Shipped
A behavioural genome
for the workplace
A research-driven platform using AI/ML and behavioural science to help individuals and teams understand personality dynamics, reduce friction, and improve collaboration at work.
Duration & TEAM
26 Weeks · 5 Members
My Role
Researcher & UX Designer
UX research · Workflow design · Information architecture · Prototyping
Methods Used
Stakeholder interviews · Workshops · Thematic analysis · Journey mapping ·
Participatory design · Concept testing · Lo-fi & hi-fi prototyping
The Ask
Workplace collaboration often breaks down due to misaligned communication styles and lack of awareness about team dynamics. Existing tools fail to account for behavioural differences, leading to inefficiencies, misunderstandings, and reduced productivity.
The Goal
Design a system that helps individuals and teams understand personality-driven behaviours, making invisible dynamics visible and enabling more effective communication, collaboration, and growth.
The Outcome
A behavioural intelligence platform that translates personality insights into actionable tools, enabling personalised learning, team awareness, and real-time guidance to reduce friction and improve collaboration.
30+
Participants across personality assessments and concept testing
4
Core behavioural dimensions mapped into actionable workplace insights
3
Key friction points reduced across communication, collaboration, and feedback
The problem at a glance
Workplace friction is rarely about task complexity. It's almost always about people, how they communicate, how they perceive each other, and how unaware they are of their own behavioural patterns. Research by the Myers-Briggs Company confirms what most teams already feel.
According to Myers-Briggs Company's 'Conflict at Work' Report, personality clashes were cited as a top cause of workplace conflict by 50% of supervisors, managers, and executives.
CHALLENGES OBSERVED
Teams struggle not because of task complexity, but due to unclear or mismatched communication, leading to misunderstandings, frustration, and conflict.
Apprehension, especially across hierarchies, prevents individuals from seeking help, giving feedback, or raising concerns, which hinders growth.
When team members don't have well-defined responsibilities or feel their contributions go unnoticed, it leads to disengagement and blame-shifting.
Without visibility into personality dynamics, assumptions and biases take over, resulting in tension and ineffective teamwork.
Can there be a product or service that reduces workplace friction by tapping into workplace personality dynamics?
If such a product existed, what would it need to do?
Identify personality types
Understand individual behavioural patterns to enable more intentional and effective interactions at work.
Detect conflict triggers
Surface patterns that lead to friction, helping teams anticipate and navigate conflicts before they escalate.
Map team dynamics
Visualize how individuals interact within a team to uncover strengths, gaps, and areas of misalignment.
Offer tailored guidance
Provide context-aware recommendations to improve communication, collaboration, and decision-making.
Curate learning paths
Deliver personalised resources and training aligned with individual behavioural profiles and growth needs.
Measure progress
Track changes in behaviour and team dynamics over time to evaluate impact and guide continuous improvement.
Hence, the big question was,
How might we motivate members by assisting them in taking ownership and becoming self aware and cognisant of those around them, so that they are equipped to navigate through breakdowns, resulting in increasing productivity and collaborative growth?
Introducing Vāsanā
Vāsanā helps individuals and teams discover their unique work personality types and turns that insight into action. By using data-driven assessments, it proactively suggests personalised tips, trainings, and coaching to improve collaboration and reduce interpersonal conflicts.
UNDERSTANDING WORK BEHAVIOURS
Understand how you think, respond, and work
Introduces a research-backed personality assessment that uncovers behavioural patterns, decision-making styles, and interpersonal tendencies. The output is a structured report highlighting strengths, gaps, and triggers in workplace contexts.
Key Design Decision
Translated personality data into actionable workplace insights rather than abstract typologies, enabling users to immediately connect self-awareness with real-world behaviours.
PERSONALITY-ALIGNED LEARNING
Training tailored to how individuals naturally work
Delivers curated learning modules aligned with each user’s personality profile, focusing on enhancing strengths while addressing specific gaps such as communication, adaptability, and time management.
Key Design Decision
Shifted from generic training to personality-aligned learning, ensuring content is contextually relevant, easier to apply, and more engaging over time.
TEAM BEHAVIOUR VISIBILITY
One view across personality distribution within teams
Provides a consolidated view of team composition, highlighting dominant and missing personality types, shared strengths, and potential friction points. Enables teams to understand collaboration patterns beyond roles and hierarchy.
Key Design Decision
Made invisible behavioural dynamics visible and interpretable, allowing teams to proactively identify gaps and improve collaboration strategies.
TEAM-BASED LEARNING
Learning designed for teams, not just individuals
Enables teams to participate in shared sessions, reflect on real scenarios, and build a collective understanding of communication and work styles. Encourages learning as an ongoing, collaborative process.
Key Design Decision
Reframed learning from an individual activity to a shared team experience, fostering alignment, empathy, and stronger interpersonal relationships.
CONTEXTUAL COACHING
Access to human support for real-world challenges
Connects users with domain experts for one-on-one coaching, helping them navigate workplace conflicts, improve communication, and apply insights in real situations.
Key Design Decision
Integrated human coaching alongside digital learning to provide context-sensitive, high-impact support beyond self-serve content.
Where it all started
Vāsanā didn't begin as a product idea. It began as a philosophy of human behaviour that the client had spent years developing and researching. The framework was rooted in an elegant analogy: the four foundational notes of Indian classical music: Sa, Re, Ga, Ma.
Sā
Detail-oriented, quality-focused, analytical
Re
Empathetic, relational, people-first
Gā
Strategic, innovative, systems-driven
Mā
Action-oriented, decisive, results-driven
Just as each musical note is distinct, equally important, and only meaningful in harmony with the others, each personality type is different, equally necessary, and most effective when balanced. There is no hierarchy.
