Ask HN: Can we get some feedback on our idea to enhance WFH experience?

[syed_h5]

I am new around here and my first post got a lot of replies regarding WFH.

We are very big fans of WFH by the way.

Since this community is so helpful, I would really like to know what you all think about a platform for corporations that takes out all the leg work needed for building one-to-one connections and social communities between coworkers?

We wrapped up our MVP while still getting feedback. Actively trying to get into YC as well.

https://www.getparallel.io/

^ Please let me know what you all think about the idea! Please comment if you are interested in trying out the MVP with your team.

[kradeelav]

Hey there! I think you mentioned this site in a reply to me a while back, just saw the link.

The site's lovely and has a warmth and non-sterility to it that I find most early-startup websites don't, so kudos on the presentation there.

My thought is I can't see it immediately applying to me if I were a random Sam in the workforce, but maybe if you took the angle of marketing as a 'intentional corporate bonding exercise' that HR and people managers quite often like. They'll often schedule little 1-hr sessions of video tours, MBTI personality discovery, etc, and this strikes me as a much less offensive version of the latter. ;)

Perhaps being able to show that employees can match up with other coworkers in a set time (eg 30 min, 1hr may help? Looking at how personality tests sell themselves to corporate may give some other subtler marketing clues.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

[syed_h5 → kradeelav]

Yeah kind of marketing is as a team building tool and bettering corporate culture is our angle. We wrapped up our MVP and now just trying to get into the door with HR. Any ideas on how to get into the door with HR?

I will pass on the website comments to the team haha

[hnacc_ount]

Hi!

if I understand correctly, this platform is aimed at employers who through social activities and features, would like to increase employee productivity. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Then I read:

- Join us to strengthen and build new relationships with your colleagues. - So, LinkedIn features

- Learn more about others and build friendships through common shared interests. - like the foundation of the old facebook

- You would be able to get matched up with your co-workers based on common interests! - Tinder without the fun

All this under the eyes of the employer.

It seems well crafted and I compliment you for the effort, but IMO, without any offense, just sincere criticism, It strikes me as one of the nice ideas that come to people who pass more time on LinkedIn and than at their desk.

It might make sense in the eyes of the employer, very little for employees.

I, as an employee, would not use it.

Oh, I really like the colourful little slimes with the hats!

I wish you luck!

[syed_h5 → hnacc_ount]

Hey thanks for the feedback!

So, when I was first starting out, even at an “in office” company, it took time to get close to my coworkers. I saw this problem with really any new employee. It took me months to figure out my boss also liked “it’s always sunny in Philadelphia” and basketball, and rap etc. If I had known this from day 1, then I would have connected with him more from day 1. That would have taken out anxiety or the discomfort of asking difficult questions. For him he would have subconsciously taken more time to make sure I had everything I needed. No matter what we say, we always help people more when we like them.

^ now imagine all that in a remote environment. Usually takes much longer to fit in. In my new fully remote company it took 6months- a year to settle in. Why not just cut out all the leg work of discovery? If someone around me at work likes FIFA as much as I do, then let’s chat about it. It speeds up the social connection and makes work more fun cuz you would genuinely have more friends there.

Also, a big thing about who uses it and who doesn’t. As normal you will always have the early adopters in the company, the new people and the HR people that will use it. But when the results are seen more often, managers will ask their teams to use it. A profile takes less than 3 min to create. So from that point on you will get connections via your most loved topics weekly. (I would love to log in on Monday and know the new guy we just hired loves playing fifa).

That will make people come back and grow the network. The network effect within the company should be great enough to get more people into it and using it.

Btw I really do love your feedback. We have the LLC, the mvp etc etc. And actively talking to HR execs. So questions like these are great.

[hnacc_ount → syed_h5]

I also like IASIP a lot (Dayman...fighter of the Nightman..)

What actually worries me is the presence of HR, who from what they will see in this sort of social I am sure will come up with totally wrong ideas about employees.

To work, social features must be kept to a minimum, with no "like" and "share" buttons. Otherwise the employee who puts the wrong like will pay for it sooner or later.

See LinkedIn. Initially it was a decent social, where you found colleagues, set up interviews and read news. LinkedIn is where I found my current job here, which I like very much. Now it suffers from the same things as facebook, people who have no idea what they write, post, share, with disastrous results. It's a complete shithole full of "head hunters" and useless post about "how to grow the company" or "how to work smart" and a lot of "life changing" idea that are just trash or copypasta.

[syed_h5 → hnacc_ount]

So, we actually thought a lot about this. All the categories and interests we put are pretty HR friendly. Nothing NSFW. The most NSFW thing is Sunny haha

Agree with you man, LinkedIn has gone downhill. So, we don't have any functionality to write posts or promote anything. We actually lock it down to only corporations. Like you need your corp email to sign up (only if your corp uses us) and then only connect with people in your corporation.