Building HR Tech People Actually Want to Use with Melissa King of Paylocity

[00:00:00] Welcome to the The EVOLVE Talent & HR Show. We're building the rooms where HR and talent leaders learn, connect, and evolve. I'm Anna Morgan, and this is the space where people-first leaders come for courageous conversations. Whether you're leading from the C-suite, emerging as a new voice, building community, or driving change within your organization, this show is for you. Every episode brings voices that are driving change in the HR and talent community.

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[00:00:52] You've tuned into a podcast, but this is actually your connection to the entire EVOLVE ecosystem. New episodes come out weekly. Now it's your turn to evolve. Welcome. Hey everybody, Anna Morgan with the EVOLVE Talent and HR Show. I am here with Melissa King, who leads the product and technology team at Paylocity here at HR Tech.

[00:01:15] So, one of the things that is important to me, and that has been a product of my evolution of highlighting people-first leaders, is having an opportunity to pass the mic to females that are making big change within how we hire, how we retain, and how we just show up better for our community. So, welcome.

[00:01:38] Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here. When our team came and said, like, for the opportunity to do a podcast, the only hook is it's like at the end of an exciting day at HR Tech. I'm like, okay, like, I've heard about your energy and excitement and passion for the space. I'm like, okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it.

[00:01:55] Well, really, I mean, whether it's I have a deliverable to follow from HR Tech or in service of just learning about you as a human. So, you know, for people that may not know who you are, how have you described yourself in your 13 other meetings today? Well, actually, in the 13 other, like, that was like not where you were.

[00:02:14] No, it was less about that. It was more like, let's get down to, like, the heart of all of it. But I love, you know, thank you for making this space with a question. So, I lead, as you mentioned, product and technology for Paylocity. I'm about to celebrate my two-year anniversary with the organization. Thank you. Thank you. And I, from an origin story, you know, came to technology as a software developer. So, that's where I got my start. Okay. And, you know, when you're passionate and you're a builder, you lean into problems. And it was that problem-solving aspect that kept me curious. Okay.

[00:02:44] Kept me leaning into, and you're just taking on more responsibilities, sometimes having to work through. Yeah. I mentioned, like, female leadership, like being the only person in your team representing. Yes. And so, like, you go through a lot. And it was just, I had great support by leaders around me. And, you know, just, you know, strong mentors, both men and women, that supported my journey. And I've tried a lot of awesome things over my career.

[00:03:08] And I am fundamentally a builder. And that is what keeps me grounded. I love creating products. I love helping solve business problems. And I've always looked at it as, like, trying to find the blend in those things, right? The what? The blend. The blend. Yeah. So not needing to be just, like, a business professional or a technologist, right? Right. The balance of both. And that's where I think technology is best served today. 100%. Because nobody is ever going to ask you, like, the stuff that you use. Like, you're not super excited about the how you created it. Right.

[00:03:38] They're excited about the what does it do for me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, you know, where people are oftentimes burnt out on the AI conversation, you know, I try to lean into the benefits, right?

[00:03:52] And how it can accelerate learning, how it can just be a thought partner and get us away from the laptop and into more in-person events that where, I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel like we're in a bit of a trust apocalypse of, you know, no one knows what's real. Yeah. You know, it's an AI song. It's an AI ad. It's an AI company. It's an AI employee.

[00:04:19] And you're like, I just want to hold your hand and make sure that you are real. Yeah, you've worked with a lot of great tech. Yeah. You haven't turned into a robot yet. Not yet. So we're good. Yeah. Yeah. No Terminator here. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Gen X. Yeah. There is a different level of viewing that lens of what AI can do versus Gen Z, Alpha. Absolutely. You're talking about like digital natives and they're ready.

[00:04:48] And we're like, oh, when you talk about that trust, like there's a lot. Yeah. But I also think that generation piece is also probably what makes you such a powerful builder because how we were raised, like figuring things out on top of having a brilliant brain and a passion for solving those problems. You know, what are you working on now at Paylocity that is exciting you, igniting you, that you're celebrating? Yeah, there's so much.

[00:05:17] You know, one of the things that I think is just really cool about how we approach our build process is we always have a ton of stuff going on. Last year, we celebrated 52 significant product launches in our portfolio. Wow. So, you know, we were looking at everything within the HCM space. Right. You know, trying to really not just, you know, be like when I said you want the tech to be like that supporting actor in the conversation. It doesn't start with a, here's something cool. What do you want to do with it? It starts out with like.