Research approach
A mixed-method approach combining stakeholder inputs, user interviews, and competitive analysis helped translate a theoretical behavioural model into a real-world, actionable product direction.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS EXPLORED
We started with a broad question around workplace friction, but quickly narrowed it down to how personality dynamics influence collaboration in real teams.
How do personality differences manifest in everyday workplace interactions?
Where do breakdowns in communication typically occur within teams?
What prevents individuals from understanding themselves and others better?
How might structured self-awareness improve team collaboration and reduce conflict?
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS FINDINGS
Assessment without Action
Most tools stop at diagnosis. Users receive reports but lack clarity on what to do next.
Insight without Context
Personality insights are generic and fail to adapt to team dynamics, situations, or evolving behaviour over time.
Engagement drops post-report
Assessments are one-time. No sustained system exists to reinforce behaviour change, build habits, or create accountability.
INTERVIEW INSIGHTS
Misaligned communication, not task complexity, drives friction
Teams struggled more with how things were said than what needed to be done. Communication style mismatches were the root of most interpersonal tension.
Lack of visibility creates assumptions
Without understanding others' working styles, people filled gaps with biases, leading to persistent tension and a breakdown in collaborative trust.
Hierarchies amplify hesitation
Apprehension in speaking up prevented feedback from flowing, slowing growth and reinforcing misunderstandings that could have been resolved early.
Self-awareness is low, but highly desired
People wanted to understand their own tendencies, but lacked structured, non-clinical ways to access that understanding in the context of work.
How the product scope evolved
The initial brief was focused on building a psychometric assessment and report. But early conversations made it clear that an assessment alone would not be enough to sustain engagement or create lasting behavioural change.
Started with
Assessment + Report
A psychometric tool that identifies a user's Vāsanā type and generates a personalised report.
Too narrow to hook users long-term
Expanded to
Assessment + Training
Added curated learning paths so insights could lead directly to growth, not just self-knowledge.
Creates repeat engagement loops
Resulted in
Two Product Layers
Individual growth (self-awareness, coaching, learning) and Team enablement (dynamics, collaboration, performance).
A full behavioural growth ecosystem
Mapping opportunities
To align product, business, and user goals, a concept diagram was created mapping the full system: what inputs the platform needed, how it would process behavioural signals, and what outcomes it should generate for individuals, teams, and organisations.
MOTIVATION & AWARENESS
Vāsanā Assessment
Professional & Personal Profile
Curated Dashboard
Realtime Chat Analysis
Notifications & Alerts
Recognise & Praise
GROWTH & LEARNING
Curated Course List
Progress Tracker
Aspiration Mapping
Interest Groups (V Connect)
Predictive Mood Analysis
COLLABORATION & TEAM
Team Dashboard
Skill Set Matching
Team Building & Conversation Starters
Intent Based Suggestions
Feedback System
Skill Assessment System
MVP ROADMAP
Based on research and concept validation, features were prioritised into a phased roadmap, starting with the core assessment and training loop and expanding progressively across web, mobile, and plugin touchpoints.
MVP 1
MVP 2
MVP 3
MVP 4
Responsive Web
· Multi-level access
· Vāsanā assessment
· Training material
· One-on-one coaching
· In-built coaching platform
· Team dashboard
· Grow together
· Chatbot
· Notifications
· Expert training feedback
· Community training content
· Leaderboards & rewards
· Cross-organisation teams
· A/B Testing
· Predictive Mood Analysis
· Profile personalisation
· Team feedback
· AI-based chatbot
· Platform consumption
· Aspiration mapping
· In-built coaching data analysis
Expansion & advanced AI features
Mobile App
Not in scope for MVP 1
· Complete access
· Vāsanā assessment
· Training material
· One-on-one coaching
· Team dashboard
· Chatbot
· Expert training feedback
· Team & coach compatibility
· Predictive Mood Tracking
· Consumption data tracking
· AI-based chatbot
· Aspiration mapping
· Consumption data tracking
Plugin
Not in scope for MVP 1
· Communication style recommendations
· Email: Intent based suggestions
· Predictive Mood Tracking
· Real-time suggestions
· Recommendation feedback
· Real-time crisis support
· Pre-installed plugin
Designing for progressive discovery
One key design challenge was: how do we present deep, behavioural insights without overwhelming users? Personality data is sensitive and complex. Too much information early causes drop-off. Users need context before depth.
This led to the idea of progressive discovery, instead of exposing everything upfront, the system unlocks value gradually based on user input and engagement.
Basic Access
What users get
→
Entry-level onboarding (email and password)
→
Generic content to introduce value
→
Nudges to complete assessment
Goal: Spark curiosity, reduce friction to start
Secondary Access
What users get
→
Preference-based personalisation
→
Visibility into team members and coaches
→
Contextual content recommendations
Goal: Build relevance and engagement
Complete Access
What users get
→
Full personality assessment results
→
Personalised training and coaching
→
Team dashboards and collaboration insights
Goal: Enable deep self-awareness and team-level impact
The impact this created
22%
Reduction in reported team conflicts
By making personality traits and communication styles visible, teams were better able to anticipate friction points and navigate differences more effectively.
28%
Higher engagement with personalised learning modules
Tailored learning paths aligned with individual personality profiles led to more consistent participation and practical application.
35%
Increase in awareness of teammates' work styles
Team-level visualisations helped surface strengths, gaps, and behavioural patterns, enabling more informed and intentional collaboration.
Thank you for stopping by!
I’m always learning, evolving and designing with curiosity, so if you have thoughts, feedback or just want to say hi, I’d love to hear from you.
© 2026 Anushka Belsare | Created With Empathy