MyPunchblog

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

July Fourth is less than two weeks away but have no fear — that’s plenty of time to plan a fabulous July 4th party! Whether you plan to host a cookout, picnic, pool party or fireworks watch party, MyPunchbowl has everything you need to plan your party from start to finish.

Sign in to your MyPunchbowl account to get started and design your own invitations using our special July 4th designs that include new patriotic papers and ribbons in addition to new font options.

Next, setup your potluck list using our new and improved Potluck feature. Specify if you want certain July 4th favorites like potato salad, pasta salad, burgers, hot dogs, and fruit salad, or leave the categories (appetizers, sides, dessert, etc.) open for your guests to fill in as they sign up to bring items.

Spread the word about your July 4th bash not only via email but also through your social networks. MyPunchbowl invitations can be shared via Facebook as well as Twitter. This is a great way to tell friends about your event, especially if you don’t have your guests’ email addresses readily available.

Once you’ve sent your invitations and organized your potluck, get ideas for your July 4th party from our resident expert Penelope. She offers up great ideas for patriotic playlists, decorations, and more!

There’s also still time to order personalized candy, yard signs, t-shirts, and other customized printed products to make your event that much more special.

So what are you waiting for? Plan your July 4th party today!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

In my role at MyPunchbowl I think a lot about our brand. Two of the major elements of our brand that I focus on are our messaging (how we talk about ourselves–in our ads, on our site, in the press) and our visual identity (logos, colors, fonts, imagery, etc).

When I joined MyPunchbowl there was already an established logo and fonts. Since September we’ve been transitioning our color palette on our site to more subtle colors. The logos on the left below represent our earlier web/logo colors (darker blue), while the ones on the right show our current colors (lighter blue):

While we think the site looks great with the newer, softer color palette, our logo doesn’t necessarily stand out for other purposes, such as in ads. What’s the right approach here? Do we go with one color or the other, or is it possible to have multiple colors (or shades) of our logo without diluting our brand? Let us know your thoughts and which one you like best.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

As a CEO of a startup, I believe it’s really important to stop what you are doing and take some time out to say “thank you” to your employees. After all, they work long hours and are often under a deadline. So how do you show your appreciation?

What I like to do is pick an afternoon to take the team out to lunch and then choose an activity together. In the past, I’ve taken the team to an IMAX movie (dinosaurs) and we’ve also carved pumpkins during the fall. These days always make for great memories, and they help bring the team together.

This past Friday, I gathered everyone in the office for a quick impromptu meeting in the morning. I told them how much I appreciated how hard everyone had been working — and I announced that it was “Summer Day.” We closed the office at noon, and I took the team to have lunch (at a great Asian restaurant in Natick). After lunch, I arranged to have a group brewing session at a local “brew your own beer” place. We had a great time.

For those of you who haven’t taken the time recently to show your team how much you appreciate them, allow me to provide you with a few benefits of planning an afternoon out of the office:

1. There is no better way for team members to get to know each other than in a non-work situation. It fosters team unity that lasts.
2. An activity out of the office provides a shared experience that will be remembered for years to come.
3. Invariably, humor will come from these events — and that’s a great antidote to relieving some everyday stress.
4. A small investment in time and money will pay back many times over. Employees who love to work at the company are priceless.
5. It’s a great way to enforce that your company believes in a healthy work/life balance.

We had a great time brewing beer together, and we’re all looking forward to bottling and tasting our creation in a few weeks (that will happen outside of work hours). Here’s a great shot of a few of our employees working together to brew the perfect beer.

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

As i mentioned in a previous post, we’ve made some great enhancements to the Dashboard page in your account. I’d like to highlight another change we made to the way your events are presented and sorted.

In the old Dashboard we had 4 separate areas where we listed events: My Current events, My Past events, Events I’m Invited to, and Past Events I’m invited to.

The system made sense but it seemed like too many ‘buckets’. When we designed the new dashboard we took a more simple approach. Now there are just two areas where your events are listed: My Events and Archived events.

My Events lists all events that you are planning or invited to in chronological order. You can delete or archive an event using the Event Options dropdown. To view your archived events, click Archived Events (you can even un-archive them if you want).

We think it’s an improvement. What do you think?

