Heartpace
Building Smart Compensation Reporting for HR
- Industry
- HR
- My role
- Experience & Strategy Consultant
- Year
- 2024
Heartpace Building Smart Compensation Reporting for HR
Industry
HR
My role
Experience & Strategy Consultant
Year
2024
About the company
Stockholm-based Heartpace offers a modern, cloud-based Human Resources Management platform designed to centralize and streamline every HR touchpoint
Objective
Help Heartpace to expand their value proposition and become the leading SMART compensation management platform, empowering businesses to make strategic, data-driven decisions that drive revenue growth and workforce engagement
Flight Plan
PHASE 1: Strategy & identification of use cases
I worked to understand the organization’s challenges, opportunities, and market position, and built a unified vision to act as the North Star for the new strategy. From there I defined a clear value-delivery cycle and shaped the key future use cases that could take Heartpace to a market-leading position.
Highlights
Intensive challenge framing and stakeholder workshops, which helped to understand challenges, opportunities, and the current market position
Building a unified vision of direction, which the new strategy should embrace as a North Star for future actions
Defining the value delivery cycle for customers
Ideation of key future use cases to achieve a leading position in the market
Video presenting strategic vision to stakeholders
PHASE 2: User & market research
I framed the core questions — where the market gaps and opportunities lay, what would make the experience genuinely win customers, and how to validate it quickly.
Research scope
11
Interviews with CFOs, CEOs, COOs, HR Directors and Country Managers
6
Representatives of companies from different domains
11
We researched competitors and alternatives solution providers and deep-dived
5
We consulted expert sources: EY, PwC, Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner
Highlights
Identified key user pain points and needs, and built user archetypes
Analysis of market gaps and identification of competitors' strengths and weaknesses
Key market trends influencing the challenges
Core use cases identified during research
PHASE 3: Conceptual solution design
The key decision was to design and validate a role-based dashboard, shaped to distinct archetypes — strategic, functional, and HR leaders. The trade-off I kept managing was flexibility against simplicity: personalized summary views, detailed filtering, and exportable reports, without the tool turning heavy. It let leaders track costs, forecast budgets, and surface the areas that needed attention first.
The outcome was a flexible and user-centric tool that not only reflected live business status but also empowered decision-makers to act quickly and confidently
PHASE 4: Early validation with target audiences
I put the prototypes in front of the people they were built for — strategic, functional, and HR leaders — and tested the role-based dashboard in real working contexts.
That validation confirmed the direction, cut the risk of misalignment, and gave tangible evidence the dashboard could deliver real, measurable value to the people using it.
Outcomes
Established a unified strategic vision, serving as a North Star for guiding all future initiatives
Identified user pain points, market gaps, and key trends, enabling the definition of archetypes and prioritised use cases.
Prototype provided early evidence of value, ensuring alignment with user needs and building confidence among decision-makers
The prototype also laid the groundwork for structured planning of next phases of product development, including the alignment of streams and preparation for wider implementation
Heartpace Building Smart Compensation Reporting for HR
Industry
HR
My role
Experience & Strategy Consultant
Year
2024
About the company
Stockholm-based Heartpace offers a modern, cloud-based Human Resources Management platform designed to centralize and streamline every HR touchpoint
Objective
Help Heartpace to expand their value proposition and become the leading SMART compensation management platform, empowering businesses to make strategic, data-driven decisions that drive revenue growth and workforce engagement
Flight Plan
PHASE 1: Strategy & identification of use cases
I worked to understand the organization’s challenges, opportunities, and market position, and built a unified vision to act as the North Star for the new strategy. From there I defined a clear value-delivery cycle and shaped the key future use cases that could take Heartpace to a market-leading position.
Highlights
Intensive challenge framing and stakeholder workshops, which helped to understand challenges, opportunities, and the current market position
Building a unified vision of direction, which the new strategy should embrace as a North Star for future actions
Defining the value delivery cycle for customers
Ideation of key future use cases to achieve a leading position in the market
Video presenting strategic vision to stakeholders
PHASE 2: User & market research
I framed the core questions — where the market gaps and opportunities lay, what would make the experience genuinely win customers, and how to validate it quickly.
