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Hi everyone, Lynne here! I built Key Values and launched it on HN 3 months ago. It's been a lot of fun as a solo founder, but definitely challenging too. One th

Hi everyone, Lynne here! I built Key Values and launched it on HN 3 months ago. It's been a lot of fun as a solo founder, but definitely challenging too. One thing I'm trying to do is provide more valuable tools for anyone wanting to take a culture-first approach to their job search. So, to help people make the most of their interviews, and as an alternative to traditional content marketing, I built Culture Queries. I'll continue adding questions over time, so feel free to contribute some if you have any! Thanks in advance for your feedback, and I'll be around to answer any questions you might have. Ps. This is my first attempt at side project marketing (so much fun), and I highly recommend it to other developers.

GordonS 9y ago
I selected an option from. Each section and hit the button - nothing happens? I'm on Android if it makes any difference. Also, what exactly is your product/service? How is it monetised (or planned to be)?
- thetest3r 9y ago
  From the looks of it, when you give you email they're adding you to a job posting list... (main monetization scheme) An additional feature might be to allow posters to also select which characteristics they have and tailor it to you...per say? Just a guess.
  - kthejoker2 9y ago
    Per se. Latin.
- lynnetye 9y ago
  Hm. I'll try to debug that, thanks for telling me. Key Values helps job-seeking engineers find teams that share their values. I'm not currently charging for my service, but will likely charge a monthly subscription to companies to post their profiles (and also charge to help curate them). Down the line, it's possible I'll always take a placement fee, but not set yet.
  - Drdrdrq 9y ago
    I found myself wishing for other options. At least in the start you could allow users to enter other answers, so that you can learn them...
IpV8 9y ago
I really like those questions! They seem more thought out than most of the stock interview questions a google search will show you. I definitely stopped as soon as I was asked for an email though. There's no way I'll give you my valuable email space just to see some interview questions.
- lynnetye 9y ago
  I'm currently not charging for my service, so I decided that asking for an email address was fair. I was torn about how many questions to give "for free." I started with 9, but went down to 6 since I don't think interviewees have enough time to ask more than 2-5 questions in an interview any way. Fair enough though. I'm also very stingy with my email address. Thanks for the feedback!
tbirrell 9y ago
That blur is clever. Kudous. One suggestion I have is to have another email submission field since I just got rid of the last one. I don't want to have to go looking for it. It actually took me a moment to remember where it was, since those pop ups are never something I pay attention to.
- lynnetye 9y ago
  Did you find my easter egg?! You can always refresh the page. I actually removed the second CTA yesterday to help focus user attention. You probably already know this, but most people don't do what you did ;)
  - tbirrell 9y ago
    CSS-Mastery FTW. I did refresh the page, which was how I found the the input field again. Yep. Given the comments here on HN, it is fairly evident not many do.
  - tprynn 9y ago
    I found the easter egg! Hilarious way to handle the quora-like "subscribe for more", and actually got me to subscribe. I won't spoil it for others.
    - lynnetye 9y ago
      I've been trying really hard to put myself in the shoes of the user. This is exactly what I would have done, so there you have it.
      - tempestn 9y ago
        Ha, I considered it, but didn't bother until I read this comment thread. Then I knew exactly what I had to do. Enjoyed.
  - mkobit 9y ago
    That was clever and I had a good chuckle at it, too. I originally saved the page as a resource but a once-a-week email with this kind of material is definitely worth the time. This comment will shed light on: * Committed to Personal Growth
Kerrick 9y ago
This is pretty neat! From the hiring side, I'd love to be able to use the same Culture Queries UI to list our company's key values and instead of getting a list of interview questions, get a list of tactics to improve or implement these cultural shifts.
- matt_the_bass 9y ago
  That is a great idea. To go one step further, it would be cool if those suggestions had budget tears. Because every implementation has some cost.
kradeelav 9y ago
Nice work on this! :) Got me to click around a bit. A few comments (from a design background, so your mileage may vary): - Digging the 'don't ask' section to your answers - I'm personally of the mindset that knowing what not to do is even more important than knowing what to do. Would love to see this section for every tile, but I know that's a lot of tiles.... - having inline quotes (and sources) from big names/articles would make this feel even more credible and a little less same-y, imo. Right now it's just one point of view - but having a quote from Larry Page or whoever would make me inclined to agree even more. (Also it'd be interesting to see what names pop up where...) - Would drop the 'I'm relatively new' in your about blurb at the top and before your twitter - doesn't add anything of value to the statements. Launching this successfully already tells me that you've jumped over most of the early hurdles to this kind of a project, so don't undersell yourself.
- lynnetye 9y ago
  - Awesome. I wasn't sure if it came off too strong, so I only did it for a few. But I can definitely incorporate more "don'ts" as I add content and edit existing questions! - Interesting thought, though I might disagree. The big names are people who haven't interviewed for a job in a really long time (in some cases, never have) and might not remember what it's like to be an applicant. I don't necessarily think you should ask questions just to impress an interviewer, you should also ask questions to get very needed answers to inform your decision. - I really appreciate your saying this. I still feel like I need to state that up front, but I will say that my confidence has grown so much in the last 8 months. Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback and kind words!
contingencies 9y ago
Realise I'm an outlier but here's some honest feedback anyway. I didn't get the page to work because too many external HTTP requests... not worth the time to resolve. Facebook + Google + Cloudfront + GA + Hotjar? My culture query is resolved.
- tpxl 9y ago
  It loads jquery from ajax.googleapis.com (I'd prefer it didn't, but ohwell). Other than that, you only need the domain unblocked for it to work (I also block js by default because I do not like it :) ).
zitterbewegung 9y ago
This is a great tool. I generally ask the question "what is your corporate culture". I think that with these questions you can get much closer to the ground truth of the organization you are interviewing for. Also, if you don't understand what you are getting into you can get burnt out and look for a new job.
vogt 9y ago
I think this is a WONDERFUL idea, and executed incredibly well. This is a big help to me as I consider asking good questions a flaw in my interviewing game, and I'm aware that it has lead me to miss some really glaring flaws. I love the UX, too. All around great!
deleted 9y ago
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an_d_rew 9y ago
Hey, Lynne - I finally had a few minutes to check out your site and I really really like it… Thank you for putting it together! Very, very useful! :-)
mparramon 9y ago
Looks like an amazing project! I've been a serial interviewee lots of times during my career, and having had this some time ago would have helped tons. I wrote an article exactly about this, hope it helps you!: http://www.developingandstuff.com/2016/01/10-questions-to-make-on-tech-interview.html http://www.developingandstuff.com/2016/01/10-questions-to-ma...
deleted 9y ago
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OkGoDoIt 9y ago
“On a scale from 1 to it's-literally-the-worst, how much do you hate giving out your email address? How often do you open up your inspector tool to bypass annoying shit on websites?” Clever, that made me smile :-). But I’m still not giving you my email address and I’m still annoyed you don’t show me all the results. It would be nice if there was a “no thanks” option.

