From test scores to skill clarity

We started with a heuristic analysis of the current product. Navigation split a single linear flow across three separate tabs. Copy used internal terminology unfamiliar to users. Related actions lived in disconnected parts of the platform, and progress from one assessment connected to nothing else on the screen.

The platform was built around taking tests; we wanted it built around understanding skills.

With limited user access early on, we built proto-personas and ran a workflow review, then moved into design. Our first homepage direction centred on engagement, which some stakeholders had asked for: leaderboards, a question of the day, game mechanics. If taking assessments is unpleasant, make the experience less so and bring people back more often.

We presented it. The CTO’s response was quiet and direct: employees wouldn’t spend more than 6 to 8 hours a year on this platform.

That was the number. Everything we had designed assumed far more than that.

No gamification makes a hard Python test easier, and wrapping assessments in game mechanics risked the thing iMocha was trusted for: accurate results.

The goal changed from increasing time on the platform to reducing it: make understanding your skills as fast and clear as possible, so users can get in, get what they need, and move on.

We rebuilt the homepage around that: skill information visible immediately, clear next steps, and progress tracking that required no digging. It took several iterations to get the hierarchy right.

Through user and expert interviews, one thing kept coming up from employees: they didn’t just want to know their test results. They wanted to understand where they stood, what they were good at, and what to do next for their own careers.

That became the skill profile: a personal space inside an enterprise product, centred on the employee rather than the organisation’s view of them. It organised each employee’s view of their skills around three questions: where am I now, how do I compare to my peers, and what should I focus on next.

For the MVP we kept the profile focused: skill gap analysis across core, future, and soft skills; benchmarking against the market; and growth over time. We designed career path mapping and internal mobility as a north star for later phases.

For the second half we went back to interviews, this time with HR managers, L&D leads, and department heads. Their questions were different from the employees’. How is proficiency in a skill defined, and is it consistent across teams? What skills are our teams weakest in compared to the market? Are we preparing for the skills we will need next?

We distilled these into the three areas that structured the admin product. Skill Understanding: what a skill means, how it relates to others, how proficiency is defined. Skill Awareness: what skills exist in the organisation, who has them, how they are changing. Skill Knowledge: what skills matter most, when, and why.

The skills inventory dashboard gave admins a single view of their organisation’s skill health: gaps, proficiency distribution, and benchmarks against industry and competitors. The skill management dashboard went further, covering skill configuration, custom naming conventions, criticality scoring, and development roadmaps.

We also designed the more ambitious version: dashboards that could answer precise questions, surface insights based on what an admin was trying to do, and predict skill gaps before they opened. The iMocha team felt it was not the right scope for the first iteration, so we shipped a focused, buildable MVP and handed over a clear picture of the longer direction, giving every future decision something to aim at.

A closer look at the shipped MVP, employee side first.