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

I had a thought earlier today: Do we really need office phones anymore? These days most business communication is done via email. I know I personally prefer email over the phone for several reasons:

• I can respond whenever I want to. If it’s something urgent I can address it as soon as it comes into my inbox. If it doesn’t need immediate attention, I can focus on other priorities until I’m ready to take action.
• Some people are just very hard to reach by phone so unless you want to leave a voicemail (which will likely go unanswered), email is the best way to get in front of them.
• I like the “paper trail” that comes with using email. If you’re organized like me, email is a great way to keep track of important information.
• We can now video chat in our email (Google’s gchat), which makes communicating with remote coworkers much easier.
• I don’t like getting calls from sales people. I know it’s their job and I appreciate that, but in most cases I’m not interested and it just takes up my time. I read every email that comes into my inbox so email is a much better way to get in touch with me.

The irony here is that while my preferred communication style is email, when I first started at MyPunchbowl I made a big deal about needing a phone line. The reason is there are still those occasions when you just need to pick up the phone and call someone:

• While a lot of people out there claim to read every email, they certainly do not respond to all of them. Calling to follow-up about something is sometimes the only way to get the attention of busy people.
• Other people and companies continue to rely on phones as a means of doing business. We had an instance at MyPunchbowl where another company needed to call and speak to someone in our office in order to verify that we existed!
• Phone communication is a good way to build relationships — if you’re able to get through!

What is your preference? Do you think we need office phones? Does it make a difference depending on industry or job type? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

Last week, I wrote about how I receive a lot of resumes. In my blog post, I implored potential employees to create a one-page resume. I’ve gotten a fair amount of feedback about this blog post. In general, most people agreed with me that a one-page resume is sufficient — especially for jobs at a startup.

Today, I’d like to talk about another phenomenon that I see all too often in my inbox: potential job candidates that send me their resume with an email that says “resume attached.”  Our job postings always say something to the effect of “Please send a *one page* resume, quick impressions of the site, and brief introductory email to…” Even with this very clear set of instructions, each time we post a position I get a handful of emails where the applicant only writes “resume attached.” No introductory email, no impressions of the site, no nothing. Only “resume attached.”

Here’s what’s particularly puzzling about this phenomenon: I’ve actually opened a few of the resumes, and once in a while I see a decent candidate. Yet if the candidate didn’t bother spending the time to write an introductory email, I know they are not going to be the right kind of employee for Punchbowl. We want to hire people who pay close attention to details and care about first impressions.

I decided to write this blog post so that I could send it to anyone who sends me an email that only says “resume attached.”  If you are one of these people, please reconsider your approach. You might be a great candidate for Punchbowl Software, but we’re never going to find out unless you put your first foot forward in a way that shows us that you care. Please don’t bother sending an email that only says “resume attached.” If you don’t care enough to spend the time, than neither do we.

By the way… we are currently hiring great Ruby on Rails developers. If you’re interested in applying for the position, here’s the Ruby on Rails job description. We look forward to reading your resume — and your introductory email.

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

Last week I wrote about the new and improved Dashboard that was introduced with our last release. This week I’m happy to highlight another totally revamped feature on MyPunchbowl: the Potluck list.

Again we incorporated user feedback as well as some exciting new design ideas of our own to make a flexible, powerful and useful Potluck system. We spent many hours going over use-case scenarios, debating architecture, and pounding out all the details. In the end we think that work payed off.

The Potluck feature is too big to fit on this page, but I’ll give you a teaser image below. To get the full effect, sign in to your account, click into an event and go to the Potluck page.

Here are some highlights:

• “Open” items: Instead of requiring the host to specify items and quantities, they can simply indicate that they need 4 side dishes and allow the guests to fill in the specifics of what they’re bringing. (see above)
• Host control: One thing we heard form our hosts is that they wanted more control to manage who’s bringing what, make changes if needed, or choose an item on behalf of a guest. You spoke, we listened. The host has full control over their Potluck list
• Flexibility: Hosts can enter their own categories, enter items with unlimited quantity, allow guests to add their own items, add a note to each item, and more. Even with this flexibility, the interface is quite easy to use.
• Prettiness: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the new Potluck page just looks great! Props to Devin on fun icons and cool colors.

Sign in to your account and check it out!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

On Wednesday, Sean wrote about how we just unveiled new updates to our Dashboard page and that we incorporated a lot of feedback from our users. There are currently several ways that users provide us with feedback. Sometimes they email us, other times they respond to our surveys, and some post to our User Forums.

Our User Forums are relatively new so I just wanted to share the benefits of sharing your feedback via our forums.