GordonS 9y ago

I selected an option from. Each section and hit the button - nothing happens? I'm on Android if it makes any difference. Also, what exactly is your product/service? How is it monetised (or planned to be)?

thetest3r 9y ago
From the looks of it, when you give you email they're adding you to a job posting list... (main monetization scheme) An additional feature might be to allow posters to also select which characteristics they have and tailor it to you...per say? Just a guess.
- kthejoker2 9y ago
  Per se. Latin.
lynnetye 9y ago
Hm. I'll try to debug that, thanks for telling me. Key Values helps job-seeking engineers find teams that share their values. I'm not currently charging for my service, but will likely charge a monthly subscription to companies to post their profiles (and also charge to help curate them). Down the line, it's possible I'll always take a placement fee, but not set yet.
- Drdrdrq 9y ago
  I found myself wishing for other options. At least in the start you could allow users to enter other answers, so that you can learn them...

IpV8 9y ago

I really like those questions! They seem more thought out than most of the stock interview questions a google search will show you. I definitely stopped as soon as I was asked for an email though. There's no way I'll give you my valuable email space just to see some interview questions.

lynnetye 9y ago
I'm currently not charging for my service, so I decided that asking for an email address was fair. I was torn about how many questions to give "for free." I started with 9, but went down to 6 since I don't think interviewees have enough time to ask more than 2-5 questions in an interview any way. Fair enough though. I'm also very stingy with my email address. Thanks for the feedback!

tbirrell 9y ago

That blur is clever. Kudous. One suggestion I have is to have another email submission field since I just got rid of the last one. I don't want to have to go looking for it. It actually took me a moment to remember where it was, since those pop ups are never something I pay attention to.

