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Stepping into the shoes of Gecko users
One of the tricks of designing a user-friendly system is to know your users, including understanding their goals, skills, preferences, and tendencies. How would they experience using the system? Why would they want to use it in the first place and what would they feel like when they were done with their task? In my role as an HR solutions consultant, I love stepping into the shoes of our Gecko users and try to understand their point of view. Let’s see how this goes…
Iva Krajnc , Senior HRM Solution Consultant at Agilcon
If I were an employee …
… my favorite feature of Gecko would be the HOMEBOARD. Every morning, turning on my computer while enjoying the first cup of coffee, Gecko the homeboard would be the first page I’d see. Who wouldn’t like to start a day with a personalized “hello” message from Gecko? On the homeboard, I would glance through an overview of upcoming company events and news to stay up to date. The list of my to-dos on the homeboard would make sure I didn’t forget to act upon important activities, such as an upcoming performance check-in. From the homeboard, I would access all important company information, such as orgcharts, internal acts, our culture, and values. I would fill out a monthly pulse survey and then instantly see the results – how other colleagues feel about important company topics. And on my birthday, there would be a surprise waiting for me on the homeboard – a congratulations card! What a friendly and personalized entryway to an HR application!
If I were a leader …
… my favorite feature of Gecko would be the FEEDBACK. As a leader, helping my team members perform and develop would be one of my key responsibilities and I would love to have a tool to support me in this role. To prepare for regular check-ins with my team members, Gecko would help me collect feedback on their performance and development from relevant colleagues. With this input, I would be able to better understand how others see their strengths and gaps and would incorporate it into my review. And what’s great – I would know all this feedback is securely saved in one place, next to the other employee data, such as competence assessments, goal achievements, and development plans, so I could easily access it in a context whenever I needed.
If I were an HR professional …
… my favorite feature of Gecko would be … It would be impossible to choose one since Gecko would support my work in just so many areas. Managing data in spreadsheets (multiple spreadsheets!), sending reminders to employees, and filing paper-versions of performance reviews would be just memories from the past and my workdays would be brighter just by knowing that I don’t need to worry about those anymore. Instead, I could focus on the strategic part of my role, supporting business leaders in making decisions about the people. Preparing for my next meeting with the board would be so much easier. I would get real-time data about our workforce with a click on a button.
Well, it might well be that a different employee (e.g. one with longer tenure), a different leader (e.g. leading a production unit) or a different HR professional (e.g. from a smaller organization) would experience the system differently. It might also pretty well be, that they wouldn’t only talk favorably about Gecko, and also point out the frustrating bits and pieces. An employee would likely not open the homeboard every day. A leader could get annoyed by the complex feedback form and the HR professional would still worry about the data quality. However, all these experiences would still be invaluable pieces of information to be taken into account when building an intuitive, efficient, and engaging system that responds to users’ needs.
So, I say – the next time we meet, Gecko user, tell me more about your needs and preferences and help me step into your shoes. At Agilcon your positive experience is what we strive for!
