores. We're building our tool so your team can spend as little time as possible tracking their progress, and focus on the work that will contribute to their progress.
2. Never compromise user experience for management needs. We never want to empower the micromanager. Create goal tracking practices that inform future decisions, reveal ways to improve, showcase people's success - a not just highlight failure.
3. Give people a purpose. Create a positive accountability culture, where people can have ownership and value toward a common goal. Never promote accountability to shame people to stay on track, always steer people to come to positive results, whether you miss or hit on a goal.

Ultimately we don't want to make anything that people hate. Hopefully, as an effect of that, we make work more efficient, more rewarding, and more enjoyable. No more pointless check ins and status reports; let's make tracking progress an equally beneficial process for everyone, and allow you to do your job better, not distract you from it.