By Alex Yohn
Feb 4, 2016
We released a small update to our privacy policy to bring it into closer contractual compliance with some recent updates to the EU’s data privacy directives. It’s simple to summarize the update: we make it clear that Kin and our customer’s data is hosted inside of the United States. We haven’t changed how or where we store data, but due to the changing legal landscape we wanted to notify you of the textual update in our policy.
Your data, our security
A couple of years ago when we made our data center selection, we did so because they were the most proactive, informed company we could find when it came to security and compliance. They remain as much today.
In terms of our application security, we’ve always made the security of customer data a top priority. We regularly review and test our security architecture. We employ best-in-class security and encryption standards to store and serve all manner of assets in Kin, from passwords, to files, to sensitive employee information. We’ve even heard from customers that, sometimes, we’re a bit too onerous with our practices. We’ll take that as a sign that we’re doing a good job.
A data center in the EU
We’re planning to open a data center in the EU in the first half of 2016, and as new regulations and resulting agreements between the US and Europe continue to inform our plans, as they did just this week, we’ll keep you informed about any action you may need to take.
You play a part in protecting your data
Despite our best efforts to protect customer data when it’s stored and in transit, data security is a two-way road. If you’re not in the habit of it, please make sure to regularly change your password, make it challenging (mixed case, integers, etc.), and perhaps most importantly, don’t reuse passwords between apps. We strongly recommend using a tool like 1Password to create strong passwords and assist in signing you in securely to all of your web apps.
As an added layer of security, you can also use Google’s 2-factor authentication to ensure you and only you are accessing your accounts. This setting can be made voluntarily by any Google user, or if you’re using Google for the entire business, it can be enforced at the account administration level as well.
By Alex Yohn
Dec 9, 2015
It’s been a year since Kin implemented its first text editor, and a lot has changed since then.
We’ve released our Objectives and Reviews features, taken a fresh approach to PTO, and made a long list of under-the-hood technical changes to improve the site’s speed and efficiency. What started out as a simple tool to format text is now an important feature of the site – one our users lean on to share important content. With this in mind, we decided it was time to take another pass at this essential tool and streamline it. Here’s the final product in action:
Fixing Bugs
There were a few minor but persistent issues embedded in our previous editor (combining bold/italics, styling content in lists) and we’ve ironed those out. We’re leveraging a new editor library that is much more stable and customizable to our customer’s needs. In addition, we now store all users content in clean, semantic HTML, removing the need to translate it to any another format.
Pruning the Features
After taking a hard look at the most-used editing tools provided to our users, we chose to prune it down to the essentials by removing the heading styles (H1, H2, H3). This decision was inspired by Basecamp’s editing experience, which limits users to a core feature set. This also sidesteps a handful of technical issues such as styling headers, and embedding headers in lists. Note to our users – any headings you’ve already saved in Kin will be transformed into simple bold text.
Minimal UI
We also decided to do away with the sticky toolbar, in favor of a Medium-inspired popup toolbar. This helps keep the interface clean and minimal. Kin users will be able to identify editors by the double border up top, and the formatting tooltip in the bottom right corner.
What’s Next?
We follow a pattern with all our features at Kin: implement, observe, iterate. Once we put something out there, we keep close tabs on customer feedback, bug tickets, and site analytics to gauge how well a feature is serving our users. When we identify something that can be better – we improve it. Simple as that.
If you have any feedback on our new text editor – please drop us a line and let us know. We always love to hear from our customers.
By Alex Yohn
Nov 19, 2015
Last week I was in San Francisco to participate in my second Owner Camp. For the uninitiated, Owner Camp is a fantastic few days spent with other software/design company owners discussing culture, finances, hiring, and anything else buzzing on our sometimes-antsy minds. It’s equal parts forum, conference, and retreat. And sometimes there are jello shots.
