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Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

19 points by rafapaez 10y ago

rafapaez 10y ago
Hey there! I'm the Co-founder of Steer and the Maker of Transparent Startups. This platform is 100% built with Elixir and the Phoenix Framework. I can proudly say it's a blazing fast application. I cannot be happier with the performance and productivity achieved with Elixir. I highly recommended it for your brand new projects. :) I'd love to hear your thoughts. Cheers, Rafa
- k__ 10y ago
  Using a framework for thousands of real-time connections for weekly reports? Seems like over engineering to the max. :D On the other hand they call it the hipster stack, so well done, I guess?
  - rafapaez 10y ago
    I disagree. Over engineering does not relate to a particular framework. In fact, you can over-engineer with any tech. It's the design of the system what defines that (e.g microservices vs monolith for a small web app). It's a simple monolithic application with a relational database. Does this sound like over engineering? I don't think so. It's actually the opposite. Which one seems like an overkill, Server A or Server B (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CngB1sfWIAAbOFi.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CngB1sfWIAAbOFi.jpg)? ;)
    - k__ 10y ago
      So you're implying that a simple service that could be implemented with Sinatra should not be considered over engineered because the dev tried to hammer on the problem with Rails? Background: Just today I read that DHH considered Phoenix pretty cool, but Rails is enough if you don't need the real-time features. Anyway, of course you can build your services how you like and it's probably a lot fun to use Phoenix :D
      - rafapaez 10y ago
        - If I have to choose a Ruby tech, I would go for Rails, no Sinatra, no Padrino, nop. Whatever you think is simple now it will change in the future. So start with what you know well and has everything you might need, even if you're not using it now. I've seen many "small" services being rewritten in Rails for this reason and that's painful and a waste of resources. - Nowadays I have several reasons not to use Rails for new projects (https://blog.jaredfriedman.com/2015/09/15/why-i-wouldnt-use-rails-for-a-new-company/ https://blog.jaredfriedman.com/2015/09/15/why-i-wouldnt-use-...). But I actually I have more reasons to use Elixir instead (https://medium.com/@kenmazaika/why-im-betting-on-elixir-7c8f847b58#.guroqbfmf https://medium.com/@kenmazaika/why-im-betting-on-elixir-7c8f...) (http://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/04/19/elixir-and-phoenix-the-future-of-web-apis-and-apps/ http://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/04/19/elixir-and-phoenix-the...). And yes, it's fun, incredibly robust and scalable. :D
angryasian 10y ago
Personally I think this is a failure in company culture. One on one's should be done face to face. Also if you're not cultivating a company culture where your reports can't speak up on anything with out retribution or fear, then something is wrong. I don't think this tool helps. With that being said, looking at your landing page, its really hard to figure out how this works.
- rafapaez 10y ago
  I agree with you that F2F 1:1s meetings should not be replaced, when possible. However, there are many benefits of doing Weekly Check-ins: - Many teams work remotely nowadays, with different time zones. It can be tricky to find a regular time for the 1-1s. - Some people prefer async communication instead of face-to-face meetings. Meetings kill productivity. - Managers and team members have everything documented and linked to actions through the time so effective follow-ups can be done. Regarding the landing page, we're working on making a few videos to explain better how Steer works. Any other suggestion would be appreciated. Many thanks for the feedback.
tarr11 10y ago
We use Gusto for payroll, and they offer a simple tool that does something similar, with no additional cost beyond what we already pay to Gusto. [1] I looked at your site, but couldn't really see any feature list of what it actually does, or why it is better. [1] https://support.gusto.com/hc/en-us/articles/235063588-Survey-your-employees https://support.gusto.com/hc/en-us/articles/235063588-Survey...
- btsta 10y ago
  Hi! Jose, co-founder of Steer here. Gusto is an amazing and complete HRMS platform (payroll, benefits, holidays, onboarding, etc). We're more in the Performance Management System space (https://blog.newsteer.com/what-is-a-performance-management-system-fc5855f10890#.cm359b6x5 https://blog.newsteer.com/what-is-a-performance-management-s...) What Gusto have is an "Employee Happiness survey" feature. Every month you can ONLY ask this one single question: “How happy are you at work this month?” And your employees answers with sad/happy face. It's the same concept than NPS (Net Promoter Score), but for internal happiness. With Steer we want to go further, and our goal is to help managers become leaders rather than micro-managers. We help Managers create weekly conversations with their employees, so they can get and give feedback, know instantly where the roadblocks are, give visibility to everyone and congratulate when the job was done great. Everything without being constantly looking over employee's shoulders. In terms of features, with Steer you can: - Select the cadence you want (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). - You can ask the questions you really want to ask (or choose from our powerful question bank). - Reply employee's questions and manage all the history from everyone in your team. - Have beautiful analytics dashboard. Hope it helps, but feel free to contact me in case you need more information!
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
lahdo 10y ago
5USD per employee per month? Don't you think this is way too much?
- rafapaez 10y ago
  Why do you think is too much? Competitors range between 5 and 15 USD/mo/user. Some even more for Enterprise features, which we still don't have.
  - lahdo 10y ago
    Lets suppose that I am CEO of company with 100 employees. This will mean that just for the application for collecting feedback I will need to pay 500 USD per month (6000 USD yearly). What about other crucial apps needed to run the company? I think it might be cheaper to write such a application independently.
    - rafapaez 10y ago
      At the end, it will cost you a lot of money if you decide to build your own Performance Management System or any kind of SaaS application which is not the core of your business. Please read this article "Build vs. Buy", I cannot agree more: https://blog.baremetrics.com/build-vs-buy-how-to-blow-100-000-saving-money-a743e4c62848#.at9mdgpyd https://blog.baremetrics.com/build-vs-buy-how-to-blow-100-00...

