Resources/CASESTUDY
How Khatabook Made Performance Ratings Align with Business Results using Peoplebox.ai
At a Glance
Before Peoplebox.ai
after Peoplebox
Fragmented offline reviews across 4-5 departments
Standardized digital process organization-wide
Forms often unfilled despite ratings being submitted
Complete documentation with contextual feedback
90% of employees rated 4+ despite missed business goals
Normalized performance distribution matching business results
Review cycles stretching over 3 months
Reviews completed within the same month
The Challenge: A Disconnected Performance System
90%
of employees were rated 4 or above, yet business outcomes didn't reflect that level of performance.
Khatabook faced significant challenges with their performance management process. The technology company had grown rapidly, but their performance review system hadn’t evolved alongside the organization. Reviews were conducted entirely offline, with multiple department heads (approximately 4-5) working independently and using their own frameworks. While they had implemented a module to collect performance ratings, it suffered from a critical flaw: Their CHRO remarked:
In the previous module, managers were able to submit performance ratings for their team members. However, this process often occurred before employees had completed their required self-review forms—or in some cases, without the forms being filled out at all. As a result, managers were providing ratings without the necessary input or context from the employees themselves.
Swapna Nair,
VP-HR Khatabook
This fragmented approach created a system without central oversight, making it impossible to monitor progress, enforce accountability, or calibrate ratings fairly across different departments. The consequences became evident during Khatabook’s April 2023 reviews, when approximately 90% of employees received ratings of 4 or above, despite the fact that business outcomes didn’t reflect that level of performance. Several goals were missed and deadlines weren’t met.
In a nutshell, their PMS looked:
- Disconnected: Reviews conducted offline by 4-5 department heads, each using their own approach
- Incomplete: Forms often unfilled despite ratings being submitted
- Opaque: No way to monitor progress or enforce accountability
- Misaligned: High ratings despite missed business goals
This raised a fundamental question for Khatabook’s leadership: Were they rating people too generously without appropriate accountability?
The Journey with Peoplebox.ai
Phase 1: Building Trust with Pulse Surveys
Khatabook’s partnership with Peoplebox.ai began not with performance reviews, but with implementing pulse surveys to gather employee feedback. One of the most significant challenges was employee participation – getting team members to actually complete the surveys.
Very few product teams truly understand the level of user pain that exists in such processes. Peoplebox.ai stood out by being thoughtful, going beyond just delivering a feature.
Swapna Nair,
VP-HR Khatabook
The breakthrough came through thoughtful design and integration choice:
Slack Integration
This feature became a critical selling point for Khatabook, where the entire organization operated on Slack. The integration made participation seamless for employees.
Simplified User Experience
The design philosophy prioritized reducing mental load with one screen, one question at a time, and one-click response options.
The results were quickly apparent through high internal NPS scores and positive sentiment reflected in external reviews, including Glassdoor feedback.
Phase 2: Expanding to OKRs
Building on the successful pulse survey implementation, Khatabook expanded their Peoplebox.ai usage to include the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) module. This addition helped structure organizational goals and increase accountability through transparent progress tracking.
Phase 3: Co-Creating a Performance Review Solution
In October 2023, Khatabook recognized the need for an advanced performance review system. However, they discovered that Peoplebox.ai’s performance review module was still in development.
Rather than waiting or selecting another vendor, something remarkable occurred. Khatabook actively drove demand for the feature to be developed and customized to their specific requirements. The two organizations didn’t merely implement a standard solution—they collaboratively built the performance review module together.
This partnership approach resulted in an extraordinarily rapid implementation timeline:
The collaborative effort led to an incredibly fast implementation timeline—with the tool going live in just 2–3 weeks
This enabled Khatabook to meet their performance review deadlines while implementing a system tailored to their exact needs.
The Design Philosophy at Peoplebox.ai — Intentional Simplicity with Purpose
A key factor in the success of the Peoplebox.ai implementation was the product’s underlying design philosophy, built on intentional simplicity, driven by purpose.
What makes you love a tool is its ease of use. In my opinion, Google Sheets is great to work with because they are intuitive & collaborative
Swapna Nair,
VP-HR Khatabook
That same ease and thoughtfulness were core to Peoplebox’s design. But what truly set it apart wasn’t just the interface, it was the people behind the product. Swapna spoke in depth about how much she valued working with Alagu, the CTO of Peoplebox.ai, calling him “the best product guy we have as a country.”
Intuitive Interface
Minimal training requirements for employees
Significantly reduced support needs
Design that felt familiar and accessible
Thoughtful Integration
Working within existing workflows rather than disrupting them
Seamless connection with tools already in daily use, particularly Slack
Seamless connection with tools already in daily use, particularly Slack
Feature Discipline
Not every feature request was automatically implemented
Focus on solving real problems rather than feature accumulation
Focus on solving real problems rather than feature accumulation
We wanted the universe,” Swapna joked, referring to the long wishlist of features she shared. But Alagu’s thoughtful pushback helped them focus. His probing questions ensured the product remained clean, intuitive, and designed with user clarity—not just complexity
The result was a tool that remained “clean, intuitive, and conservative in the right way” rather than becoming “run-of-the-mill” through feature bloat.
The Differentiator: Vendor to Partner Mindset
What distinguished this implementation was the collaborative approach between Peoplebox.ai and Khatabook. The relationship transcended the typical vendor-client dynamic, becoming a true partnership focused on solving fundamental organizational challenges.
Khatabook’s leadership specifically noted the approach of Peoplebox.ai’s CTO, who questioned each requirement deeply to understand the underlying needs, rather than simply accepting feature requests at face value. This thoughtful product development philosophy ensured that Peoplebox.ai didn’t become overloaded with unnecessary features, but remained focused on delivering genuine value.
Khatabook’s leadership specifically noted the approach of Peoplebox.ai’s CTO, who questioned each requirement deeply to understand the underlying needs, rather than simply accepting feature requests at face value. This thoughtful product development philosophy ensured that Peoplebox.ai didn’t become overloaded with unnecessary features, but remained focused on delivering genuine value.