1. Chances are you’re not the only one who has a particular comment or suggestion. If you post your feedback on the forums, we can get a dialogue going amongst our users which can only enhance our ability to look at the suggestion from several different angles.
2. Our email accounts and survey data are read by specific individuals within the company. While we do share feedback with the team, it would be great for our entire team to be able to get a pulse on customer feedback whenever they want to by viewing the forums.
3. It’s completely anonymous. All you need to do is create a username (handle) and password to be able to post to the forums. Speak freely!

So, do you have any feedback about MyPunchbowl? Post it to our User Forums. We’ll definitely read it.

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

In the latest update to the site we’ve given the Dashboard page a significant upgrade. The new design incorporates a lot of user feedback as well as some new ideas that we had. One of the areas that we’re particularly excited about is how we display events in your dashboard. Here’s an example of what an active event that you’re hosting might look like:

Here are some highlights:

• Quick Links: A dynamic list of links to the most common things you might want to do in the planning process. Just click a quick link and go right to the page you want
• Event Status: At-a-glance status of where you are in the planning process, including a link to the next thing you want to do
• RSVP Status: A quick summary of your RSVPs. This was a top user request!
• Event Options: Click this dropdown to perform tasks like adding a co-host or copying your event.
• Archiving (in event options): Take control of the events that are displayed in your dashboard by archiving events you hosted or were invited to that you no longer want to see. Don’t worry, they’ll always be accessible in the “Archived events” section.

Sign in to your account and check it out!

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

I get a lot of resumes. At any one time, we are advertising for at least a few open positions at Punchbowl Software. Most recently, we have been seeking a full-time Director of Business Development, and an additional senior Ruby on Rails engineer to add to our development team.

In every job posting, we always include the following line: “Send a *one page* resume, quick impressions of the site, and brief introductory email to jobs at punchbowlsoftware.com.” Note that the phrase “one page” has asterisks. Sometimes we’ll even bold “one page” to make it stand out even more.

On an average day, I’ll receive 15-20 resumes in my inbox. And like this morning, the vast majority of the emails are from people who send me a multi-page resume. In most of the cases, the same people send me a form letter email (something that they wrote once and send to every job posting). Why do they even bother? Do they think this is going to land them the opportunity to interview at Punchbowl? The instructions we provide are clear, succinct, and should take the average person no more than 30 minutes. Is that too much to ask?

I’ve been criticized in the past for asking people for a one-page resume. I’m often told that there is no way to fit their vast experience on a single page. So why do I want a one-page resume? Here are a ten reasons:

1. Your resume is your first chance to market yourself to me. I believe that quality over quantity is more important.
2. Our job description includes very specific instructions. If you can’t follow these instructions, how are you going to be as an employee?
3. One of the most important qualities in any employee is the ability to be succinct. If you can’t do it on a resume, how are you going to do it when we are sitting in meeting at 6pm on a Tuesday evening and everyone wants to go home?
4. A one-page resume is sufficient to tell me the relevant experience you’ve had in the last 10 years. Believe me, I have a resume that could fill up 3 pages too.
5. I don’t care what job you held in 1985 (or even 1995). It’s not relevant to a consumer internet startup in 2009. Just tell me what you have done over the last 10 years. That’s sufficient.
6. I don’t care that you were a waitress, firefighter, volunteer or private detective. We are a consumer internet company. Tell me about your relevant experience.
7. I don’t care what you did in high school.
8. I don’t believe that you are “the best”, “the most” or “the missing piece to your organization.” The more over the top you are, the less I believe you.
9. Spare me the 12 bullets under each part of your resume. Give me 3-5 bullets of your most important accomplishments for each relevant position.
10. Please don’t list every educational certificate you have ever received in your life. Your weekend marketing seminar does not make you a marketing guru.

If I’ve sent this post to you, it’s likely because you just sent me a multi-page resume — and you completely ignored the instructions in the job description. If you want our consideration for the position, please send me a one-page resume.

My guess is that 50% of the people that read this post won’t bother spending the time to send me a one-page resume. That’s ok — you’re probably not the right fit for our organization anyway. For those who do choose to send me a one-page resume, it does not guarantee that you are going to be asked in for an interview. At the end of the day, your relevant experience is what matters the most.

I hope this post is useful for those who really want to become a part of Punchbowl Software. And for those who feel the need to send me an angry rant: I welcome your email. I always find them amusing.