Show HN: I self learned to code and built a Slack app for team feedback - Kaapi (opens in new tab)

(kaapi.team)

29 pointsadityarao3105y ago17 comments

17 comments

My mood would definitely drop if I have to answer questions about my mood while I am coding. I see this tool as more corporate-jerkery oriented instead of helping to be more productive. And I can't stop thinking this HN entry was kind of forged since the 3 out of 5 cheerful comments here were done by green created-1-hour ago users. But of course, I can be wrong.

yboris5y ago

Great catch on the 3 comments from users created 1 hour ago.

Seems suspicious.

adityarao310OP5y ago

Fair point on the distraction bit, and I hate it too! Kaapi sends two notifications a week and if your Slack notifications are off, you wont get any notification from app too :) Maybe we have some improvement areas on this topic. Will think about it more!

I do disagree on the corporate-jerkery bit. 100% of current users (454 active this week) work in tech startups. Most managers use us to get agenda points for their upcoming 1-on-1s..

On the last bit --> Yup, I sent my weekly newsletter a few minutes ago and did tell users to give us HN feedback on how we can do better! :)

scoutt5y ago

I think that to succeed in your business you should poll on management, because I think every developer on earth would roll eyes (and probably hate you) when proposed insistently* into participating on giving such feedback by some wanky manager.

*should read: "participate or it will impact negatively in your performance review".

> did tell users to give us HN feedback

I am not an admin or police of this place, but be careful because it might be against the guidelines[0].

>> Can I ask people to upvote my submission? >> No...

>> Can I ask people to comment on my submission? >> No....

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

1 more reply

elviz5y ago

Hey, I produced a detailed feedback for your website (incl. video and breakdown). You can see it here:

https://firstimpressions.link/result/kaapi-team

I hope this helps.

adityarao310OP5y ago

Dang this is nice Elviz!

adityarao310OP5y ago

Creator here. I have spent a decade in startups now. Almost always, the best teams had fantastic feedback culture & systems.

So when I learned to code last year, I really wanted to build an app for this :) The Slack app checkins with your team once a week, and collects the answers for you in a simple format. You can even run daily standups! All within Slack.

Had to do some interesting hacks to make a Slack UI - it even has a bar graph using Slack formatting tips :) We have a serverless stack (AWS Lambda) and Python on backend, and Aurora database with a Psql engine for autoscaling.

I really believe that the answer to a good remote culture is surprisingly simple - listen to your people, and take action on the feedback. Trivia nights and Zoom parties come later.

[1] [Our story of bootstrapping Kaap to $1000 MRR](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/hardcore-year-learning-to-code-b...)

[2] [Why we went serverless from the beginning](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/this-is-why-we-went-server-less-...)

[3] [Goal setting in remote teams](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/a-simple-idiot-proof-guide-to-go...)

[4] Why everyone should code(https://www.kaapi.team/blog/everyone-should-learn-code)

puranjay5y ago

Congrats on the launch! Curious about your coding journey. You mentioned that it took you 1.5 years of coding on weekends, but would you also share the courses/tools/communities you used?

veermanhas5y ago

Hey Aditya, Congratulations for the launch. Glad to see you here. Been using Kaapi for a two weeks and have already filled the feedback loop I wasn't able to do for some time. Dead simple to use and works better than calls.

Would love to add custom questions as well.

adityarao310OP5y ago

nice! Yeah we are going to add that ability soon hopefully

travelco5y ago

I see that you only have a Slack app - I am curious why did you start with that platform first?

adityarao310OP5y ago

It was a good MVP to begin with. Slack abstracts away a lot of other head ache for us e.g. we dont have any frontend UI - we just give formatted JSON outputs to Slack API and they parse it for us!

prakharam5y ago

Been using Kaapi for my team for the past few weeks. Great results so far! Highly recommended.

Saajjain5y ago

Great stuff! Signed up for my team.

gehani5y ago

This is an incredible achievement. Been using for a few weeks, and it doesn't feel like the work of a newly minted developer. More power to you!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

17 comments

scoutt5y ago

yboris5y ago

Great catch on the 3 comments from users created 1 hour ago.

Seems suspicious.

adityarao310OP5y ago

I do disagree on the corporate-jerkery bit. 100% of current users (454 active this week) work in tech startups. Most managers use us to get agenda points for their upcoming 1-on-1s..

On the last bit --> Yup, I sent my weekly newsletter a few minutes ago and did tell users to give us HN feedback on how we can do better! :)

scoutt5y ago

*should read: "participate or it will impact negatively in your performance review".

> did tell users to give us HN feedback

I am not an admin or police of this place, but be careful because it might be against the guidelines[0].

>> Can I ask people to upvote my submission? >> No...

>> Can I ask people to comment on my submission? >> No....

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

1 more reply

elviz5y ago

Hey, I produced a detailed feedback for your website (incl. video and breakdown). You can see it here:

https://firstimpressions.link/result/kaapi-team

I hope this helps.

adityarao310OP5y ago

Dang this is nice Elviz!

adityarao310OP5y ago

Creator here. I have spent a decade in startups now. Almost always, the best teams had fantastic feedback culture & systems.

I really believe that the answer to a good remote culture is surprisingly simple - listen to your people, and take action on the feedback. Trivia nights and Zoom parties come later.

[1] [Our story of bootstrapping Kaap to $1000 MRR](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/hardcore-year-learning-to-code-b...)

[2] [Why we went serverless from the beginning](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/this-is-why-we-went-server-less-...)

[3] [Goal setting in remote teams](https://www.kaapi.team/blog/a-simple-idiot-proof-guide-to-go...)

[4] Why everyone should code(https://www.kaapi.team/blog/everyone-should-learn-code)

puranjay5y ago

Congrats on the launch! Curious about your coding journey. You mentioned that it took you 1.5 years of coding on weekends, but would you also share the courses/tools/communities you used?

veermanhas5y ago

Would love to add custom questions as well.

adityarao310OP5y ago

nice! Yeah we are going to add that ability soon hopefully

travelco5y ago

I see that you only have a Slack app - I am curious why did you start with that platform first?

adityarao310OP5y ago

It was a good MVP to begin with. Slack abstracts away a lot of other head ache for us e.g. we dont have any frontend UI - we just give formatted JSON outputs to Slack API and they parse it for us!

prakharam5y ago

Been using Kaapi for my team for the past few weeks. Great results so far! Highly recommended.

Saajjain5y ago

Great stuff! Signed up for my team.

gehani5y ago

This is an incredible achievement. Been using for a few weeks, and it doesn't feel like the work of a newly minted developer. More power to you!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse