How BARK Scaled Alignment Across Teams and Workflows

Recognition and Alignment Became BARK’s Top Priorities

At BARK, the mission is clear: bring joy to dogs and the people who love them. That shared purpose shaped a strong, fast-moving culture, but as the company’s growth introduced greater scale and complexity, sustaining that connection and clarity across a larger, more complex workforce became harder to maintain.

• Feedback and recognition felt less frequent, and less visible
• Managers lacked a consistent framework for setting expectations
• Employees weren’t clear on how their work aligned with company goals

It marked a natural inflection point: BARK needed systems that supported clarity, connection, and momentum. Christina Donnelly, BARK’s Chief People Officer & General Counsel, had seen the evolution firsthand. Having been with the company for more than eight years, she had helped lead multiple phases of transformation and the need for a more intentional people strategy became clear.

We had a series of moments where we realized our tools weren't setting people up for success. When the process becomes the main point of conversation instead of the work and the performance, you know something’s off.

Christina Donnelly

Building HR Structure Without Slowing Down

BARK’s workforce spanned functions as varied as finance, toy design, and distribution logistics. The People team needed to create structure without sacrificing culture — or agility.

Lattice offered the flexibility and scalability they were looking for:

• A unified platform that could roll out in phases
• An intuitive experience that worked for HR, managers, and ICs 
• Data and insights to inform strategic decisions
• A true partnership, not just another vendor

[Lattice] is so flexible that we let managers manage the way that makes sense for their team that might not make sense for every type of team we have here.

Christina Donnelly

The team began with a simple but high-impact priority: recognition. Engagement surveys revealed that employees weren’t feeling acknowledged—a signal the team couldn’t ignore. With research showing that employees who receive recognition are 4x more likely to be engaged, they saw an opportunity to turn recognition from a cultural value into a strategic lever.

To address this quickly and seamlessly, BARK rolled out Lattice Praise via Slack, known internally as “shout outs.” 

And while the rollout solved an immediate pain point, it also laid a strategic foundation: tying Praise to performance reviews helped employees understand how feedback would show up in future growth conversations, a key driver of adoption and long-term impact.

After launch, engagement surveys reflected a clear drop in comments about lack of recognition—reigniting a culture of feedback and setting the stage for more structured performance programs.

Turning Weekly Updates Into a Scalable Alignment Habit

With recognition flowing more freely, the People team focused on strengthening alignment without meeting overload. Lattice Updates quickly became the company’s weekly heartbeat. Individual contributors used it to share progress, managers to surface priorities, and executives to stay connected to the business.

The momentum started at the top. BARK’s executive team began submitting their Updates every Friday — not just for visibility, but to directly inform the Monday leadership meeting agenda. These end-of-week reflections streamlined decision-making and kept conversations focused and strategic. 

Now, on average, 1 in 2 BARK employees across 11 departments regularly submit a weekly update, signaling stronger alignment and clearer priorities.

As this rhythm took hold, BARK layered in Lattice 1:1s, synced directly with Gmail calendars to make regular check-ins easier and more structured. With managers responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement, 1:1s became a critical lever to build trust and drive performance across teams.

Hayley Musket, Senior People Operations Manager shared her perspective. “With 1:1s synced to our calendars, impactful check-ins happen without friction. That consistency builds confidence [for employees and managers].” Now, nearly 60% of managers have 1:1s with their direct reports and continue to see consistent adoption, averaging 438 1:1s per month over the last year.

How 1:1s and Check-Ins Fueled BARK’s Performance Growth

By the time BARK reintroduced performance reviews, the groundwork was already in place. Consistent 1:1s, real-time feedback, and weekly Updates had normalized performance conversations across the org, so enhancing the review cycle didn’t feel like a disruption.

Lattice’s built-in writing assistant and AI-powered performance insights also helped employees and managers prepare thoughtfully and confidently. The result was a review process that felt consistent, human, and scalable.

The new process led to:

• A 93% completion rate in their latest cycle
• The people team saving 10-15 hours per week managing the process

Still, performance reviews weren’t enough. 56% of employees revisit goals only once a year or less, making it easy for alignment to drift. To close that gap, BARK introduced Lattice OKRs & Goals, giving teams continuous visibility into how their work connected to company strategy.

This meant:

• Company-wide OKRs to anchor strategy
• Public team goals for transparency
• Manager check-ins that kept goals front and center

“We’d been hearing, ‘I’m not sure how what I’m doing ties into what the company cares about.’ We wanted to close that loop,” said Christina. 

Today, 100% of employees have at least one goal published, with nearly 800 active goals across the company, driving clearer alignment between individual roles and company objectives.

Using Engagement Surveys to Listen and Act Quickly

With core performance systems in place, BARK leaned on Lattice Engagement to keep a pulse on employee sentiment. Pulse surveys revealed gaps. The People team closed them. Recognition improved. Goal setting got clearer. Career conversations deepened. Lattice AI tools enhanced those insights, helping HR spot trends and respond proactively.

Notable outcomes across the last two surveys:

• Averaged an astonishing 97% response rate (of all the questions asked, nearly every one got an answer)
• Achieved a 78% participation rate (of all employees, over three-quarters responded)

What’s Next: Future-Proofing People Operations

As part of its next chapter, BARK is evolving its HR tech stack and strengthening its connected ecosystem. When selecting a new HRIS, they prioritized platforms that integrate seamlessly with Lattice. “Workday made sense as our admin HQ. And for our employees, Lattice is where the impact happens,” said Alana Sage, Director of Total Rewards.

That connectivity has become a superpower, giving the HR team the infrastructure to operate efficiently and the insights to lead strategically.

Before Lattice, everything was scattered — reviews, goals, surveys — we never had one platform where everything lived together. Now it’s all in one place, and that helps us connect the dots and make smarter, faster decisions.

Hayley Musket

And BARK’s forward-thinking approach doesn’t stop there. They’ve piloted the Lattice AI Agent, proven to help resolve up to 78% of HR questions instantly, giving employees faster answers and the People team more time back.

Next up: Lattice Grow. The team is preparing to launch career development tools that help employees visualize their future, and equip managers to guide them with structure and confidence. “We’ve come a long way, and Lattice made that possible. Not by changing who we are, but by helping us do what we already value, better,” said Christina.