[00:05:45] And that's such a heavy cognitive load. Yeah. And ask for a non-engineer team or company that has, say, you know, 10,000 employees. That's still a hard question to answer. Yeah. We don't want it to be like, what can I vibe code for you? Right. That's not like the conversation. So when we think about like our customer community, everything that we do from our roadmap really starts with conversations with the customers. Where are they feeling the most friction? And so to do that, you have to sit and talk to the practitioners.

[00:06:13] So when you're talking about the employee lifecycle with talent acquisition, with recruiting, with onboarding, with all of the teams and really understand where do they feel the most pressure? And following that narrative helps you figure out like where do they need you the most? Right. Yeah. As a vendor, as a provider in this space, because that's where, you know, if we channel our energy at those problems, we're going to create opportunity for everybody that our business thrives, but they also thrive in really compelling ways. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:41] Now, you know, with the service that you all provide being, you know, a public cloud HCM, which has a lot of bells and whistles, speaking of friction and, you know, trying to select what is best for my business, I would imagine, you know, you're sitting not only with the customers, getting their feedback. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:01] And I even think having been in a, you know, full cycle recruiter role where we were vetting different partners to solve some of our hiring and business problems that many of the companies just, you know, they're like, this is the best product since, you know, sliced bread. And without, you know, now we have to have receipts and the data and whatnot. But it's like, oh, I should talk to my customers. And like, how do you do that on a regular basis?

[00:07:30] Is that through surveys? Yeah. Is that user groups? Because, again, going back to the trust factor, you know, and having clients that are willing to give you the hard truth. Oh, yeah. And then also sit with that and then make adjustments, right? Yeah. So it's not a one-size-fits-all kind of approach as you would expect. So there's a lot you can get from surveying. But it is, you know, really flat feedback. I think the most actionable feedback is within our co-creator communities.

[00:08:00] We'll bring in and we'll have customer advisory boards that are, you know, we're talking about a very topical area. So we're, you know, we're ideating. We're whiteboarding together. We're doing some of that design. We're getting our feedback early. And when we've got something, we pressure test it back to the group. Like, you said you needed this. Does this look like it's solving that challenge? And when it doesn't, they tell us, right? They're like, that's good, but that's not it. Yeah, exactly.

[00:08:24] Like, we wanted this to be much more straightforward or, you know, there's a lot of good information here, but you're burying the lead, right? So really, you know, very direct feedback. And the user experience is a huge part of that journey. So we've got an entire team of professionals that obsess about user flows. And so they lean into different aspects. You know, when you think about the functions and the teams, like, they don't want to just, like, hear it from feedback I've collected.

[00:08:51] They will get out and they will do shadow sessions and sit with the practitioners and see how they're using our software. Where do we have opportunity? Where are there gaps and things that they're searching for? Did they have to go run a report and then come back and do something? And then Excel sheet. Yeah. And then talk to an agent and all the things. Yeah. It's, you know, those are things where we're, like, we're looking for those moments. And we've got people who, like, they're just tuned for how do we design a process that, you know, addresses it.

[00:09:17] And that allows us to really have a conversation that's all about feedback and knowing that it's incrementing, right? So you're building something and it's good today. Will it be the thing that they need tomorrow? Maybe. Right. But, like, you have to keep that conversation, that feedback loop flowing so you're not surprised by changes. Yes. A hundred percent. I mean, just at the pace we're moving is, you know, seems unmanageable at some times. But it's like, okay, then you get a still moment.

[00:09:45] So this is kind of an off-the-cuff question when I think about you building and the product space, right? I would be interested to hear of any stories, spaces, events, or experiences. Could be a book, a podcast, you know, an exercise that you may have done that, you know, brought, you know, a groundbreaking aha. Yes, I want to build this product. Ooh, build a product. All right.

[00:10:13] Or, you know, tweak a small part of a product. Yeah. There's a lot of really good things out there. But I think, you know, one of the ones that influenced me early was Clayton Christensen. I don't know if you're familiar with him. He has a book. It's called The Innovator's Dilemma. Yes. So we talk about innovation. Sometimes innovation is always tethered to that next big, bold idea that is emerging.

