Management Platform & Edtech Discovery

Technical case · Product discovery. "How might we create a more fluid experience between Performance & Career Management and Corporate Learning?"

• ✦Understand — Briefing, hypotheses and the CSD Matrix
• ✦Research — 8 interviews with synthetic personas
• ✦Synthesize — Patterns, insights and journey
• ✦Propose — HMW, solution hypothesis and real validation

Jessica Fidelis · Product & UX Designer · October 2026

• Synthetic data. Every interview quote comes from AI-generated personas and is a hypothesis to validate with real people.

Why the CSD matrix

• ✦It separates what is already known from what is assumed and from what is in doubt.
• ✦It prioritizes 8 questions (P1 to P8) that guide the script and the analysis.
• ✦It becomes a comparison point: after the interviews, each item is confirmed, weakened or dropped.
• ✦Built with the real Edtech and Management Platform team, it already serves as shared direction.

• Certainties · what the briefing and documentation state
• Assumptions · hypotheses to test
• Doubts · what we can't safely assume
• Prioritization · P1 to P8, what the interviews need to answer

Priorities P1 to P8

• 01
  P1 · Evidence of development
• 02
  P2 · Who turns a gap into action
• 03
  P3 · How the development plan (PDI) is built
• 04
  P4 · Where HR's responsibility ends
• 05
  P5 · Whether the need identified in the Management Platform is reused or reconstructed by L&D
• 06
  P6 · Where the pain is most intense and by which persona
• 07
  P7 · Feedback between learning and performance
• 08
  P8 · Where informal actions get recorded

• ✦Prompts and interview guide

8 interviews with synthetic personas, 4 roles × 2 companies.

The biggest pain points, in order

• 01
  No one sees the effect after the action.
• 02
  Follow-up depends on the manager's memory.
• 03
  The need reaches L&D without its origin.
• 04
  The employee doesn't receive feedback.

Quotes

• Completing or recording doesn't prove development — "…the record shows intention more than result." — André · HR
• After the action, whoever organizes it doesn't see the effect — "…I published it, it was completed, and I don't know if it helped." — Beatriz · L&D
• On the ground, the evidence is observed behavior — "…it's worth more than any record." — Lucas · Manager
• The need and the action circulate through conversation — "…a loose note…" — Paula · Manager
• There's no closure with the employee — "…I take it seriously when I see that it leads somewhere." — Marcos · Employee
• L&D receives the request without its origin — "…already turned into a request…" — Diego · L&D

9 patterns identified

• 01
  #1 · Completing or recording doesn't prove development — Frequency: 6 of 8 · Evidence: 5 E · 1 I
• 02
  #2 · On the ground, the evidence is observed behavior — Frequency: 4 of 8 · Evidence: n/a
• 03
  ★ #3 · After the action, whoever organizes it doesn't see the effect — Frequency: 6 of 8 · Evidence: 5 E · 1 I
• 04
  #4 · Need and action circulate through conversation — Frequency: 8 of 8 · Evidence: 5 E · 3 I
• 05
  #5 · Access to the Management Platform concentrated at cycle moments — Frequency: 4 of 8 · Evidence: n/a
• 06
  #6 · Development comes more from practice than from the course — Frequency: 6 of 8 · Evidence: 4 E · 2 I
• 07
  #7 · Agreed-upon actions cool down — Frequency: 5 of 8 · Evidence: 5 I
• 08
  ★ #8 · There's no closure with the employee — Frequency: 4 of 8 · Evidence: 1 E · 3 I
• 09
  #9 · L&D receives the request without its origin — Frequency: 2 of 8 · Evidence: n/a

7 contradictions

• 01
  C1 · Integration × real pain: 4 of 8 mention integration
• 02
  C2 · What counts as evidence: completing, recording or observing
• 03
  C3 · Visibility × bureaucracy
• 04
  C4 · HR held accountable for the PDI, but outside the action
• 05
  C5 · Horizonte × Nexo: contrast in the design
• 06
  C6 · Autonomy × direction
• 07
  C7 · Absence of record: real or a prompt artifact? [INV?]

