I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Adam Berke, performance management expert, and Chief Strategy Officer at The Predictive Index (PI). His journey encompasses a significant role as the former CEO of Charma, a performance management software company acquired by PI in 2023. Berke wears two hats, also assuming the position of General Manager for PI's performance management product called PI Perform, a strategic move that places him at the forefront of performance management evolution.

Adam Berke, Chief Strategy Office at The Predictive Index, founder and former CEO of Charma

The Evolution & Transformation of Performance Management Software

In 2007, Adam Berke co-founded a company in the marketing technology space called AdRoll. Amidst managing other managers, Berke realized the challenge of being a good manager, as any existing tools to support his efforts often fell short.

In Berke’s words, “It felt like the tools supposed to help me be a good manager and implement the behaviors and best practices of great leaders just fell flat. They were bureaucratic, time-consuming, and disconnected from real work.”

The turning point came when Berke identified a common problem among managers: the struggle with 1:1s - individualized meetings between a manager and their direct report. In many organizations, 1:1s were fraught with challenges; there needed to be more clarity on how to conduct them, limited time for preparation, and a general sense of inefficiency.

This realization birthed Charma, a platform designed to help managers navigate the complexities of performance management.

Berke said, “Legacy tools were not designed with the end user in mind. And that was the key insight that led us down the path to create Charma - managers needed software.”

Charma prioritized understanding the needs of managers by addressing key issues such as preparing for 1:1 meetings, setting and tracking goals, and providing effective feedback and recognition. By focusing on this crucial aspect of managerial interaction, the company was positioned as a catalyst for positive change in the workplace. Its aim was to make the role of managers more manageable and their interactions with team members more purposeful.

An Overview of PI Perform

Fast-forward to today, and the evolution of Charma has taken a significant stride, culminating in the birth of PI Perform—a rebranded version seamlessly integrated into the PI platform. This transformative journey signifies a pivotal moment in performance management, aiming to enhance the overall manager experience.

PI Perform doesn't merely represent a name change; it encapsulates an entire evolution of features and capabilities. By integrating Charma into the Predictive Index platform, PI Perform inherits the strengths and insights of its predecessor while leveraging the broader context and resources provided by the Predictive Index ecosystem.

The evolution from Charma to PI Perform signifies a strategic move towards creating a unified, user-friendly performance management solution. The transformation isn't just about offering a suite of features but tailoring them to meet the specific needs and preferences of the managers who utilize them. This user-centric approach aims to enhance user adoption, engagement, and overall satisfaction with the performance management processes.

PI Perform aspires to redefine performance management workflows by making them lightweight, integrated, and intricately focused on the manager experience. The term "lightweight" signifies a commitment to simplicity and efficiency, minimizing unnecessary complexities that often burden traditional processes. Integration is a key pillar, with PI Perform seamlessly blending into the organizational landscape, breaking down silos, and creating a unified platform for performance management. This interconnectedness ensures data flows seamlessly, providing a holistic view for informed decision-making. Central to its design philosophy is prioritizing the manager experience, aiming to empower them with user-friendly tools for activities like one-on-ones, goal-setting, and feedback.

How to Solve Performance Management Challenges

According to  Forbes, with so many developments happening, such as the increase in contract and freelance work, traditional performance management methods may no longer be effective. Performance management tools need to evolve to keep up with the changing challenges. Here are some of the critical performance management challenges faced by organizations today…

Streamlining One-on-Ones

PI Perform's primary objective revolves around streamlining the one-on-one meeting process. Recognizing the challenges managers face in conducting effective and meaningful one-on-ones, the platform provides a regular cadence and clear agenda. This ensures that issues don't linger and offers managers a practical way to prepare, lifting the mental overhead of managing multiple direct reports. Notably, the democratization of the one-on-one process extends beyond executive levels, fostering a culture of effective communication throughout the organizational hierarchy.

Goal-Setting with Continuous Focus

Another vital objective of PI Perform is to connect goal-setting with regular meeting cadences, ensuring continuous focus. Unlike traditional approaches, where goals might be coded into a system and forgotten until the next cycle, PI Perform integrates goal-setting into the daily workflow. This approach aligns goals as an overarching framework for day-to-day tasks. It promotes regular progress check-ins, making goal-setting a dynamic and integral part of the managerial experience.

Nurturing Feedback and Recognition

The findings of a  Betterworks survey state that companies adopting continuous performance feedback significantly outperform their competition by more than 24%. PI Perform addresses the challenge of providing regular feedback and recognition by nudging managers to engage in these practices consistently. Through templates and guidance, the platform makes giving constructive feedback more accessible. By emphasizing the importance of ongoing feedback and recognition, PI Perform contributes to a positive work culture where employees feel valued and acknowledged for their contributions.

Efficient 360 Reviews

Automating logistics and distilling feedback themes, PI Perform makes 360 reviews more efficient and accessible. By simplifying the often time-consuming process, the platform saves valuable managerial time while ensuring that the insights gained from 360 reviews contribute meaningfully to individual and organizational development.

The integration of PI Perform into the broader PI Talent Optimization Platform creates a synergy of tools and resources that helps align people strategy with business strategy. This allows managers to access performance management functionalities within the same platform they utilize for other talent optimization needs such as hiring, employee engagement, and team dynamics. PI allows organizations to adopt a holistic approach to talent management which helps align their workforce strategies with a unified platform.

