Pingu

Opportunity — Helping people grow without waiting for performance season

Most people want to grow in their careers — but day to day, it’s hard to know where you stand, what “good” actually looks like, or what to do next.

And this challenge isn’t just about career progression.

Employees are constantly navigating questions about how the organisation works, what’s expected of them in their role, what to focus on day to day, and where to find the right information — often across too many tools and documents.

Today, guidance on work and growth is often:

• Locked behind annual performance cycles

• Dependent on how proactive or available your manager is

• Scattered across documents, tools, policies, and unwritten norms

This fragmentation leaves many employees — especially individual contributors — feeling uncertain, reactive, or stuck. Clarity often arrives only when something goes wrong, or when it’s already time to be evaluated.

Over the last month, we learned that this uncertainty isn’t just about performance reviews. People want:

• Clear signals on how they’re tracking now

• Practical, role-specific guidance they can act on immediately

• A safe, low-friction way to think things through without it feeling formal, scary, or high-stakes

Most importantly, they want convenience — not another system to learn, or another place to search.

This problem matters because clarity directly affects motivation, confidence, and how effectively people contribute. In fast-moving teams, waiting months for feedback or answers is simply too slow.

Velocity — A career and work buddy that lives where people already work

In the last month, we built Pingu — a lightweight employee lifecycle buddy designed to support people across their work and growth journey.

Pingu is intentionally not just career-focused. It helps employees navigate the organisation, their career as a whole, and even day-to-day tasks and questions — all in one place.

To do this, Pingu is built around three core pillars:

Career Coach
Practical, role-aware guidance to help employees reflect, sense-check progress, and plan next steps.

OGP Knowledge Database
A single entry point to surface relevant guides, policies, and internal knowledge — reducing time spent searching across tools.

AI Buddy
A conversational layer that ties everything together, offering timely guidance where and when questions arise.

What we shipped and tested

• A Slack bot employees can talk to in real time

• Guided prompts around growth, feedback, next steps, and self-reflection

• Role-aware responses (e.g. engineers, PMs) that turn vague questions into concrete actions

• An internal dashboard to understand usage patterns and themes

• Early integrations with OGP guides, policies, and internal resources

What users can do now that they couldn’t before

• Ask career or work-related questions in the moment — not just during formal reviews

• Sense-check whether they’re on track for their role or level

• Get practical next steps instead of generic advice

• Track weekly or monthly priorities in one place

• Generate self-evaluation drafts more easily

• Experience more consistent, OGP-aligned guidance across hiring and development

What’s still rough or missing

As we tested Pingu, we uncovered clear areas to sharpen and improve — particularly around focus and how we guide users through reflection.

“It would help if Pingu was clearer about the main problem it’s solving. Right now it can do many things — work logging, growth, searching docs — and focusing on one core use case might make it even stronger.”

“I struggle with setting goals or tracking what I’ve done. Guided prompts or short check-ins would make it much easier than seeing a big blank input box.”

These insights reinforced an important design principle for us: convenience and clarity matter more than feature breadth.

We also learned quickly what didn’t work. Overly long responses and abstract coaching language created friction. We iterated toward short, practical, “tell me what to do next” guidance — which users consistently preferred.

Pingu is also intentionally not a replacement for managers and does not give definitive judgements. Instead, it helps employees prepare for more productive conversations and navigate their careers with greater confidence.

Slack helps us minimise tool fatigue by meeting people where they already work. Over time, we’re exploring complementary surfaces that support deeper reflection — without fragmenting the experience or adding unnecessary tools.

Traction — Early signals this fits into real work, not extra work

In the last month, Pingu was piloted with a small group of employees across different roles and levels.

How it was used

• Informal, opt-in testing via Slack with users across different functions and roles in the organisation

• Used during workdays — between tasks, after meetings, or when something felt unclear

• No mandated usage; people engaged when it felt relevant

What we’re seeing

• ~35% of the organisation interacted with Pingu at least once

• ~10% of the organisation use it actively

• Many users are keen to continue testing and shaping Pingu

Beyond metrics, the strongest signals came from how people described using it.

“The self-eval problem is worth solving. It’s painful to remember everything I did over a year — if Pingu could prompt me with a few questions each week and help summarise my work monthly or quarterly, that would be really useful.”

“It helps me track what I’ve done and communicate it more clearly with my manager, while also giving some career guidance and context about the organisation.”

“With the name ‘Pingu’, you could even lean into pinging me regularly with short questions so I can jot down what I did each week.”

We’re encouraged that:

• People use Pingu outside of performance season

• Users return to it when they need to reflect or make sense of their work

• Suggestions focus on continuity and habit-building, not one-off use

These are early days, but the behaviour suggests Pingu isn’t just another HR tool. It’s becoming a lightweight thinking space and work habit — helping people remember what they’ve done, talk about it more clearly, and grow with less friction.

Team members:

• Wira, Engineering Manager

• Joyce, People Partner

• Amanda, People Partner

Special thanks to our testers and contributors — your curiosity, feedback, and honesty helped shape Pingu.