Field-Investigate Performance Practices for a SaaS Scale-up
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Field-Investigate Performance Practices for a SaaS Scale-up. Advanced challenge in research. Conducting rigorous research on real questions, earn a blockchai...
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Investigate how performance and feedback are actually experienced at Northwind Signals so that a fit-for-purpose, lightweight performance management system can be designed on evidence rather than assumption.
This is not a research exercise. It is the work a researcher does to produce findings that withstand scrutiny. That distinction matters to every hiring manager who has seen candidates summarize papers and none who have produced original findings under expert review.
When you finish, you will have something most graduates do not: a real-world deliverable, verified by Ewance, that you can show to a hiring manager and say "I did this. Here is the proof."
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Convert a messy organizational situation into investigable questions and an ethical evidence-collection plan using only available and publicly observable sources
- Read an employee engagement dataset to locate where feedback, goal alignment, and manager support break down across segments
- Distinguish performance-management practices that fit a 40-person scale-up from those that suit larger firms, using a cited public reference
- Anchor every design requirement to observable evidence so recommendations survive leadership scrutiny
- Communicate an evidence-to-recommendation narrative persuasively under real budget and timeline constraints
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Performance Management
Apply performance management to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Goal Setting
Apply goal setting to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Feedback Culture
Apply feedback culture to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Compensation Design
Apply compensation design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Change Management
Plan and guide organizational transitions to achieve lasting adoption.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
People Operations Analyst
This challenge mirrors the analyst's core work: reading engagement data, segmenting it for real signal, and turning it into change recommendations leadership will act on. You leave able to evidence a people decision rather than assert it.
This challenge sharpens
- performance-management
- goal-setting
- feedback-culture
HR Consultant
Consultants are hired to diagnose before they prescribe. By investigating a scale-up's performance reality and tracing every recommendation to evidence, you practice the diagnostic rigor and stakeholder-facing synthesis that distinguishes a trusted advisor.
This challenge sharpens
- performance-management
- compensation-design
- change-management
Total Rewards Specialist
Linking performance to pay demands defensible evidence. Analyzing where goal alignment and feedback break down prepares you to design fair, motivating compensation linkages that withstand fairness and transparency scrutiny.
This challenge sharpens
- compensation-design
- performance-management
- feedback-culture