Summary
In 2018 Adel Du Toit was approached by her CIO with a request: Figure out how to measure the level of dissatisfaction that BCG’s internal employees were experiencing using the digital tools and services provided by the organization. Due to the data-driven nature of BCG, Du Toit knew she would have to provide quantitative data to support any recommendations. This is how the E-SAT program was born. Instead of measuring customer satisfaction, they measured employee satisfaction. In the four years since that initial request from the CIO, BCG has consistently run the E-SAT program quarterly. And, by listening, acting and responding to feedback, the organization has seen an improvement on the E-SAT from 75% in 2019, to 85% in 2021. During their December Annual Business review for all Agile Orgs, BCG’s CFO spotlighted their E-SAT program, declaring that he wanted every single Agile squad member to become "user obsessed". Today BCG is using their E-SAT program to make strategic and investment decisions across our 13 Agile Tribes.
Key Insights
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Creating a standardized quarterly digital employee satisfaction survey (ESAT) enabled systematic measurement across 96 key products used by over 25,000 employees.
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Focusing on unbiased, raw quantitative data allowed product teams to identify where to conduct deeper qualitative research effectively.
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Sharing not only data but clear priorities and remediation plans transparently with all employees builds trust and engagement.
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Swapping out a poor remote conferencing tool in early 2020 led to a rapid ESAT increase from 69% to 92%, demonstrating the power of targeted product improvements.
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Involving employees in prioritizing product fixes quarterly ensures responsiveness to evolving digital experience needs.
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Embedding design within an agile-at-scale framework helps scale impact despite a relatively small dedicated design team.
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User obsession became a strategic goal embraced by the CFO after rigorously presenting trustworthy data and strategic focus areas.
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Awards recognizing UX improvements and user champions outside the core design team help cultivate a company-wide design mindset.
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Measuring digital experience satisfaction separately from general employee happiness surveys provides sharper insights for product teams.
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Hybrid work and collaboration tools became top priorities post-pandemic, requiring continuous iteration based on real employee feedback.
Notable Quotes
"We take all of those comments, put them through Amazon Comprehend, and classify them as positive, negative, and neutral."
"You can slice and dice the raw data into billions of dimensions so product teams can decide where to dig deeper."
"My fantasy was to make design a strategic area for us here at BCG."
"If you can't determine where you started, you can't measure how far you've come."
"Our laptops just working has been the number one priority since we started this work."
"We swapped out the remote meeting solution and jumped from 69% ESAT to 92%."
"We don't lie with data; we want the raw ingredients so product teams can transform their products the right way."
"User obsession became a strategic goal, even for our CFO – the finance guy."
"We only survey products used by more than 50% of employees, which is currently 96 products."
"Holding the mirror up to our 25,000 employees means telling them not only what’s ugly but what we’re doing about it."
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