Hamilton Mobile App
Independent Project 2024 | Design Manager, Collaborated with one UX Designer, Investor | Tools: Figma, Figjam
Business Case
BNY Mellon sought to create an internal communication platform to foster a sense of achievement and visibility across the organization. The goal was to design a mobile app that allowed employees to easily share their daily accomplishments while giving managers, including C-level executives, a comprehensive view of employee progress across global teams. The platform, Hamilton, was designed to capture daily "wins" from employees in a gamified, Twitter-inspired format that would also encourage team building and daily interaction.
The Challenge
Before Hamilton, the company relied on traditional communication channels that were siloed, which often resulted in a lack of visibility into individual employee accomplishments and team progress. This made it difficult for managers to get a real-time, holistic view of employee performance, especially in a large, global organization. Additionally, there was a need for a platform that was both engaging and efficient, allowing employees to feel recognized for their achievements without overwhelming them with unnecessary communication.
Key Features to take into Account
1. Hamilton Tweets (Daily Wins)
- Allow employees to post a daily "win" or achievement.
- Provide options to categorize wins (e.g., team win, personal milestone, project success).
- Include text, image, or video options to make posts more dynamic
- Enable users to follow specific teams or departments.
- Display a personalized feed with daily wins from followed teams or individuals.
- Allow teams to comment or react to posts to promote interaction.
- Points: Reward users with points for daily participation (posting wins, commenting, engaging with team feeds).
- Badges: Issue badges for milestones (e.g., posting 5 wins, engaging with others, top contributor of the month).
- Leaderboards: Display leaderboards for individuals or teams to motivate friendly competition.
- Automatically compile all "Hamilton tweets" and send a daily summary at 7am to all employees.
- Include key achievements, top contributors, and team highlights in the digest.
- Provide a centralized view for managers to track team engagement and performance.
- Allow managers to monitor daily wins, post feedback, and recognize high performers.
- Offer insights into team dynamics and individual contributions.
- Allow employees to have customizable profiles showcasing their wins and badges.
- Include a personal "goal-setting" feature to track progress on personal or professional objectives.
- Allow users to opt-in or opt-out of notifications based on their preferences.
- Send reminders for daily posting or reading the daily feed.
- Provide alerts for new comments or interactions on an employee’s posts.
- Implement a robust search function allowing users to search for wins by keywords, categories, or teams.
- Tag posts for easy sorting and filtering (e.g., “Project Completion,” “Team Collaboration,” “Leadership”).
- Introduce periodic team-based challenges (e.g., achieving a certain number of wins in a week).
- Provide rewards for teams that meet set challenges or goals.
- Enable employees to recognize and "shout out" colleagues for accomplishments.
- Integrate mentorship opportunities by allowing users to set mentorship goals and track progress.
- Offer insights into personal and team-level performance (e.g., number of wins posted, team collaboration).
- Provide data-driven feedback on employee engagement and overall app usage.
- Allow users to control the visibility of their posts (public, team-only, private).
- Offer a simple privacy policy and data protection settings.
- Include language preferences to support a diverse, global workforce.
- Allow integration with internal platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or project management tools to streamline communication.
- Sync with existing performance management or HR systems for streamlined goal tracking and feedback.
- Ensure the app is responsive and accessible on both mobile devices and desktop platforms, giving employees flexibility in how they access and engage with the tool.
- Tailor content based on the user’s role, department, or interests, ensuring the feed remains relevant to each employee.
These are all the features helped drive engagement, improve internal communication, and create a sense of shared accomplishment, while also providing valuable insights to both employees and management.
Integrating Hamilton into the Personalized MySource Intranet Homepage with a Stay Connected Widget
Integrated Solution
Hamilton was designed to be a simple yet effective tool for both employees and management. For the mobile application the major features of the app included:
- Hamilton Tweets: Employees were encouraged to post one “Hamilton tweet” each day, highlighting something they accomplished or a ‘win’ they experienced. This daily practice fostered a culture of recognition and positivity while allowing managers to gain a snapshot of employee contributions.
- Team-Centric Feed: The app allowed users to follow specific teams within the company, creating customized feeds where they could read about their colleagues' daily wins. This personalized feed helped boost morale, foster collaboration, and encouraged employees to engage with one another.
- Gamification & Rewards: To ensure daily engagement, Hamilton included elements of gamification such as points, badges, and leaderboards. These features incentivized employees to post regularly and read through their feed every morning.
- End-of-Day Feed: The app collected all Hamilton tweets and compiled them into a digest, which was then sent out at 7am each working day to all employees. This gave the entire company a snapshot of collective wins and team achievements, enhancing a sense of shared accomplishment.
- Manager Dashboard: For managers, Hamilton offered a centralized view of team activities, allowing them to track employee engagement and accomplishments in a single location, regardless of whether they had directly interacted with the individual team members.
Outcomes
Hamilton proved to be highly successful, with the following results:
- Employee Engagement: Employees appreciated the opportunity to share their accomplishments and be recognized in a simple, informal format. The gamified elements and team feeds helped foster a sense of community and camaraderie.
- Increased Visibility for Management: The platform gave management a powerful tool to monitor performance and recognize employee contributions on a global scale. C-level executives particularly appreciated the visibility into team dynamics and the ability to track employee wins without needing direct interaction.
- Company-Wide Culture Shift: The daily "win" format encouraged a culture of recognition and accountability across the organization. The visibility of wins across teams motivated employees to continue achieving and sharing their progress.
- Improved Communication: The app reduced the need for constant meetings and emails by offering a more efficient, asynchronous way for employees to share updates. It also helped teams stay connected, even across different time zones and departments.
Promotional Video for launch that went on the homepage of BNY Mellon MySource intranet.
Lessons Learned
One of the key lessons learned from developing Hamilton was the importance of simplicity in design. The success of the app was driven by its easy-to-use interface and straightforward concept. Additionally, the gamification aspects played a crucial role in maintaining engagement, showing that even in a professional setting, small rewards and recognition can significantly boost employee motivation. However, it was also clear that the tool was more appreciated by management than by employees, suggesting that future iterations might need to better balance the value for both groups.
Other Case Studies
Nexen 2.0
MyWorkspace
Access Edge |
Doc Management
CareCircle Mobile |