I was one of only a few folks present who has been through the motions of building a client-focused business (We Are Mammoth) alongside burgeoning product companies (like Kin, and DoneDone.com), and a few people pulled me aside to hear my experiences. I figured I’d share them here, sans jello shot daze.
The following thoughts are more for independent agency owners peering over the edge than they are advice on the business of building products. They’re also based on my own experiences building Kin and DoneDone and do not reflect the experiences of an A-List Billionaire Entrepreneur Who Flips Businesses Like Hot Cakes And Has Blog Posts About How To Most Efficiently Travel Between Tech Hubs.
1. Who’s it gonna be, me or her?
If you’re serious about building a business out of a product, THAT needs to be your full time job, and that of the employees you have working on it. Make a plan to transition your current day to day job to the consulting team, and use your oh-so-smooth leadership skills to get a fresh team galvanized and building a new product. It’s best to do this before starting. Be patient and accountable to your other, already-successful team – they need you more than you think.
2. Consultants aren’t (generally) product people.
It took us a while to recognize the need to hire specifically for the business model we were building. Consulting companies need people who like variety in clients, projects, and industries. Products (ours are SaaS) need people who see trees for the forest in a single product and who want to spend the next 3-4 years building that single brand.
3. Give it a minute, geez.
The world is full of ways to do things quickly. You can learn Ruby in the seven minutes between eating your Lunchable and getting back to your job as a masseuse. However, it takes time for products to find their way to a market fit. That means it takes time to find out if a product even can succeed. Time means different things to different people. As consultants, 6-8 months is a long time. That’s not that long in the product world except for a few, very fortunate entrepreneurs. Grow quality, not noise. Be patient.
4. Find perspective.
Building a product is a chance to do something for yourself again. Unless you’re a total psychopath though, you’re probably not gonna do this too many times. So, provided #1 above is taken care of, take the time to savor this new adventure – the rough edges, the huge questions, the financial risks. All of it. Extract a fulfilling learning experience and share as much of it as you can with anyone who’s making it possible (like the consulting team funding it!).
5. You’re not a dummy.
Entrepreneurial media and the human foghorns spewing it all over are a big business, and their business is to get your clicks. Most things the media will have you gnawing your nails about today will be trumped by something different tomorrow. That’s how they make the moneyz. Stay on top of trends and insights, sure, but don’t let it drive your business. Your product and your good sense are your most important assets. Not Fast Company.
By Alex Yohn
Nov 17, 2015
We’re excited for Kin’s latest feature, Employee reviews and Objectives, because we need better tools to accommodate the way we do our own reviews.
Kin’s parent company, We Are Mammoth, has been around since 2006. When we hired our first employees, there was no need to formalize the review process with our employees because, frankly, they sat right next to us and we talked all the time.
These days, the broader team (25 folks on three company teams: Kin, We Are Mammoth, DoneDone) is spread throughout 14 states, and it’s harder to make sure we’re doing right by both employees and company to keep everyone rowing in the same direction.
The way we run our employee reviews
We call our reviews “check-ins.” We do them quarterly, and we separate them entirely from compensation reviews, which are scheduled around employee anniversaries.
In addition, at the second and fourth quarter intervals, we do peer reviews – asking the broader team to share feedback on their coworkers based on our companies’ team member values. These are not anonymous – we decided as a company to be transparent with our peer reviews to ensure coworkers get in the habit of providing direct feedback.
Finally, everyone participates in both employee reviews and peer reviews, including us founders. At the end of the year, every employee has had no fewer than 7 opportunities to discuss objectives, compensation, company direction, and manager performance.
Tools we’ve used in the past
The best tools have always been and will always be preparation and respect. Preparation because ad hoc conversations are great, but taking the time to gather feedback, objectives, and next steps are not something thrown together on a whim. Respect because good talent is hard to find and equally as hard to hold on to. We work hard to ensure every team member is listened to and treated individually instead of being jammed into a one-size-fits-all HR process.