19 points by rafapaez 10y ago

Hey there! I'm the Co-founder of Steer and the Maker of Transparent Startups. This platform is 100% built with Elixir and the Phoenix Framework. I can proudly say it's a blazing fast application. I cannot be happier with the performance and productivity achieved with Elixir. I highly recommended it for your brand new projects. :) I'd love to hear your thoughts. Cheers, Rafa

k__ 10y ago
Using a framework for thousands of real-time connections for weekly reports? Seems like over engineering to the max. :D On the other hand they call it the hipster stack, so well done, I guess?
- rafapaez 10y ago
  I disagree. Over engineering does not relate to a particular framework. In fact, you can over-engineer with any tech. It's the design of the system what defines that (e.g microservices vs monolith for a small web app). It's a simple monolithic application with a relational database. Does this sound like over engineering? I don't think so. It's actually the opposite. Which one seems like an overkill, Server A or Server B (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CngB1sfWIAAbOFi.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CngB1sfWIAAbOFi.jpg)? ;)
  - k__ 10y ago
    So you're implying that a simple service that could be implemented with Sinatra should not be considered over engineered because the dev tried to hammer on the problem with Rails? Background: Just today I read that DHH considered Phoenix pretty cool, but Rails is enough if you don't need the real-time features. Anyway, of course you can build your services how you like and it's probably a lot fun to use Phoenix :D
    - rafapaez 10y ago
      - If I have to choose a Ruby tech, I would go for Rails, no Sinatra, no Padrino, nop. Whatever you think is simple now it will change in the future. So start with what you know well and has everything you might need, even if you're not using it now. I've seen many "small" services being rewritten in Rails for this reason and that's painful and a waste of resources. - Nowadays I have several reasons not to use Rails for new projects (https://blog.jaredfriedman.com/2015/09/15/why-i-wouldnt-use-rails-for-a-new-company/ https://blog.jaredfriedman.com/2015/09/15/why-i-wouldnt-use-...). But I actually I have more reasons to use Elixir instead (https://medium.com/@kenmazaika/why-im-betting-on-elixir-7c8f847b58#.guroqbfmf https://medium.com/@kenmazaika/why-im-betting-on-elixir-7c8f...) (http://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/04/19/elixir-and-phoenix-the-future-of-web-apis-and-apps/ http://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/04/19/elixir-and-phoenix-the...). And yes, it's fun, incredibly robust and scalable. :D

angryasian 10y ago

Personally I think this is a failure in company culture. One on one's should be done face to face. Also if you're not cultivating a company culture where your reports can't speak up on anything with out retribution or fear, then something is wrong. I don't think this tool helps. With that being said, looking at your landing page, its really hard to figure out how this works.

rafapaez 10y ago
I agree with you that F2F 1:1s meetings should not be replaced, when possible. However, there are many benefits of doing Weekly Check-ins: - Many teams work remotely nowadays, with different time zones. It can be tricky to find a regular time for the 1-1s. - Some people prefer async communication instead of face-to-face meetings. Meetings kill productivity. - Managers and team members have everything documented and linked to actions through the time so effective follow-ups can be done. Regarding the landing page, we're working on making a few videos to explain better how Steer works. Any other suggestion would be appreciated. Many thanks for the feedback.

tarr11 10y ago

We use Gusto for payroll, and they offer a simple tool that does something similar, with no additional cost beyond what we already pay to Gusto. [1] I looked at your site, but couldn't really see any feature list of what it actually does, or why it is better. [1] https://support.gusto.com/hc/en-us/articles/235063588-Survey-your-employees https://support.gusto.com/hc/en-us/articles/235063588-Survey...

btsta 10y ago
Hi! Jose, co-founder of Steer here. Gusto is an amazing and complete HRMS platform (payroll, benefits, holidays, onboarding, etc). We're more in the Performance Management System space (https://blog.newsteer.com/what-is-a-performance-management-system-fc5855f10890#.cm359b6x5 https://blog.newsteer.com/what-is-a-performance-management-s...) What Gusto have is an "Employee Happiness survey" feature. Every month you can ONLY ask this one single question: “How happy are you at work this month?” And your employees answers with sad/happy face. It's the same concept than NPS (Net Promoter Score), but for internal happiness. With Steer we want to go further, and our goal is to help managers become leaders rather than micro-managers. We help Managers create weekly conversations with their employees, so they can get and give feedback, know instantly where the roadblocks are, give visibility to everyone and congratulate when the job was done great. Everything without being constantly looking over employee's shoulders. In terms of features, with Steer you can: - Select the cadence you want (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). - You can ask the questions you really want to ask (or choose from our powerful question bank). - Reply employee's questions and manage all the history from everyone in your team. - Have beautiful analytics dashboard. Hope it helps, but feel free to contact me in case you need more information!
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

lahdo 10y ago

5USD per employee per month? Don't you think this is way too much?

rafapaez 10y ago
Why do you think is too much? Competitors range between 5 and 15 USD/mo/user. Some even more for Enterprise features, which we still don't have.
- lahdo 10y ago
  Lets suppose that I am CEO of company with 100 employees. This will mean that just for the application for collecting feedback I will need to pay 500 USD per month (6000 USD yearly). What about other crucial apps needed to run the company? I think it might be cheaper to write such a application independently.
  - rafapaez 10y ago
    At the end, it will cost you a lot of money if you decide to build your own Performance Management System or any kind of SaaS application which is not the core of your business. Please read this article "Build vs. Buy", I cannot agree more: https://blog.baremetrics.com/build-vs-buy-how-to-blow-100-000-saving-money-a743e4c62848#.at9mdgpyd https://blog.baremetrics.com/build-vs-buy-how-to-blow-100-00...