COMPANY
BAM Technologies
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer
TIMELINE
November 2021 - August 2022
DoD Government Project
Redesigning MyCareer
How I turned an underutilized, single text-box tool into a structured goal management aid that improved engagement and supervisor collaboration.
Context
To provide a useful tool that actually supports career growth.
MyCareer is a performance and development platform used by Airmen to manage their career goals and plan for the future with their supervisors. The goal setting features had seen a consistently low engagement.
Career development is inherently iterative. Goals evolve, progress happens in stages, and staying on track sometimes require monitoring and input from others. The existing tool offered none of that. The single text box provided no structure to think through multiple goals and develop an action plan to achieve their goals. I redesigned the experience to introduce structured goal tracking, logging progress, and supervisor collaboration, which all expected to drive 70% increase in engagement.
Discovery
Conducing user interviews to develop insights on needs and challenges
I conducted interviews with 4 subject matter experts in different stages of their career to understand how they navigate their performance and goals.
After synthesizing the results, a few themes emerged:
Goals need to be flexible
Goals evolve over time and are not static. Both short and long term goals should adapt over time.
Progress is invisible
There was no way to track milestones or reflect on the growth over time.
Lack of feedback
Sharing goals with supervisors is critical to stay on track and aligned on future opportunities
Current State
A single text box is not a goal management tool.
The existing Goals & Intent section presented users with one text box to input their career goals.
Opportunity Area 1
Organization - Give goals a structure they can grow into
The single text box gave users no opportunity to think about short-term and long-term goals separately. The redesign introduces 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year goals all in one place for users to track and look into the future.
Users can create can categorize short-term and long-term goals separately
A view that surfaces all goals in one place with status indicators
Each goal entry includes a completion date and how it will be achieved.
Opportunity Area 2
Progress tracking - Make growth visible over time
Without a way to log updates, there was no record of progress or encouragement to continue to track progress. The redesign introducing a log within each goal where users can record milestones, reflect on blockers, and see their journey mapped over time.
Users can log time stamped entries as they reach milestones within a goal
Progress indicators on the dashboard show overall goal completion
Activity logs serves as documentation for review conversations.
Opportunity Area 3
Sharing and feedback
Career development requires consistent feedback and check-ins with supervisors. The current tool was entirely private by default. The redesign incorporates a comments areas for supervisors to check-in and review goals set by the member.
Reviewers can leave comments on a member’s goals and progress
Users receive notifications when feedback is added
Final Design
The redesigned experience
The final designs brought together all three opportunities into a single experience. The new design provides users structure to grow into, connection to the people who support their development, and tools to track progress. Through these improvements, engagement is expected to increase by 70%
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