Charma
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Charma (formerly WorkPatterns) was a performance management platform founded and led by CEO Adam Berke. Using AI-powered people-management software, it helped managers and teams create one-on-one meeting agendas, facilitate feedback, monitor progress towards goals and conduct performance reviews — making it easier to oversee teams' performance, goals and feedback within the tools people already worked in. The Boston-area startup's nine-person team served customers with a comprehensive tool aimed at turning managers into effective leaders and improving employee interaction. In October 2023 the company was acquired by The Predictive Index, the Boston talent-optimization platform, which combined its 65+ years of behavioral data with Charma's performance management tool to add post-hire capabilities to its talent-optimization framework.
02 / Charma FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Charma was not a failure — it was an acqui-hire-style strategic acquisition. The structural logic: standalone performance-management tools face a crowded field (15Five, Lattice, Culture Amp and countless point solutions), and the value of continuous feedback data compounds when combined with pre-hire behavioral science — which is exactly what buyer The Predictive Index brought: 65+ years of behavioral data. Rather than competing alone against better-capitalized HR platforms, co-founder and CEO Adam Berke chose the exit: The Predictive Index announced the acquisition (deal closed October 2023) to evolve 'from a pre-hire tool to a pre- and post-hire tool.' Berke stayed on as General Manager of Charma through 2023 and then became PI's Chief Strategy Officer, with Charma's entire nine-person team joining to continue developing the product and servicing customers.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquired by The Predictive Index
The Predictive Index closed its acquisition of Charma (formerly WorkPatterns) in October 2023, publicly announced December 5.
- Integrated
The companies fully integrated at the start of 2024; CEO Adam Berke became PI's Chief Strategy Officer and the nine-person Charma team joined PI.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
2023 (before): Charma — formerly WorkPatterns — operated as a performance management platform founded by CEO Adam Berke, with a nine-person team helping managers run 1-on-1s, feedback, goals and performance reviews.
- 02
October 2023: The Predictive Index, the leading talent optimization platform, closed its acquisition of Charma, combining PI's 65+ years of behavioral data with Charma's performance management tool.
- 03
December 5, 2023: the acquisition was publicly announced; CEO Mike Zani said it would let PI 'truly evolve into a pre- and post-hire tool.'
- 04
2024: the two companies fully integrated at the start of 2024; Charma CEO and co-founder Adam Berke became PI's Chief Strategy Officer and the Charma team continued developing the product and servicing customers inside PI.