lynnetye 9y ago
Did you find my easter egg?! You can always refresh the page. I actually removed the second CTA yesterday to help focus user attention. You probably already know this, but most people don't do what you did ;)
- tbirrell 9y ago
  CSS-Mastery FTW. I did refresh the page, which was how I found the the input field again. Yep. Given the comments here on HN, it is fairly evident not many do.
- tprynn 9y ago
  I found the easter egg! Hilarious way to handle the quora-like "subscribe for more", and actually got me to subscribe. I won't spoil it for others.
  - lynnetye 9y ago
    I've been trying really hard to put myself in the shoes of the user. This is exactly what I would have done, so there you have it.
    - tempestn 9y ago
      Ha, I considered it, but didn't bother until I read this comment thread. Then I knew exactly what I had to do. Enjoyed.
- mkobit 9y ago
  That was clever and I had a good chuckle at it, too. I originally saved the page as a resource but a once-a-week email with this kind of material is definitely worth the time. This comment will shed light on: * Committed to Personal Growth

Kerrick 9y ago

This is pretty neat! From the hiring side, I'd love to be able to use the same Culture Queries UI to list our company's key values and instead of getting a list of interview questions, get a list of tactics to improve or implement these cultural shifts.

matt_the_bass 9y ago
That is a great idea. To go one step further, it would be cool if those suggestions had budget tears. Because every implementation has some cost.

kradeelav 9y ago

Nice work on this! :) Got me to click around a bit. A few comments (from a design background, so your mileage may vary): - Digging the 'don't ask' section to your answers - I'm personally of the mindset that knowing what not to do is even more important than knowing what to do. Would love to see this section for every tile, but I know that's a lot of tiles.... - having inline quotes (and sources) from big names/articles would make this feel even more credible and a little less same-y, imo. Right now it's just one point of view - but having a quote from Larry Page or whoever would make me inclined to agree even more. (Also it'd be interesting to see what names pop up where...) - Would drop the 'I'm relatively new' in your about blurb at the top and before your twitter - doesn't add anything of value to the statements. Launching this successfully already tells me that you've jumped over most of the early hurdles to this kind of a project, so don't undersell yourself.

lynnetye 9y ago
- Awesome. I wasn't sure if it came off too strong, so I only did it for a few. But I can definitely incorporate more "don'ts" as I add content and edit existing questions! - Interesting thought, though I might disagree. The big names are people who haven't interviewed for a job in a really long time (in some cases, never have) and might not remember what it's like to be an applicant. I don't necessarily think you should ask questions just to impress an interviewer, you should also ask questions to get very needed answers to inform your decision. - I really appreciate your saying this. I still feel like I need to state that up front, but I will say that my confidence has grown so much in the last 8 months. Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback and kind words!

contingencies 9y ago

Realise I'm an outlier but here's some honest feedback anyway. I didn't get the page to work because too many external HTTP requests... not worth the time to resolve. Facebook + Google + Cloudfront + GA + Hotjar? My culture query is resolved.

tpxl 9y ago
It loads jquery from ajax.googleapis.com (I'd prefer it didn't, but ohwell). Other than that, you only need the domain unblocked for it to work (I also block js by default because I do not like it :) ).

zitterbewegung 9y ago

This is a great tool. I generally ask the question "what is your corporate culture". I think that with these questions you can get much closer to the ground truth of the organization you are interviewing for. Also, if you don't understand what you are getting into you can get burnt out and look for a new job.

vogt 9y ago

I think this is a WONDERFUL idea, and executed incredibly well. This is a big help to me as I consider asking good questions a flaw in my interviewing game, and I'm aware that it has lead me to miss some really glaring flaws. I love the UX, too. All around great!

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

an_d_rew 9y ago

Hey, Lynne - I finally had a few minutes to check out your site and I really really like it… Thank you for putting it together! Very, very useful! :-)

mparramon 9y ago

Looks like an amazing project! I've been a serial interviewee lots of times during my career, and having had this some time ago would have helped tons. I wrote an article exactly about this, hope it helps you!: http://www.developingandstuff.com/2016/01/10-questions-to-make-on-tech-interview.html http://www.developingandstuff.com/2016/01/10-questions-to-ma...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

OkGoDoIt 9y ago

“On a scale from 1 to it's-literally-the-worst, how much do you hate giving out your email address? How often do you open up your inspector tool to bypass annoying shit on websites?” Clever, that made me smile :-). But I’m still not giving you my email address and I’m still annoyed you don’t show me all the results. It would be nice if there was a “no thanks” option.