In terms of software, we’ve used Small Improvements for years. It’s a solid tool backed by a solid team. But, it’s way too much for us. We base our reviews on objectives and open dialog – we don’t need a huge software platform to manage it. The tool we were using was getting in the way so we’re moving everything over to Kin.
For our peer reviews, we’re in our second year using Google Apps to run the questionnaires, generate reports, and share results. It’s not perfect, but it’s allowed us to adapt software to our process, rather that us molding ourselves around an overly prescriptive tool.
Setting up administratively
Getting 25 people lined up to do check-ins takes a lot of coordination. We have five folks in the managerial role here, but our office manager, Alana, actually does all the scheduling which is a headache for her.
With Kin’s new tools, the workload gets more evenly distributed. Alana knows we do check-ins at the beginning of each quarter, so she’ll use Kin to set up the quarter’s cycle by pairing managers with employees and specifying details such as time frame or process. Once the review cycle is set up, managers are automatically notified to schedule and execute the actual check-in’s with their employees.
Feedback period
Next up is the feedback period. This is an opportunity before the actual meeting for employees and managers to get their feedback put together. Kin’s new tools are a great way to capture notes before, during, and after our check-ins on three primary topics: self-assessment, company feedback, and feedback on managers.
Most of our employee review experience is focused on creating, discussing, and creating next steps for employee objectives. Kin puts all objectives in easy reach – they’re embedded right there in the employee review page to edit and leave notes on.
With this latest release of Kin, we’re also going to be collecting more regular feedback on how we’re doing as managers and as a company, as Kin’s feedback tools are two-way and employees are the best source of suggestions for how we, as employers, can improve.
The meeting
The check-in meeting itself is largely a dialog between employee and manager. I’d say we don’t just sit there and stare at a screen the whole time, but because we’re a distributed team that’s actually the way we do it! Our weapon of choice for one on one meetings is the good old Google Hangout.
The meetings last between 30 and 60 minutes and we don’t over-structure them. Quarterly check-ins are regular enough to feel like natural segues from the last time we caught up, so we start with objectives then naturally turn over to more ad hoc discussion.
Having our prepared notes in Kin right alongside employee objectives is a great way to keep the the conversations focused and on time.
The follow up and sign off
Did I mention next steps? Reviews and objectives are great, but they’re useless without actionable follow up and next steps. Managers are there to help employees stay productive, learning, and contributing. Objectives and their actionable next steps are a primary way to do that, and Kin’s final thoughts and sign-off feature make sure both sides of the table understand and agree on where things are headed. Ka-boom!
Wrap up
Kin’s employee review and objectives features are simple to use for managers and employees, and their administrative tools will save a whole lot of work for our operations team. Just like with Kin’s customers, we’ll see how well the tools do over the next several months and I’ll follow up with any insights I have.
By Alex Yohn
Nov 11, 2015
Kin’s time off display has a brand new look! From your feedback over the past year, it was clear that we could do a much better job of explaining the ins-and-outs of an employee’s time off balance. We’ve just released an update to address many of your wishes.
With this new release, we’ve taken a few big steps with PTO:
- Policy details, balances and requests are broken down in a more accessible way.
- It’s now much easier to view and respond to time off requests.
- For accrual policies, we’ve added a brand new interface for viewing balances over time. Managers and employees alike can now see how balances will change each day, so everyone knows if there’s enough available balance to take that vacation later in the year.
Our previous employee time-off detail page
Our new employee time-off policy page and accrual policy chart
What’s new?
More detailed time off balances
The new employee time off page gives you a more straightforward picture of an employee’s time off balances. You can now see time taken, requested, and approved all on one line.
Here’s a quick look at the numbers:
Upfront Balances
- Available Balance Remaining: The amount of time an employee has available to use for the remainder of the policy period. This subtracts the amount of time requested, approved and taken from the total amount of time given for the policy period. If the available balance shows an asterisk (*), the employee’s balance may include carryover, have been prorated (new hires), and/or been manually adjusted by an HR Manager. Just click the box to view more details.
