Case Study: The Heinz Endowments achieves more productive, harmonious intern teams with The Predictive Index

How Heinz Endowments prioritized its values with PI tools

The Heinz Endowments, a Pittsburgh-based philanthropic foundation, struggled to place diverse students into productive teams for its Summer Youth Philanthropy Internship Program. Interns repeatedly clashed—dominant personalities, missed deadlines, uncooperative or unengaged members—increasing supervisory burden and reducing program effectiveness. To solve this, the organization worked with The Predictive Index and its PI Behavioral Assessment (via PI Certified Partner Predictive Synergistic Systems) to get objective insight into interns’ drives and natural behaviors.

Predictive Synergistic recommended and The Heinz Endowments implemented the PI Behavioral Assessment in orientation and used the results to balance teams by behavioral pattern. The Predictive Index’s approach gave interns language to understand themselves, helped staffers assign complementary team mixes, and reduced conflict; teams became more harmonious, stayed on task, and were noticeably more productive and inclusive, while supervisors reported fewer behavioral issues.

The Heinz Endowments

Wayne Jones

Senior Impact Officer