6 insights and the confidence level of each

• 01
  ★ I1 · The biggest break is in verifying progress after the action — Confidence: Medium
• 02
  I2 · The PDI is a record of the cycle, not its driver — Confidence: Low to medium
• 03
  ★ I3 · The further from the work, the lower the visibility — Confidence: Medium
• 04
  I4 · Value exists on the ground, but doesn't show up in the tools (business hypothesis, not from the personas) — Confidence: Low
• 05
  I5 · Development loses to operations due to lack of protected space — Confidence: Medium
• 06
  I6 · Employees only engage when they see where it leads — Confidence: Low to medium

What the interviews changed in the matrix

• 01
  Weakened: "The employee has the biggest pain." The most cited pain belongs to L&D and HR.
• 02
  Reframed: From "biggest pain in the handoff between products" to pain in the after-action, between people.
• 03
  No evidence: Process maturity influences integration usage; overlap between the Management Platform and the training needs analysis (LNT) (the disconnect appeared, the overlap didn't).
• 04
  Downgraded: Numbers and frequencies; absence of record.

Open questions for real people

• 01
  Real rates of PDI creation and completion
• 02
  Clients with active integration and PDIs with a linked action
• 03
  Frequency of follow-up, access, feedback and updates
• 04
  Difficulties using the platforms
• 05
  Is the absence of a record real or an artifact?
• 06
  Organizational maturity
• 07
  Who closes the cycle and how HR sees the aftermath (C4)
• 08
  New doubts: are the tools missed? What's missing for the value to show up (I4)?

Journey stages: 1. Perceive the need · 2. Plan or request · 3. Act · 4. Close the cycle · 5. Perceive the value.

• 01
  Manager
  • 1. Perceive the need (+) positive — Sees the piece that doesn't come back, at work
  • 2. Plan or request (neutral) — Agrees verbally; the PDI doesn't originate the action
  • 3. Act (−) friction — With tight deadlines, the agreement cools down
  • 4. Close the cycle (−) friction [BREAK] — No moment or place to close it
  • 5. Perceive the value (+) positive [SEES VALUE] — Sees the progress by observing; only he/she sees it
• 02
  Employee
  • 1. Perceive the need (neutral) — Knows what's needed; doesn't know if there's a PDI
  • 2. Plan or request (−) friction — The agreement arrives through conversation
  • 3. Act (+) positive [SEES VALUE] — Learns by doing; the course complements it
  • 4. Close the cycle (−) friction [BREAK] — No one talks about what changed
  • 5. Perceive the value (neutral) — Notices it alone; no one confirms it
• 03
  L&D
  • 1. Perceive the need (−) friction — Receives the request already turned into a "course"
  • 2. Plan or request (neutral) — Reconstructs the context by asking questions
  • 3. Act (+) positive — Publishes it and sees the completion on the Edtech
  • 4. Close the cycle (−) friction [BREAK] — No feedback: doesn't know if it helped
  • 5. Perceive the value (−) friction [RARE VALUE] — Only a stray comment from a manager
• 04
  HR
  • 1. Perceive the need (neutral) — The need arrives through the cycle and conversation
  • 2. Plan or request (neutral) — Records it in the PDI and forwards it to L&D
  • 3. Act (neutral) — Follows completion and PDI: proxies
  • 4. Close the cycle (−) friction [BREAK] — Loses track: sees intention, not result
  • 5. Perceive the value (−) friction [VALUE DOESN'T ARRIVE] — Can't demonstrate the effect

