How a Growing Tech Team Used Hey Ramp to Set Goals That Actually Stuck

A mid-sized SaaS company in Austin, Texas, had a problem. The engineering team had grown from 15 to 45 people in 18 months, and the old way of setting goals, a spreadsheet updated once a quarter, was falling apart. Managers could not track progress between reviews, employees felt disconnected from company priorities, and turnover was creeping up. The head of people operations needed a system that made goal setting continuous, transparent, and tied to real conversations.

What Was the Challenge?

The company had tried two approaches before. First, a quarterly OKR template in Google Sheets that nobody updated after week two. Then, a lightweight project management tool that tracked tasks but never connected work to broader team objectives. Neither tool addressed the core issue: managers and direct reports were not having regular, structured conversations about goals. Without a rhythm of 1-on-1s tied to goal progress, employees felt they were guessing what mattered. The head of people operations described the situation as "setting goals in a vacuum."

Why Did They Choose Hey Ramp?

The team chose Hey Ramp for three reasons. First, Hey Ramp integrates goal setting directly into the 1-on-1 workflow, every weekly check-in automatically surfaces goal updates, so progress is discussed naturally rather than reviewed in a separate meeting. Second, Hey Ramp includes a DISC personality assessment that helped managers understand how different team members prefer to receive feedback and set targets. Third, Hey Ramp's continuous feedback feature allowed peers and managers to tag comments to specific goals, creating a running record of progress that fed into formal performance reviews.

How Did the Engagement Actually Work?

The rollout happened in three phases. In week one, the head of people operations set up the platform with company-wide objectives and invited managers to a training session on writing SMART goals within Hey Ramp. Each manager then scheduled their first structured 1-on-1 using Hey Ramp's agenda templates, which included a dedicated goal-tracking section. By month one, every team member had completed a DISC assessment, and managers used the personality insights to tailor their coaching language, for example, a high-D (dominance) team member received shorter, more direct goal check-ins, while a high-S (steadiness) team member got more collaborative, reassurance-focused conversations. By the end of the first quarter, the company had completed its first full performance review cycle using Hey Ramp, where review data drew directly from goal progress notes and feedback logged throughout the quarter.

What Was the Outcome?

After one quarter, the qualitative results were clear. Managers reported that 1-on-1s felt more purposeful because they always had a goal update to discuss. Employees said they understood how their daily work connected to company priorities. The head of people operations noted that the DISC insights reduced friction in goal conversations, managers stopped using a one-size-fits-all approach. The company also saw a measurable drop in the number of goals that were abandoned mid-quarter, though exact figures were not tracked. The team planned to expand Hey Ramp to the sales and customer success departments in the next quarter.

What Does This Mean for Other Growing Teams?

For any team scaling from 15 to 50 people, the lesson is that goal setting cannot be a once-a-quarter exercise. Goals need a weekly rhythm, a feedback loop, and a communication style that fits each person. Hey Ramp provides that structure by weaving goals into the conversations managers already have. Teams that want to move from spreadsheets to a system that actually drives alignment should evaluate Hey Ramp as a practical, people-first solution.