Cole Napper has never been content to stand still.

Throughout his career, he’s been drawn to whatever feels new, challenging, and just beyond his current experience. Whether moving from large organizations to startups, launching side projects, or shifting from practitioner to solution provider, his career has been guided by curiosity. Looking back, each pivot reflects a willingness to experiment, learn, and keep climbing what he calls "the next hill."

What drove his pivot(s)?

Cole's career began in large organizations where he built expertise in people analytics and workforce intelligence. As his experience grew, however, so did his desire for broader challenges. During the pandemic, like many professionals, he found himself asking deeper questions about what he wanted from his work and whether he wanted to continue following a traditional corporate path.The answer surprised him.

An opportunity to join the startup Motive gave him responsibility far beyond people analytics. Instead of leading a single function, he was able to influence multiple areas of HR while experiencing the pace and energy of a rapidly growing company. The experience confirmed he enjoyed building new things more than maintaining established ones.

That curiosity became a recurring pattern. He noticed other professionals creating podcasts, writing newsletters, publishing books, and building communities around ideas they cared about. Rather than simply admiring what they were doing, he found himself asking: "What if I could do that?"

Eventually curiosity became stronger than fear. In 2022, he challenged himself to publish a single article. That one article led to several more, which eventually led to his podcast, Directionally Correct, and later to writing his first book. What began as a small personal experiment became an entirely new dimension of his professional life.

His move to the vendor side reflected the same thinking. After leading people analytics across multiple organizations, Cole began wondering whether he could apply what he had learned at a much larger scale. Instead of helping one company build better people analytics, could he help hundreds? Could he contribute to creating the products and ideas that would shape the future of the profession? More importantly, could he help create the future he wanted to see?

Transition process

Cole describes himself as someone who craves variety. His transitions begin with curiosity. He sees someone doing something interesting and asks himself, "Why couldn't I do that?"

Sometimes the biggest obstacle is fear. For years, Cole wanted to publish his ideas but worried about how people would respond. He questioned whether anyone would care what he had to say and whether putting himself into the public eye was worth the risk. Looking back, he realizes many of those limitations existed only in his own mind.

Eventually he realized that confidence follows action, not the other way around. He simply started.

His experience has taught him that experimentation often creates clarity. Rather than trying to predict every outcome, he prefers to try something, learn from it, and decide what comes next. His actions reveal his interests more clearly than endless analysis ever could.

That willingness to experiment has carried him through startups, side projects, corporate roles, and once again, the vendor community.

Current direction

Today, Cole is helping build the future he wants to see. As part of HRBench, he is helping organizations move beyond traditional people analytics toward what he calls People Intelligence. The vision for this solution brings together people analytics, workforce planning, talent intelligence, and behavioral science into a unified intelligence layer supported by high-quality human capital data. Rather than treating these as separate disciplines, he believes they are becoming increasingly connected, giving organizations richer insights and better decisions.

The role allows him to combine everything he enjoys: solving new problems, working with multiple organizations, helping shape products, and contributing to the future of the profession.

His work extends beyond. He continues to host the Directionally Correct podcast, is writing a second book, and, most importantly, is working to establish a university-affiliated Center for the Future of Work and AI in his home state of Louisiana. The center reflects his belief that AI should not be viewed simply as a threat to work but as an opportunity to build a more promising future through thoughtful research, education, and innovation.

For Cole, these aren't separate pursuits. They are different ways of exploring the same question: What does the future of work look like, and how can we help build it?

Advice for Others

• Stay curious. Curiosity is often the first step toward your next opportunity.

• Listen carefully before offering answers. Every conversation is a chance to learn something new.

• Ask questions. The best opportunities often begin with a simple, "What if?"

• Don't let fear become your decision-maker. Many of the limits we experience are the ones we place on ourselves.

• Make a public commitment to something you want to accomplish. Accountability can help turn intention into action.

• Experiment. You don't have to know exactly where the path leads before taking the first step.

• Let your experiences reveal what truly energizes you. Sometimes your actions tell you more than your plans.

• Remember that growth often requires becoming comfortable with uncertainty.

Cole's career illustrates a different way of navigating change. Rather than waiting until every answer is clear, he experiments his way forward. Each new experience becomes another opportunity to learn, refine his direction, and help shape the future he wants to see.