alaina ylitalo
abouthome

Ambition Group Coaching

2021-2022

Adding a new end-to-end feature to the Ambition coaching stack to capture team conversations, streamline coaching, and provide a complete view of performance.

// project overview

Ambition helps teams track goals, improve performance, and drive engagement through coaching and real-time insights. Our tools focused on 1-on-1 meetings, leaving gaps in tracking team-based conversations like alignments and call coaching—limiting visibility into team dynamics and decisions - so we built Group Check-Ins to give managers a powerful way to track team performance and drive better outcomes.

// goals

  • Win Deals – Close competitive gaps to secure enterprise customers.

  • Support Team Coaching – Track and document team conversations and outcomes more effectively.

  • Unify Workflows – Replace fragmented tools with a single solution.
Enhance Data Visibility – Provide a more complete view of team performance 

  • Boost Engagement – Help managers and teams better prepare for and follow up on meetings.

  • Make Scheduling Frictionless - from scheduling in app to invites on calendars.

Process

// co-creating with a large customer

The discovery phase involved deep collaboration with a large customer who had expressed a need for team-based coaching functionality. This customer-led feedback was instrumental in shaping the initial solution. However, we quickly realized the risk of designing a solution tailored to just one customer, so we broadened our focus by gathering insights from additional customers to ensure scalability across different use cases.

Solution

// initial release

For our initial release, we introduced the concept of group meetings and focused on making coaching smoother and more efficient. Key features included:

  • Flexible Scheduling
  • Unified Documentation with new agenda items
  • Seamless Integration with Google Calendar and Outlook
  • Action Items
  • Improved UI

// tracking accountability with action items

The addition of action items makes capturing decisions and next steps in real-time in-app easier, providing a detailed, accessible record of team conversations, enhancing future coaching and performance reviews.

// seamless integration with Google Calendar and Outlook

Manual and disconnected calendar scheduling was a frequently communicated pain point across all meeting types. Meetings now automatically sync with calendars, ensuring that scheduling changes are reflected across all tools, eliminating confusion.

    // new agenda content

    Previously, there was no support for including non-question content in agendas, which hindered the ability to create accurate, usable agenda content for team meetings. We added Content Blocks and Embedded Iframes, allowing for better-structured agendas that include key resources, links, and content, ensuring teams are fully prepared for discussions.

    // consistent UX/UI for meeting pages

    We took this opportunity to revamp the UI for all existing coaching meeting types, ensuring a consistent experience across the platform with a focus on better hierarchy and scannability

    Conclusion & Reflections

    // results

    Initial release was successfully adopted by 3+ enterprise customers. Large enterprise customers across industries like telecom, environmental services, and logistics moved their team coaching to Ambition, helping secure many 10's of thousands of dollars in renewal revenue.

    // user feedback

    We had a generally positive reception to the initial release. As we gathered feedback, we saw some themes of things to explore for later iterations:

    • Due dates, attachments, and better tracking to action items.
    • More consistent and clearer notifications (in-app, email, Slack).
    • A streamlined presentation view for presenting meeting notes and follow-ups.
    • Visibility into which team members have reviewed or acknowledged meeting notes.

    // what I would do differently

    • Broader Customer Validation Sooner – We initially designed the feature based on one large customer’s needs; gathering input from more types of users and company types earlier could have helped us design a more scalable solution upfront.
    • Simplified Scheduling Logic – The recurring meeting logic became overly complex; leading to a confusing UX
    • Take more risks with the UI redesign - If time allowed I would have spent time really exploring visually where meetings could go

    // Conclusion

    By co-creating the solution with customers, we successfully designed a feature that positions the platform competitively and supports more effective team coaching at scale.

    // next project →

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