[00:10:34] But innovation has almost equal responsibility for the everyday, but that can feel like lesser or, you know, it's not as glamorous. It's a little like it's boring. Or it's slow or you're not actually moving. Right. And so in Innovator's Dilemma, Christensen created this foundation of like you need disruptive innovation, but you also need sustaining innovation, right? Innovation that is focused on making the everyday better. So I correlate it to, are you a sports fan? Yes, but it depends.

[00:11:04] I'm like, I'm hoping. Okay, we'll see. We'll see how we do. Okay. So I correlated to kind of two styles of football, right? Okay. So you have football teams that are like smash mouth. They're going to like, their strategy is we're going to move down the field one yard at a time. Yes. Right. That's sustaining innovation. Then you have teams. And Pittsburgh football, right? Like it's smash mouth. Right. Yeah, we're going. But then you have football that is very finesse, right? They're going to be like the big plays, the big passers, right? You know, the mic drop, like a suspenseful moment.

[00:11:33] When you see the play, you're all like, that was, and I had that actually. Yes. Yeah. That is like your disruptive innovation. They both get to the same outcome. They win. Oh, I see it. Right. But the way they go about it is a little bit different. So that, when I internalized that, I was like, okay, this doesn't have to be like an or like, you don't have to do it this way or that way. It's about finding the balance and like, yeah. Well, I think we should never, you know, let go of our inner kid. Right.

[00:12:00] And I love companies that build cultures around fun and playfulness and, you know, play from an innovation standpoint. And I was at a mastermind just past this past weekend. And it was all about brain mapping and kind of hacking your peak times of creativity and whatnot. And it started with just a little bit of like the little Lego type avatar. And, you know, you had to only pick four accessories.

[00:12:31] And I'd been thinking about something or couldn't unlock something in my business. And as a different learner, it was so blown away by like what was revealed through that process. And it just made me remember how important it is to keep having the conversations of ways to find innovation. You know, the dilemma, as you said, could be slow, could be groundbreaking, lightning bolt,

[00:12:58] or it could be found through the everyday little activities of play. Have you ever had any experience like that? Yeah. I mean, I think that that's where like a lot of, you know, you get to concepts that are deeply centered around experimentation and really that playfulness, that trying something like that is what, you know, as builders, you want to hold on to because it's where those breakthrough moments come from. I think it's one of the reasons where, you know, we talked about the importance of like a learning mindset, right? The things that keep you comfortably uncomfortable.

[00:13:26] And when you say like you're unlocking it, it's because you were okay with being in that state, right? And so you wanted to experiment. You're calling me on it. But that's like your breakthrough didn't come from anyone but you, right? Yes, that's true. But you were comfortable sitting with it and looking at it differently. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, you know, in service of us both making it to our next meeting, outside of surviving

[00:13:51] HR tech and doing the thing and building all the amazing tech that you're building, what are you most excited about or most proud of at this point? And what should we be looking out for? Yeah. It's like, what a great closing question. You know, I think we got the biggest compliment recently from a bunch of different annals that we've talked to and, you know, when it comes back to you more than once, it's not an individual data point. So I feel like there's an authenticity that we get to own it. Yes. They said the same words three times in a row. Yes.

[00:14:20] And for us, that's really centered around our AI strategy. Implementation has been described as approachable, which I think is the greatest compliment because it means you're not leaning in with technical mumbo jumbo as like the front runner. You're talking about how it's actually helping people do their jobs differently. So whether they're looking for the opportunity to remove friction or they're looking for the ability to, you know, reorient, you know, time back to something that is more strategic,

[00:14:50] like workforce planning or educating their teams. Right. They're seeing those outcomes be realized and they're not naming, like they're not talking about LLMs. They're not talking about MCP. They're talking about the actual process of where that tech helped them in the context embedded in the flow of work. Beautiful. We are really, really proud of that and so excited. I can see it. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity to sit at the table and have a conversation with you

[00:15:19] because you're an amazing human. And, you know, for all the women that are looking up to you, you know, it's important that you say yes and I say yes to these opportunities. So thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you for the invite, Anna. I've enjoyed it today. Thanks for joining the Evolve Talent and HR show. If the conversation landed, share it. Tell it later. Pass it forward. That is the multiplier in action. One connection at a time, building momentum across our community. And that is what Evolve is.

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