In Nala Talks, we sat down with Mauricio Rojas, People & Culture Manager at Megacentro, to explore a question many Talent leaders are facing today: it’s not just about picking “the best software”, but finding a technology partner that supports communication, training, and the logic behind your talent processes.
For context: Megacentro is an industrial real estate company originally from Chile, with operations in Chile, Peru and the United States. After a strategic shift, they moved from a holding structure with multiple business lines to a more focused industrial platform of around 280 employees, managing logistics and industrial rental spaces that are key to supply chains and urban distribution in their markets. In that transformation, professionalizing their Talent and Performance Management was not a “nice to have”, it was core to sustaining growth and living their values of justice, transparency and responsibility toward their people.
Megacentro was not just looking for a new platform. They were looking for a way to professionalize their talent practice, align processes with their values, and ensure that leaders truly owned the model — not just “filled in another HR form”.
From their experience with Nala, several lessons emerge for any CHRO or People Leader currently evaluating technology partners.
1. Don’t look for software only: look for a strategic ally
For years, Megacentro tried to implement performance reviews with different vendors. The problem wasn’t only technical: the process never really landed in the organization.
With Nala, the difference was not just the interface or the robustness of the platform, but how the relationship was built: Nala did not show up as “just another tool”, but as a strategic ally that cares about the outcome, not just the login.
A good technology partner for HR and Talent should:
- Ask first about your Talent strategy, not only your “system pain points”.
- Understand your culture, history and sensitivities (bonuses, leadership style, meritocracy, etc.).
- Support you in how to communicate, not just “where to click”.
- Push back when technology is moving faster than your culture can absorb.
Put simply: if your partner only teaches you how to use the platform, but doesn’t help you embed the process in the organization, they are not really a partner.
2. Communication and logic: the real risk is not in the platform
Mauricio puts it very clearly: what can derail a talent project is not always the technology, but how (and whether) the logic behind it is communicated.
At Megacentro, the performance process was linked to bonuses. In an early phase, there were misunderstandings about how the bonus would be calculated and who would be impacted. Even though the platform was working well, that communication gap almost undermined trust in the entire process.
What did they learn?
- Launching a process on the platform is not enough.
- It’s critical to explain the “why” and the “what for” before the “how”.
- People need to understand the fairness and coherence of the model, not just the workflow.
This is where a tech partner can make a real difference: instead of limiting themselves to a product tutorial, they get involved in designing and supporting the hard conversations: how performance links to bonuses, how results are recognized, how development and succession decisions are made.
3. Virtuous leaders + technology: without leadership, there is no adoption
Mauricio highlights something uncomfortable but very real: “It doesn’t matter which platform you choose. If leaders are not virtuous, they will use it to reinforce their vices.”
A leader with strong biases can use any performance platform to justify unfair decisions, for example:
- Putting their friends in the best Ninebox quadrant.
- Rating down someone they personally dislike, even with strong performance.
- Using the platform as “evidence” to defend those decisions.
That’s why a technology partner who truly understands culture and leadership will not only help you switch modules on, but will also support you in:
- Designing clear criteria for evaluation and calibration.
- Facilitating talent review sessions that actively challenge bias.
- Preparing leaders to use the tool as a means to lead better, not as a “shield” for decisions they don’t want to own.
Technology can amplify both virtue and vice. A good partner never loses sight of that.
4. Prudence and progressive activation: build habits, not campaigns
Nala includes modules for culture and leadership, performance management, talent and succession, and soon organizational design. The natural temptation is to activate everything at once.
Megacentro did the opposite:
- They started with goals and performance reviews.
- Only once that became a habit did they move into Ninebox and talent.
- Succession planning was intentionally left for a later stage.
Mauricio calls this prudence: recognizing that every organization needs time for new processes to become part of “how we do things here”.
A mature technology partner doesn’t push you to turn everything on. Instead, they:
- Help you prioritize based on impact and cultural maturity.
- Propose a realistic roadmap: what comes first, what comes later, and what level of support is needed at each step.
- Say “let’s wait” more often than “let’s activate everything now”.
Because the goal is not to be able to say “we have it all”, but to build capabilities that last.
5. What should you look for in your next tech partner? (Checklist)
If you’re currently evaluating talent platforms, here are some practical questions to ask yourself (and your potential provider):
About the partnership, not just the product
- Do they talk only about features, or also about culture and strategy?
- Can they show real cases where they’ve supported cultural transformations, not just technical go-lives?
- Are they willing to work with a progressive activation of modules?
About communication and training
- Will they help you craft the internal narrative of the process (bonuses, fairness, meritocracy)?
- Do they offer leader-focused training that covers the logic of the process, not just system navigation?
- Will they help you anticipate resistance, risks and misunderstandings?
About values and way of working
- Does their team understand organizational language and feel comfortable talking directly to senior leadership?
- Are they ready to say “it’s not the right time yet” for a feature or module you’re not prepared to adopt?
Conclusion: the question you should ask before signing
Before closing with any technology provider, it’s worth asking yourself an honest question:
“Will this platform and this team help us build habits and decisions that are consistent with our culture, or are they just selling us a nicer-looking system?”
In Megacentro’s case, the answer meant choosing Nala not just as a platform, but as a technology and consulting partner, capable of supporting their journey toward a Talent First culture, aligned with values like justice, prudence and virtuous leadership.
Technology changes fast. Culture doesn’t. Choosing the right partner is essentially choosing who will sit next to you in that conversation for the next several years.