Research scope
11
Interviews with CFOs, CEOs, COOs, HR Directors and Country Managers
6
Representatives of companies from different domains
11
We researched competitors and alternatives solution providers and deep-dived
5
We consulted expert sources: EY, PwC, Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner
Highlights
Identified key user pain points and needs, and built user archetypes
Analysis of market gaps and identification of competitors' strengths and weaknesses
Key market trends influencing the challenges
Core use cases identified during research
PHASE 3: Conceptual solution design
The key decision was to design and validate a role-based dashboard, shaped to distinct archetypes — strategic, functional, and HR leaders. The trade-off I kept managing was flexibility against simplicity: personalized summary views, detailed filtering, and exportable reports, without the tool turning heavy. It let leaders track costs, forecast budgets, and surface the areas that needed attention first.
The outcome was a flexible and user-centric tool that not only reflected live business status but also empowered decision-makers to act quickly and confidently
PHASE 4: Early validation with target audiences
I put the prototypes in front of the people they were built for — strategic, functional, and HR leaders — and tested the role-based dashboard in real working contexts.
That validation confirmed the direction, cut the risk of misalignment, and gave tangible evidence the dashboard could deliver real, measurable value to the people using it.
Outcomes
Established a unified strategic vision, serving as a North Star for guiding all future initiatives
Identified user pain points, market gaps, and key trends, enabling the definition of archetypes and prioritised use cases.
Prototype provided early evidence of value, ensuring alignment with user needs and building confidence among decision-makers
The prototype also laid the groundwork for structured planning of next phases of product development, including the alignment of streams and preparation for wider implementation
Heartpace Building Smart Compensation Reporting for HR
Industry
HR
My role
Experience & Strategy Consultant
Year
2024
About the company
Stockholm-based Heartpace offers a modern, cloud-based Human Resources Management platform designed to centralize and streamline every HR touchpoint
Objective
Help Heartpace to expand their value proposition and become the leading SMART compensation management platform, empowering businesses to make strategic, data-driven decisions that drive revenue growth and workforce engagement
Flight Plan
PHASE 1: Strategy & identification of use cases
I worked to understand the organization’s challenges, opportunities, and market position, and built a unified vision to act as the North Star for the new strategy. From there I defined a clear value-delivery cycle and shaped the key future use cases that could take Heartpace to a market-leading position.
Highlights
Intensive challenge framing and stakeholder workshops, which helped to understand challenges, opportunities, and the current market position
Building a unified vision of direction, which the new strategy should embrace as a North Star for future actions
Defining the value delivery cycle for customers
Ideation of key future use cases to achieve a leading position in the market
Video presenting strategic vision to stakeholders
PHASE 2: User & market research
I framed the core questions — where the market gaps and opportunities lay, what would make the experience genuinely win customers, and how to validate it quickly.
Research scope
11
Interviews with CFOs, CEOs, COOs, HR Directors and Country Managers
6
Representatives of companies from different domains
11
We researched competitors and alternatives solution providers and deep-dived
5
We consulted expert sources: EY, PwC, Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner
Highlights
Identified key user pain points and needs, and built user archetypes
Analysis of market gaps and identification of competitors' strengths and weaknesses
Key market trends influencing the challenges
Core use cases identified during research
PHASE 3: Conceptual solution design
The key decision was to design and validate a role-based dashboard, shaped to distinct archetypes — strategic, functional, and HR leaders. The trade-off I kept managing was flexibility against simplicity: personalized summary views, detailed filtering, and exportable reports, without the tool turning heavy. It let leaders track costs, forecast budgets, and surface the areas that needed attention first.
The outcome was a flexible and user-centric tool that not only reflected live business status but also empowered decision-makers to act quickly and confidently
PHASE 4: Early validation with target audiences
I put the prototypes in front of the people they were built for — strategic, functional, and HR leaders — and tested the role-based dashboard in real working contexts.
That validation confirmed the direction, cut the risk of misalignment, and gave tangible evidence the dashboard could deliver real, measurable value to the people using it.
Outcomes
Established a unified strategic vision, serving as a North Star for guiding all future initiatives
Identified user pain points, market gaps, and key trends, enabling the definition of archetypes and prioritised use cases.
Prototype provided early evidence of value, ensuring alignment with user needs and building confidence among decision-makers
The prototype also laid the groundwork for structured planning of next phases of product development, including the alignment of streams and preparation for wider implementation