THE DREAM IN ACTION

Today I was introduced to a new product that could change the way feedback is given and received in the workplace. After writing about what is important to Gen Y employees and how employers are going to have to respond to these changes, the founder of Rypple (pronounced “ripple”) reached out to talk about their new product.

In short, Rypple works to take away the difficulty of giving and receiving feedback in the workplace. However, at the same time they are addressing a critical requirement in professional satisfaction…the feeling of personal, yes PERSONAL development. There is a huge difference between ones need for personal development and ones need for professional development. The main difference lies in the fact that in this day and age people don’t always know what their next profession may be. For example, I could work as an artist, loving my creative freedoms, loving painting, and loving the industry but perhaps the greatest skill I take away from the work is my ability to sell the artwork? (I understand that I’m probably butchering the beautiful profession that is being an artist, my apologies) The same principles may apply elsewhere. If I’m growing my sales skills I can apply those skills to literally any industry. I see these developments as personal developments, where in the example professional developments may be my improved ability to paint using oils vs. another medium.

As there is an increased focus on personal development in the workplace someone or some tool needs to facilitate that change. Rypple has set out to do just that. This tool simplifies the process of asking for feedback from ones peers or managers. In a very clean and intuitive interface you can take micro-polls on your performance. Whether it’s on a sales pitch or project meeting you solicit and receive anonymous feedback. You can tag your question/poll and then your peers will “grade” or rate you on those tagged attributes. This way you can track your improvement on certain topic areas over time. This is the exact type of direct and continuous that Gen Y is looking for!

As your co-workers receive our micro-poll they rate you 1 to 5 on your topic categories and give you both positive and constructive feedback. Again this is all anonymous and the person giving the feedback knows exactly how many people you asked for feedback. This allows them to decide just how candid their feedback should be. Naturally, the more people you ask for feedback the more honest ones feedback will be.

The tool also allows you to track all of your feedback. It knows how many people you asked for each micro-poll and it knows what attributes or topic areas you tagged to each poll. Then it creates a “cloud tag” like tracker for your attributes. The attributes (see right) will be larger the more times you ask for feedback on them. You can always go back to tool and check your ratings on a specific event or on a specific attribute. These will be very helpful in identifying your goals over a period of time and relating specific work events to those overall goals.

Lastly, any good web application today must have a social aspect to the site. As you invite reviewers to grade/rate you on micro-polls the tool will save those contacts. You can tag the type of relationship you have with that individual and even group them. You can include them as ‘All Managers’, ‘Direct Reports’, or simply ‘colleague’s’. You can even important contacts from outside tools like Outlook. This removes the dreaded hassle of populating yet another social web app.

What is very appealing to me about Rypple is that it’s not just the Gen Y crowd who will be able to easily adapt to using this tool. As long as the “boomers” realize the need for better feedback in the workplace, they will realize the simplicity of using Rypple. It’s a very simple workflow and due to it’s email integration no other site or instance needs to be used to give feedback.

Yesterday I had an awesome conversation with Daniel Debow, co-founder of Rypple. Daniel is also a Huffington Post blogger, and former VP of Corporate Development and Marketing for Workbrain. It is obvious to me that he and his startup are focused on the right things! As I read his bio I was blown away as he has his JD & MBA from U Toronto, and a masters degree in Law, Science, & Tech from Stanford. He has successfully helped build and then sell Workbrain and now is focusing on a HUGE need in the workforce…personal development.

I’m going to be using Rypple in a small team at work and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to write a post-use review of the product with an improved insight into its usability and overall use. In the meantime if you’ve used Rypple or are interested in trying out the product please comment below and I will set you up either Daniel or a product key. Cheers.