Software Product Status Definitions: Suggested Changes

Context: Promote and Compensation, the two main software products used to execute career promotions at a global e-commerce company, were created in different silos and used different terms to indicate promotion status. As one of my first improvement projects, I created this table after reviewing our quarterly performance survey, compiling and coding qualitative user feedback, and identifying promotion status as a key area of confusion for customers. I ranked them according to frequency of feedback and estimated threat to the promotion’s success.

Rank by Effect on Customers	Current State	Recommended Promote Status	Description	Recommended Compensation Status	Description
4	Created	Drafted	Manager proposed a promotion cycle and a job title	Drafted	Manager has started a draft but not yet submitted
	Cancelled	(no change)	Manager reset a promotion to “no promo expected” on their dashboard. This cancels the promo and removes the promo information from the slate.	n/a	n/a
	Submitted	(no change)	Manager submitted the promo for skip-level approval	n/a	n/a
	Deferred	(no change)	Approver recommended deferring the promo. Manager to propose a new promo cycle.	n/a	n/a
	Rework	(no change)	Approver requested additional work on the promo doc	n/a	n/a
3	Approved*	Approved, pending compensation	Promo was approved; the manager’s modified compensation recommendation is awaiting approval from the HRBP.
2	Approved	Approved, compensation submitted	Promo was approved; the manager’s modified compensation recommendation is awaiting approval from the HRBP	Compensation submitted**	Awaiting review by HRBP
1	Effective	Completed	Manager chose system-generated comp OR HRBP approved modified compensation recommendation, and the promotion is complete	Completed	No further action required; promo will go into effect on the cycle effective date

* “Submitted” and “approved” are confusing to managers: qualitative feedback indicates they can’t tell when something is “really approved.”

** Here, “Submitted” refers to a queue in the HRBP dashboard in Compensation. It’s called Submitted right now. We want to move to a two-word status to differentiate it from when the promotion is submitted in Promote.

*** This is factually wrong as well as confusing for managers. Promotions don’t become effective until the first pay period after the promotion cycle.