Here’s How

Today we released Rypple Loops — a quick, painless way for managers to do performance summaries that accelerate achievement.

With Loops, we’ve re-invented the review. Instead of just complaining about how reviews suck (and yes, we’re guilty of that…), we wanted to actually do something about it. So, we started with a blank slate and built a truly web-based service for performance.

The results are in… and it works

Here’s what some folks at Facebook say about their experience with Rypple Loops.

This is the story of how we did it

The idea for Loops began about two years ago at a workshop on feedback hosted by IDEO and Mozilla. We were in a room full of super-smart people listening to their frustrations with traditional performance management. Essentially, what they said was:

“The world has changed. Work is more social, collaborative, and real-time. But annual reviews are the opposite. Why can’t feedback be better?”

Someone from Facebook was there and we started talking. They wondered if we would build them a totally new way to do performance reviews — one in keeping with their social, iterative, fast-moving culture, but one that also met the needs of a highly results-focused business.

Say no first

Initially, we said, “No.” We were terrified of building enterprise software that sucked. We wanted to focus exclusively on the needs of bottom-up end-users.

But the more we thought about it, the more we realized this was an amazing opportunity. To truly change the world of work we had to address the important business functions of the review AND engage employees and managers.

Work with the best

So, after a while, we said “Yes” and got to work with more than two-dozen early customers, including Facebook, Gilt Groupe, RichRelevance, PhotoBucket, Bazaarvoice, Eventbright, Kobo, Nexj Systems, Pivotal Labs, and Insomniac Games. We wanted to work with places that really meant it when they said “talent is our most important asset.” Companies who really got the web. Cultures that moved fast and kicked ass. Companies that would push us to create something awesome.

Iterate like crazy

Our iterative approach to building Loops is pretty typical for consumer software. It’s uncommon for business software. We spent months iterating — weekly — with our end users. We built and re-built the service at least three times. We did tons of user-testing, usability studies, and ethnographic work. Sometimes we failed — and from this, we learned.

The secret is in the micro-feedback

Initially, we were known as the “feedback company.” We were gathering all sort of micro-feedback in real-time: Recognition. Rapid Peer 360’s. Coaching sessions. Personal Feedback. Goals.

What if we could aggregate all of the year long feedback, add some structure, and “loop” in everyone who worked with a teammate to provide some context? What if we could put real work information in one place? If we could do this, Loops would become the ideal performance summary application —one that aggregated micro-feedback, plus perspective, over time.

Build on our platform

We already had a social performance platform that let managers and their teams set social visible goals, provide continuous feedback, one-on-one coaching, and meaningful recognition—in real time. Because managers and their teams would be already be communicating continuously through Rypple, the Loop would really be a quick snapshot of performance over a specified period of time.

Build for web culture; not form automation

There’s a lot of talk these days how millenials like us crave feedback, recognition, and mentorship at work. No surprise, this is what well-respected, mainstream management gurus and behavioral scientists have been saying for years.

As Wired points out in the cover story on feedback loops—and Rypple—in its July 2011 issue, the appeal of our approach is growing. Our culture is moving faster on feedback – powered by the web. People don’t just automate forms. They’ve invented entirely new, more efficient, transparent models of communication: IM, text, Wiki’s, blogs, tweets, walls and more. This is communication on the web.

Loops does this for performance feedback. While Loops have questions, it’s not about a better, fancier form and slider.

What the heck is Loops, anyhow?

We’re really proud to share Loops with the world. It’s a totally new way to do performance reviews. Instead of forcing companies to hit the pause button every six months and go off and write essays about one another — Loops lets managers run quick, lightweight, and actionable performance summaries whenever they choose: at the end of a goal, a project, or a quarter.

Everything they need to know about their employees is already captured in one place and easy to find — on Rypple — so they don’t go out and look through old emails, notebooks, spreadsheets. They can invite anyone to contribute feedback, whether inside or outside their teams. And greater visibility means no surprises when it comes to discussing promotions or compensation.

With Loops, teams get high quality feedback more often so they can learn faster. Managers save time preparing — and keep their employees motivated, engaged, and aligned. And companies get to retain their best people and keep them productive and happy at work.

We’re just getting started.

Even though Loops is live and working, we know we have barely started this journey. We’re going to keep innovating and iterating at a pace that dramatically exceeds the standard in our industry. We’re going to push the envelop and try new things. Occasionally, we’re going to fail — and hopefully get your feedback. But, we hope by pushing hard, we’re also building a path for companies to move from a painful, antiquated model to a real-time approach to performance.

In the coming days and weeks, a lot more exciting things will be happening at Rypple. So stay tuned…