It’s been two weeks of learning. Learning by listening. Listening to users, managers, CEO’s, HR gurus, UI designers, web developers, and customers.

People really want to share their feelings about feedback in the workplace. This has helped us understand what we can do to make Snowflake better

Turns out, people feel that getting a performance review is about as pleasant as going to the dentist. Lots of anticipation, avoidance, and utter panic leading up the moment. With apologies to my father-in-law (a great dentist!) being compared to a dentist visit is not exactly a screaming endorsement for existing feedback processes.

And this has us excited. Because we know Snowflake will make feedback more like brushing your teeth (a regular pleasant habit, maybe with some bubblegum flavor) and lot less like going to the dentist.

Stay tuned. And be sure to floss.

PS: Thanks to all the developers who’ve responded to our job postings. We’re getting in touch with everyone and setting up meetings, so if you have not heard from us yet – hang tight!

Daniel Debow is a co-CEO of Rypple. Daniel was one of the founders and the VP of Corporate Development and Marketing for Workbrain, an enterprise software company. He holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Toronto and an LLM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford University. He's a huge music fan, plays the bass (badly), and spends far too much time online. He lives in Toronto with his wife.

122 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/learning-about-the-dentist/Learning+about+the+Dentist2008-04-28+20%3A37%3A17Daniel+Debow

Spent the week talking to people, showing them the product.  Thanks to all of you who have played with the application and suggested improvements and helped out.  We’re much obliged.

In the meantime, the feedback has been great.  Based on what we’ve heard we’re improving the UI and adding features (but not too many!).

Daniel Debow is a co-CEO of Rypple. Daniel was one of the founders and the VP of Corporate Development and Marketing for Workbrain, an enterprise software company. He holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Toronto and an LLM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford University. He's a huge music fan, plays the bass (badly), and spends far too much time online. He lives in Toronto with his wife.

110 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/talking-to-people/Talking+to+people2008-04-14+04%3A29%3A12Daniel+Debow

Our good friend Tony Marzulli, the CMO over at Workscape sent us a great post today.

We don’t understand how Gen Y employees often need constant gratification and instantaneous positive feedback.  They live in an instantaneous world.  Forget about voice mail and e-mail.  This is too slow.  They want IM.  Everything happens real time and when they want/need it.

Here is the message.  It is not Gen Y that needs to change.  It is the rest of us.

Business is real time.  Business is collaborative.  Business needs to involve talent when they are ready, not on our timeline.  Business requires agility.

So my question to all of you.  What do we do, not with these “kids” but with the transformation of our selves?

We agree with this message.  Communications with Gen-Y employee is changing.  Companies and HR must change as well.

Snowflake is, in part, our answer to the question.

Daniel Debow is a co-CEO of Rypple. Daniel was one of the founders and the VP of Corporate Development and Marketing for Workbrain, an enterprise software company. He holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Toronto and an LLM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford University. He's a huge music fan, plays the bass (badly), and spends far too much time online. He lives in Toronto with his wife.

100 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/why-are-we-building-this/Why+are+we+building+this%3F2008-04-01+19%3A49%3A23Daniel+Debow

We’re preparing the final bits of code for a small alpha test group.

Even for this very early and very small group of users,  there are a ton of little details to take care of.

Once people start playing with the ap, we will learn about what works and what doesn’t.  For now, it is just educated guess work.

Daniel Debow is a co-CEO of Rypple. Daniel was one of the founders and the VP of Corporate Development and Marketing for Workbrain, an enterprise software company. He holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Toronto and an LLM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford University. He's a huge music fan, plays the bass (badly), and spends far too much time online. He lives in Toronto with his wife.

90 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/final-features/Final+features2008-04-01+15%3A28%3A02Daniel+Debow