This is a fantastic new update to what is already a powerful tool for mobile-focused products. We've had to maintain a separate web infrastructure to allow users to preview and interact with content which this eliminates. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this asap.
Disclosure: I'm an investor and was an early adopter of Branch.
Kudos. This is a great start. As someone constantly on the look for great technical talent (as both an entrepreneur and investor), I am constantly looking for tools that help me source candidates in a credible way.
I have looked at several sites like this and using GitHub to query and then present is smart. Some suggestions:
1) Find a way to notify the user when their resume has been built. This could be a great distribution tactic.
2) Allow the user to reveal non-detailed summaries of their private repos. This is where the real power of a tool like this would come in. Allowing a generalized summary of the private repo's could lead to an "IMDB for programmers"
This headline is misleading and only promotes Larry Flynt as some sort of civil rights crusader. The man "who paralyzed" him is a serial killer and white supremicist convicted of multiple murders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Paul_Franklin
If we want to promote the people who have shown grace and forgiveness for horrible crimes committed against them, there are many people to celebrate over Larry Flynt. Likewise, the number of anti death-sentence crusaders are plentiful and far more admirable than Larry Flynt.
To be clear, the first person that sends feedback to their boss, the boss sees that feedback and can reply to that for free.
Only when a 2nd person sends feedback to that same manager, does the rest of the feedback (from employee 2, 3, 4etc) get locked until the manager switches to a paying account.
We're not laying claim to being first. Anonymous Feedback is nothing new. 'Anonymous' suggestion boxes been around for a long time.
By the sounds of it, you're aware of our enterprise product (i.e. has to be activated by a manager or leadership team) product called happiily which is also our company name. Part of our motivation in building this new product was to provide smaller companies and teams a product to collect feedback quickly.
As well, we wanted to build a product that could provide value without first being activated by a manager. That's really the crux of the experiment here at Tell Your Boss Anything.
And yes, there are lots of startups seeking to improve the way people work. And that's a good thing.
Thanks for the feedback. We are going to update "Our Promises" within the next 48 hours to reflect the feedback from this thread. It's much appreciated.
"No amount of anonymous feedback is going to fix a poor relationship with your boss"
If a relationship has become truly broken, it's unlikely our system is going to fix it. In that case, you might be right that the person should seek employment elsewhere.
But there are many scenarios by which the relationship can be improved by anonymous feedback. Keep in mind that a lot of the feedback managers tell us they get are based on feedback about systems, tools used, company policies and the like.
We've built (and are building) a follow-up mechanism to try and ensure good feedback doesn't go ignored and that the downvoting you speak of is actually transparent in the system.
If you try our service, you'll see that the feedback is in fact both ways. Managers can reply, ask follow-up questions, mark the issue as resolved and so on. Likewise, the employee can reply and do the same.
Not everyone wants to leave or feels they can leave (in this economy). They want a mechanism to try and fix something without fear of retribution. That's what we're trying to provide.
Yes, absolutely. Apologies: missed the previous comment. A guide is a good start and we'd like to possibly take it further to help guide the conversation productively. It's early days for us (just launched on Monday) so please check-in with us from time to time.
We absolutely believe that the best way to resolve an issue is to communicate face-to-face with your boss. The problem is that there are many reasons why someone doesn't feel comfortable in doing so. Thus, we've created this outlet as a starting place. Also, while this tool might not be for you, I don't think that invalidates the idea. Might others not share your confidence in addressing any issue with their boss?
One outcome we'd like to see from this tool is for conversations that begin anonymously to end in person. In other words, that we're helping initially build the trust to bring employee and manager together in person.
We have a feedback mechanism for both sides of the conversation to indicate whether - as a result of the conversation - the issue has been resolved, worsened or improved. We'd like to see a lot of "resolved."
What we're seeing (and what we hope continues) is managers proactively using the service as a place where employees can turn to provide feedback that they're not yet comfortable discussing in person.
The point you raise is a good one and it's also what wizawuza mentions. Anonymity is increased the larger the crowd size. One way we're seeing Tell Your Boss Anything used is for all feedback to be directed to the CEO instead of to an individual manager.
Can you help us improve the clarity of this part of our promises? Obviously, we don't want our service to be used to present hateful, threatening or abusive messages and providing a user doesn't do any of those things, we will do everything in our power to prevent their identify from being revealed.
Disclosure: I'm an investor and was an early adopter of Branch.