userium

Will do, thanks!

Creator here. This is not an exhaustive list, I'm happy to add more on it, if you have suggestions!

Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career. Our goal is to decrease that number and help companies increase diversity of their workforce.

Nice! My first impression of the website was positive. Some quick thoughts:

- I would like to see how the bottle (and maybe also packaging) looks like in real life before ordering.

- I would prefer to fill in my personal hair profile before entering my full name and email address.

This was very useful, thanks! We will try to improve our message, figure out how to provide more value for our users and recruiters, and in the long run explore how to build a valuable brand.

Many thanks, Aaron!

Thanks again Aaron. Here are my last questions. :)

1) What are your biggest worries about companies focused on hiring? What type of problems do you foresee for us in the future?

2) What was your initial reaction when visiting our website? Was there something that annoyed or puzzled you?

Thanks Aaron, yes our goal is to 1) help people get jobs and 2) help companies to increase diversity of their workforce.

Another issue is how to retain users. Once a user finds a new job, and is not looking for a new one for a while, how do we keep them coming back to the website? I guess with great career content? Do you have any other ideas on how to keep users coming back?

Hi Michael and Aaron,

I'm the co-founder of StayInTech.com (https://stayintech.com/), a career website for women in tech.

We built this website for skilled female engineers looking for a new job, but we seem to appeal to a wider audience than we initially planned. We have lots of male users, and also women who are just starting out in tech. Is that a problem, does it matter in the long run? Should we address our target audience more clearly?

I agree that side projects are the future of marketing, and many companies are already doing this. A while ago I made a list of companies that have created inspiring side projects for marketing purposes: https://www.stayintech.com/info/sideprojects

The emails were sent via Mailchimp, the open rate was gotten from Mailchimp's reports (analytics).

Good idea!

It's no longer live on that domain. The checklist is nowadays here: https://stayintech.com/info/UX

True, I should have perhaps looked at cheaper options. Dynos were cheaper on most months, that example was the 'worst' month. The wildcard SSL certificate for subdomains was a bit expensive.

It's no longer live on that domain. I should have maybe titled my post 'post-mortem of a side project'? :) The checklist is nowadays here: https://stayintech.com/info/UX and the Wayback machine holds a copy of the old website.

Author here, happy to get feedback!

Author here, happy to get feedback!

Based on discussions we have had with women in tech at https://keepwomen.com, it's not just sexism, but many women leave tech due to working conditions (low salary, no advancement), work-life balance (too much travelling, commuting), or the company environment (poor cultural "fit"). Some solutions for retaining women in tech are e.g. flexible working hours, personal development opportunities and workforce diversity.

Also, after getting girls interested in programming, one of the problems is how to keep them in tech. Currently, over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, which is more than double the quit rate for men (https://keepwomen.com/info/aboutus).

On the bottom of the page there is a link to a bibliography. You are right about the SSL.

Thank you, good ideas!

Good idea, any suggestions on what to add on the security list? SSL, ...

"..this is a good check list if it's a 'side company'"

That's actually a better term! It makes a difference whether you are building the side project as a creative hobby (to develop new skills etc.) or in the hopes of turning it into a startup.

"It's a prototype, something I did for fun."

The goal of your side project makes a difference I suppose. People build side projects, either as creative hobbies, or some in the hopes of turning them into startups.

Nice site btw.! :)

Thank you. Please let me know if you have any ideas how to make it even better! :)

Yes, capital letters.

Good idea, not all the things are equal priority. They do require different amounts of effort.

That's true, not all these things are equal priority. I do agree that launching quickly is important to start getting feedback from the users. But by fixing obvious issues, you get more meaningful feedback from the users.

I think that by fixing common problems before launching, you get more meaningful feedback later from your users. They won't concentrate on the obvious problems that could have easily been fixed.

The creator of keepwomen.com here, if anybody wants to discuss? I'm happy to hear about improvement ideas for the website!

Thanks for your post, sounds familiar. We have (http://keepwomen.com/) talked to lots of women, who left or were thinking about leaving tech, and many of them mentioned how hard it is to "fit in". Many of whom ended up changing jobs eventually found a better cultural fit in another tech company and enjoyed their job more.