Using AI in Performance Management

PI Perform us paving the future of performance management, standing out with its integration of artificial intelligence (AI). This infusion of AI gives leaders superpowers, empowering them to navigate vast volumes of productivity data, get an assist on coaching and feedback, and remain focused on the tasks and behaviors that matter most to productivity. Berke acknowledged the potential risks associated with AI, emphasizing the pivotal role of human judgment in overseeing and interpreting the generated insights.

Berke opined, “If you just take that data, run it through AI, and regurgitate it and don't apply your human judgment and package it correctly, it will fall short. AI can hallucinate. It can draw connections where there aren't. You have to treat AI like a support - it can give you superpowers and even just do a job that could never have been done in the past. But you have to apply your human judgment and intuition on top of it.”

Beyond mere data synthesis, the AI functionality in PI Perform takes a proactive approach to enhance the efficiency of one-on-one meetings. It achieves this by suggesting templates tailored to the behavioral profiles of managers and their direct reports. This level of personalization streamlines the preparation process for these crucial interactions and ensures that the content aligns with the unique preferences and communication styles of each individual involved.

PI Perform's AI also extends its influence into communication dynamics, identifying potential agenda items from Slack conversations and calendar syncs with Google and MS Office. This advanced feature adds a layer of sophistication to the preparation and execution of one-on-ones, exemplifying how AI can seamlessly integrate with human-driven processes to elevate the overall performance management experience.

Why Goal Tracking is Critical to Performance Management

PI Perform is redefining goal tracking, steering away from conventional practices where goals are coded into a system and only revisited during the next cycle. Instead, the software strategically integrates goal-setting into the regular meeting cadence, infusing a dynamic and continuous focus into the organizational fabric. This innovative approach ensures that goals transcend placeholders and become the guiding umbrella for day-to-day operations and decision-making. By incorporating weekly progress checks, PI Perform revitalizes the significance of goals and aligns them with the ongoing flow of activities, fostering a more responsive and impactful goal-setting process within the performance management framework.

Berke said, “The idea of PI Perform it to stay connected to your meeting cadences. When you create a goal in Perform, you also pick a meeting that the goal corresponds with so a discussion topic can be automatically added to the appropriate agenda.  This ensures goals drive day-to-day and weekly work, decisions, and priorities.”

How Behavioral Data Supercharges Your Performance Management Strategy

The integration of behavioral data in PI Perform is a game-changer. Each module within PI Perform, barring goal setting, profoundly relates to applying behavioral data. This nuanced approach ensures that the platform adapts to individuals' unique attributes and preferences, offering a level of personalization that goes beyond conventional practices.

Berke underscored the significance of this integration, noting that managers operating under one reference profile might need to be made aware of how someone with a different profile perceives and processes information so they can be managed to their needs. PI Perform addresses this gap by leveraging behavioral data, providing a more natural and intuitive user experience. The platform's ability to guide workflows in alignment with each person's natural tendencies enhances the value of each module and envisions new possibilities for meeting cadences.

A noteworthy aspect of this integration is identifying suggested agenda topics for one-on-ones. Berke acknowledges the common challenge where individuals often feel unprepared and uncertain about what to discuss during these sessions. PI Perform's use of behavioral data generates tailored suggestions and offers templates designed for specific behavioral reference profile combinations.

Berke said, “People don't know what to discuss one-on-one. They might be unprepared. Generating suggestions and templates for different reference profile combinations seems an obvious opportunity. So I'm a Venturer. You're a Captain. What is a good template for our one-on-one to start from? Instead of just like, here's a generic template that anybody could use.”

This level of customization also extends to goal setting, where personal development plans are influenced by, if not directly driven by, the individual's behavioral reference profile. Ultimately, integrating behavioral data within PI Perform revolutionizes the user experience and opens avenues for more effective and personalized performance management practices.

How to Find the Best Performance Management Software For Your Company: An HR Leaders Guide

When it comes to evaluating performance management systems, HR leaders play a critical role in guiding organizations toward solutions that are both effective and focused on employees. During this evaluation process, one important factor to consider is where workflows primarily take place – whether within traditional documents and spreadsheets or specialized tools designed explicitly for streamlined performance management. The choice between these two environments can have a significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of performance management processes. According to Gartner, 81% of HR leaders are actively transforming their performance management strategies.

In addition, HR leaders need to carefully examine the reliability and uniformity of essential elements such as one-on-one meetings, feedback, and recognition within the selected system. These interactions' frequency and quality have a significant impact on employee engagement, growth, and overall job satisfaction. Establishing and consistently adhering to best practices is essential in fostering a culture of continuous improvement and development.

The most crucial aspect of the evaluation process revolves around HR leaders' investigation into employees' understanding of expectations and awareness of their performance. Transparency and clarity regarding performance expectations directly correlate with employee morale and productivity. HR leaders should assess how effectively the chosen system facilitates this communication, ensuring that employees comprehend their roles and responsibilities and regularly receive constructive feedback on their performance.

Future-proof Performance Management with PI Perform

Spending time with Adam Berk to discuss the evolution of performance management using PI Perform was a delight. The integration of technology, AI, and a focus on the manager experience makes PI Perform a vital product for improving workplace performance. Embracing innovative solutions can help HR leaders and managers achieve greater efficiency and boost employee engagement, leading their organizations into a new era of success.

If you want to explore PI Perform. Book a PI Perform demo with the Lever Talent team today.