HN Explorer

Ask HN: Should I continue working on this?

8 points by hschool ↗ HN
I have been working on http://www.phoneinterviewme.com/. Its a tool to help developers prepare for phone interviews. The way it works is you sign up and pick a time to be called. You get a call on your phone and the automated call asks you questions similar to what you might get during an actual interview. Once the call is over, you can go back and listen to how you did during the interview.

I got some people to sign up. I wanted to speak with some of the users to get their feedback, but none of the users that signed up replied to my email. This gave me the impression that it was not a helpful tool to begin with. I even offered to do free mock interviews, but none of the users that signed up were interested.

I recently came across https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6389293 and it seems a lot of developers suffer from freezing up during interviews. Would a tool like this help? Should I continue working on it?

14 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 23.7 ms ] thread
nodata
> but none of the users that signed up replied to my email

From how many people?

hschool
I sent an email to around 30 people. I have been following the lean startup advice of getting feedback from users to develop the product. I was about to abandon developing since I couldn't even get them to talk to me for about 20 minutes.
nodata
I don't think no replies from 30 people is unexpected - unless you made it clear that you would be contacting them for feedback when they signed up. I'd probably shoot them a personal one line e-mail asking them one more time.
ada1981
Can you build feedback into the app from the start? This sounds like a good idea but you will have to market it. You might try having people agree to a follow up call after the interview to get feedback from them before they do the interview.

Do you have their phone numbers? Call them directly. Your email might have gone to the promotions tab... I wouldn't give up so quickly.

hschool
I have their email addresses. I offered to do free mock up interviews for them, but no one was interested. It could be that they didn't need the service and were looking to use it once it became available.
georgecmu
This doesn't sound like a useful service. Problems that people have with interviewing on the phone are not that they can't hear the question that's being asked. They mostly stem from the fact that interaction space with the interviewer is so much more limited.

Your service does not simulate a phone interview -- there's no ability for your automated service to interpret and judge responses and to provide feedback.

I suggest you pivot into setting up mock interviews between developers. They can interview each other getting valuable practice and then rate each other on interview skills on both sides of the fence; your value is in - setting up developers with each other and tracking their info/scores if they do more than one interview - providing interview scripts and questions to guide them

hschool
You are right. Since its an automated system, you can't get follow up questions. You can only practice by replying to a script. I believe this is the biggest drawback with my approach. I was thinking of it as a way to build your confidence by actually hearing yourself on the phone after the interview.

I like the idea of having developers interview each other. Thanks!

ada1981
Also - your landing page could use some work. It's not that clear what you are offering - the image is not really useful. I'd use a headline like "Who else wants to effortlessly ace their next phone interview?" Then something like "never freeze up again, sign up for a free 30 minute prep interview for developers and get domain specific questions and a detailed review."

On the sign up, let them pay $30 (or whatever) for access to unlimited calls, 100% refund if they don't get a job in 90 days, and have the option to get the call for FREE if they agree to a post interview debrief with you about the service (or even an automated form response).

You can also cross sell resume services, tips and coaching, all sorts of things.

hschool
Thanks for your feedback. I will work on it.
1123581321
I had this idea awhile back and did some mock interviews manually on Fiverr to see what demand was like. The only interested people were young developers with heavy accents and were concerned about being understood by the interviewer. I decided to pursue a different idea, but I think there is a market.
cprncus
You should expand the logic to allow the user to press buttons to change the "mode" of interviewer instantly. Say they start off with "Standard", and the voice utters the, "Tell me what your greatest weakness is?", etc.

Then the user presses the 7 key. This puts the interviewer in "ill mode", where they start coughing and wheezing a lot into the mouthpiece. The voice becomes nasal and garbled, and the interviewer takes up a lot of the interview complaining.

The user then presses *9 and puts the interviewer into bizarre mode. He suddenly says, "Just who do you think you are? This is my bat, my ball, and my field, and I make the rules when I have the bat. My bat." The interviewer than starts singing "Danny Boy" and then moaning, almost imperceptibly.

AznHisoka
I'd pay $1000 for that killer feature. OP, take note.
shawnreilly
I would recommend getting some in-person customer validation. Since your customers are developers, I would goto the local Tech Meetups and talk with other developers about your product and the pain point you're solving. Performing the customer validation face to face will probably make the interaction more genuine, and you'll probably get more feedback. It's sad to say, but sometimes the virtual feedback process just does not work out, not enough incentive for the customer to invest the time to provide feedback. Good luck!