Yiting’s Academic Journey
From undergraduate studies to my current PhD, I’ve been committed to the field of Human Resource Management.
Among all its functions, performance management has always stood out to me for both its importance and its complexity.
One concern I’ve carried throughout my academic path is this: Are the things we study in performance management truly helpful to real-world practice?
I’ve never wanted to do research that just stays in the academic bubble.
I believe research should matter beyond academia—it should drive meaningful change in the real world. This is Yiting’s story.
Rethinking Performance
At the beginning of my PhD, I believed that building a rigorous, mathematical model for evaluating performance could be a breakthrough. With the right formula, I thought, we could objectively and fairly recognize every employee’s contribution.
But the deeper I went, the more I realized the limitations of that approach. Performance is not just a number reflected by a bundle of metrics.
Many valuable work behaviors—like helping teammates, volunteering for extra tasks, or proactively seeking improvement—don’t show up in traditional metrics.
Performance management should do more than track what’s easy to quantify. It should recognize what truly matters, even if that’s hard to measure.
When done well, it supports both sides: employees feel seen and appreciated, and employers gain a clearer view of what actually drives success.
Why Libra
When Earl shared his thoughts on performance and his passion for entrepreneurship, we recognized the perfect moment to revolutionize performance management.
For me, nothing is more fulfilling than tackling a problem that has both intellectual depth and real-world value.
And with Earl’s technical expertise and industry experience, we had the right combination to build something real.
That’s how Libra started.
In the past, we may have had to trade “what really mattered” for “what was easy to measure”.
With AI, we don’t have to make that trade anymore—it helps surface the valuable work we used to miss.
Libra sees that opportunity—and we’re here to lead the way in reimagining what performance management can be.
If you don’t already know him, you can learn about Earl, my co-founder, here:
https://makegreatworkvisible.com/why-we-built-libra-earls-story/
If you want to learn more about Libra, you can find our introduction post here:
https://makegreatworkvisible.com/introducing-libra/
