Ghanesh RSOrg Chart: from forgotten feature to #1 engagement driver
A buried utility used by under 5% of employees became the most-visited feature in Career Hub. I led it end to end as principal designer: strategy, research, design and rollout.
In 30 seconds
- Problem: the org chart was hidden in a popup. Under 5% used it, 65% bounced.
- Move: full screen, side-panel context, search with jump-to-person, and entry points across the product.
- Result: 6x visits, 3x click-through and 2.7x longer sessions in six weeks.
A useful feature nobody could find.
Career Hub is Eightfold AI's employee app for exploring jobs, mentors and teams. Our research kept hearing the same thing: people didn't know who was on their team, who was hiring, or where they fit. Career Hub already had an org chart. Almost nobody used it.
<5% usage
Buried under a profile tab, opened in a cramped popup.
65% bounce rate
People opened it and left within seconds.
20 seconds
Average time spent. Not enough to learn anything.
Turn a hidden utility into a daily habit.
Business goal
Grow Career Hub engagement by making the org chart a go-to tool for connection and discovery.
Product goal
Drive daily use through information access, collaboration and profile upkeep.
UX goal
A simple, fast org chart with clear hierarchy and easy updates.
What we heard from employees and managers.
Employees wanted clarity: who is on my team, who do I talk to. Managers wanted insights at a glance and easy team updates. New hires felt lost. One quote stuck: "I don't know who's on my team or how we all fit together."
Popup, panel or full screen?
I explored four layouts. Each traded off context, space and focus. Full screen with a side panel won: room for big orgs, and details without losing your place.
Smart trade-offs at scale.
- Huge orgs. Customers with 1,000+ employees made performance a design problem. A three-level default view balanced context and speed.
- Three audiences in one tool. Employees, managers and HR each needed different things from the same screen.
- A rigid design system. Everything had to be built in Octuple DS so other teams could reuse it.
- Lean engineering. We shipped a tight MVP, kept filters and custom views as fast follows, and deliberately left mobile out.
Five changes that moved the numbers.
Full screen instead of a popup
The chart now opens full screen, with room to scroll, zoom and go deep.
Context in a side panel
Clicking a person opens a mini profile beside the chart instead of reloading it.
Global search with jump to person
Type a name and the chart jumps there, highlighting the path.
Many doors in
An org chart widget on the home page, links from mini profiles, people cards and search results.
Small details that add up
Card highlights, persistent navigation, zoom controls, team size and open roles on every card.
Scrollable. Insightful. Built to scale.
Prototype not loading? Open it in Figma.
No dead ends.
No supervisor, no peers, very long names, people not yet on Career Hub. Each got a designed state, and people not on Career Hub surface in search suggestions instead of an empty screen.
What users asked for next.
Six weeks after launch.
"I love how easily I can navigate large org charts now. So much smoother and more intuitive."Customer, EY
"I find myself using the org chart almost every day now."User, Amgen
"Hiring convos now start here."HR partner
- 15% more bookmarks and 11% more profile updates.
- Patterns reused in two more tools, and the work triggered redesigns of profiles and recognition.
- "Most stable rollout this quarter," said engineering.
Tracked in Mixpanel through in-app events, clickstream and daily active usage.
What this taught me as a principal designer.
- Pick the problem, not just the pixels. The win came from choosing an underused feature with high leverage.
- Design for the system. Building in the design system multiplied the impact across teams.
- Ship lean, then listen. A tight MVP plus fast follows beat a big launch.