• 01
  HMW 1 · Ensure closure after the action — TOP 1
• 02
  HMW 2 · Reduce L&D's Time to Value — TOP 3
• 03
  HMW 3 · HR and managers demonstrating development in practice — TOP 2
• 04
  HMW 4 · Capture what the manager observes at work — TOP 2
• 05
  HMW 5 · Make the need reach L&D with its origin — outside the Top 3
• 06
  HMW 6 · Show the employee where the course leads — TOP 3
• 07
  HMW 7 · Keep the PDI alive between cycles — TOP 1

Top 3 opportunities

• Top 1 · Cycle closure — Ensure that every development action gets a closure, sent through a channel the person already uses and consolidated into a weekly summary for the manager, and that an action without feedback shows up as "no feedback," never as "completed."
• Top 2 · Record practice where it happens — Capture what the manager observes at work and informal actions, via phone or voice, at the end of the shift or meeting, or on a shared tablet, without requiring a terminal or a lengthy form, and define before the action what is expected to change and who will see it.
• Top 3 · Show the effect of each course — Show, to whoever published it and whoever took the course, what changed afterward: to L&D, per course, the closure feedback cross-referenced with the Edtech's rating; to the employee, the "before and after" with the sentence they wrote themselves.

Q1

How do leaders and employees turn a development need identified in the performance and career context into a concrete development action — and how do they later perceive whether that action truly generated growth?

• ✦The need arises from observation and circulates through conversation. — #4 · 8 of 8
• ✦The action is agreed verbally, the PDI doesn't originate it, and it cools down against day-to-day operations. — #7 · I2 · I5
• ✦Growth is perceived through observed behavior, only by the manager. — #2
• ✦The employee notices it alone; no one confirms it. — #8

Q2

How do HR and Learning & Development (L&D) take part in this journey, and where does the separation between people, processes, information and products create friction?

• ✦People: HR is held accountable for the PDI but is left out of the action; L&D receives the request without its origin. — C4 · #9
• ✦Processes: there's no moment or owner to close the cycle. — #3 · #8
• ✦Information: the record shows intention, not result. — #1 · C2
• ✦Products: the Edtech reports completion, not effect; the Management Platform is accessed at cycle moments. — #5 · C1

Biggest pain: Management Platform, Edtech, or the handoff?

• 01
  Management Platform — need and PDI
• 02
  Edtech — course and completion
• 03
  After the action — between people · biggest pain

• 01
  It's the most cited pain: L&D and HR don't know if the action helped, and the manager only follows up from memory. — #3 · I1
• 02
  Integration between the products helps, but doesn't solve what happens afterward. — C1

Persona struggling most with Time to Value

When each role perceives value

• 01
  Manager · Stage 5, close to the work; only he/she sees it.
• 02
  Employee · Stage 3, applying it; lacking recognition.
• 03
  L&D · Only by chance, with delay.
• 04
  HR · It doesn't arrive; sees only proxies.

Case evidence

• ✦Top 1 · Closure
• ✦HMW · 1 and 7
• ✦WM · 1a · 1b · 1c · 7b
• ✦CSD Matrix · P6 · P1 · P7 · P4 · P3
• ✦Patterns · #3 · #8
• ✦Insight · I1
• ✦Contradiction · C2

Suggested metrics

• 01
  Closure rate · Actions that receive feedback
• 02
  "No feedback" rate · Diagnosis, not pressure
• 03
  Time to closure · Median
• 04
  Effort · Taps, seconds and abandonment
• 05
  Visibility for HR and L&D · % of actions and courses with at least 1 piece of feedback
• 06
  Sustained use · Managers who close 2 weeks in a row without an extra reminder
• 07
  Business hypothesis · Recurring use and renewal (I4)
• 08
  Targets only after the baseline.

I'm available for any questions. Jessica Fidelis · Product & UX Designer

• ✦jessicajfidelis@gmail.com
• ✦LinkedIn
• ✦Portfolio

Full material

Transcripts, research plan, AI Research Log, evidence, patterns, updated CSD matrix and the HMW table.