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
Accrual Balances
- Available as of Today: The amount of time an employee has available today. This subtracts the amount of time requested and taken through today from the total amount of time accrued for the policy period through today. If the available balance shows an asterisk (*), the employee’s balance may include carryover and/or been manually adjusted by an HR Manager. Just click the box to view more details. To see how the available time adjusts throughout the period, read about our new chart display.
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
- Left to Accrue to Date: The amount of time an employee has left to accrue for the remainder of the policy period.
Unlimited Balances
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
Pending, approved, and used-to-date requests with a single click
Need to see all of the requests an employee has entered this period? Now, you can view an employee’s requests in their current policy period by clicking on the Pending Approval, Approved to Date, and Used to Date balance boxes. Here, you’ll see a chronological list of requests and time used. Just click the request to approve, decline, or edit it.
Better policy information
Now, when you hover over the tooltip next to the policy name, you can view a lot more detail about the policy. Renewal dates, carryover policies, balance limits, new employee waiting periods, and work schedule information is readily available by hovering over the tooltip icon.
The old versus new versions of our time-off policy tooltips
Available balances per day on accrual policies
When we originally launched in 2013, our time off charts did not show you how an employee’s balance changed over time for an accrual policy. Last year, we released an update that displayed a table of future available balances. But, it was still missing some key information.
- How much time was carried over from previous policies?
- What day did carryover expire and how much was left?
- When was a manual adjustment made?
- When did someone reach their maximum accrued hours?
Now, we’ve added a brand new chart that breaks down all of this information by month, from the first day an employee was on a policy to the last day of their current policy period. Just click the chart icon to the right of an accrual policy to see the chart.
Next, simply hover over a day to see an employee’s available balance. Cycle between months using the month picker on the right. The chart also includes balance milestones—see when a policy renewed, how much carryover was applied and expired, approved requests, and if any other manual adjustments were made.
You can now use this display to accurately schedule time in the future and know where your employee’s balances will land, along with taking a look back at how their balances changed in the past.
Let us know what you think!
Have any questions or feedback on these updates? We’d love to hear them! Send us a message and we’ll be happy to chat.
By Alex Yohn
Oct 27, 2015
We’re excited to announce Kin’s latest new tool, Employee Reviews. It’ll drastically cut down the time it takes to manage company-wide reviews, and with its flexible, two-way feedback cycle, it facilitates more productive employee reviews, rather than dominating them with overbearing software.
Here’s the thing about employee reviews: most companies do them wrong. The reason? They’re arduous to schedule, and usually end up being jammed into the year’s end, along with salary reviews and holiday parties.
This latest addition to Kin will help our customers get on track by minimizing busy work and ensuring employees are getting the most out of their employer and, likewise, that employers are learning what it takes to build successful workplaces.
Easier scheduling and tracking
One of the biggest barriers to healthy, regular employee reviews is the administrative work that goes into planning and scheduling them.
With Kin’s new features, it’s easy to set up a review for a single employee, or to create a cycle of reviews for the entire company.
Once reviews are in the hands of managers and employees, HR and Operations folk can track their progress to ensure reviews are completed inside of a given timeframe.
Align your team with Employee Objectives
Creating and working toward employee objectives is the most tangible way for employees to stay aligned with where their employer is headed as a company. Kin’s Employee Objectives feature, which was released this past August, makes it easy to manage what’s important, keep progress notes, and create a living archive of everything employees are contributing to the company and their careers.
Two-way feedback on employee, manager, and company
Good feedback is well-rounded feedback, so Kin’s Employee Review tool collects thoughts on more than just employee performance. With manager and company feedback, employers will stay in touch with what they themselves can do to improve the workplace experience.
Get better, together
The fact that we kept Kin’s employee review tools simple means you’ll spend less time noodling around in the browser, and more time creating, sharing, and considering one of the most critical assets your company needs to succeed: good feedback.
