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Work It, Mom! is three months old today. It might seem silly to celebrate this insignificant milestone (vs. say, we’re a year old!, we’ve reached our 100,000th member profile, we’ve made it on the Today Show! or something equally dramatic) but growing a company is like having a baby - every milestone is significant.
I thought a fun way to celebrate would be to share with you some feedback we’ve heard about Work It, Mom! and to ask you to share your own thoughts and ideas. Feedback and advice is something we eagerly ask for and appreciate as we build our company. As we’ve also discovered, as soon as we launched our beta site we began to get tons of unsolicited feedback - from everyone from our family members, friends, colleagues, business associates, members, bloggers, and pretty much anyone else we’ve come in contact with. We welcome with open arms, but have realized that some feedback can have certain side-effects: it can be brutal, discouraging, and conflicting.
Conflicting feedback is probably the toughest to deal with.
Here are some fun examples:
I think your site looks horrible - it is boring, and not feminine at all.
I love that Work It, Mom! is cleanly designed and is not all girly and cute, like so many other women sites are.
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I think you should feature more articles from experts and less articles written just by moms - who are they to give advice?
I am sick and tired of experts telling me what to do - I have enough guilt already! I want to hear from fellow working moms about how they are dealing with life.
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I come to Work It, Mom! to connect with other moms and talk about my issues as a working mom. I want more community features and ways to connect.
I don’t have time to connect or network with moms online - my life is too busy! Just give me some helpful tips to make my life easier.
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I welcome an opportunity to talk with other working moms about something other than kids and parenting.
I don’t think your site has enough content about kids and parenting.
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Who needs Work It, Mom!? There are tons of other sites where I can go to connect with working moms and read great articles that help me.
I am so excited I found Work It, Mom! As a working mom, I’ve not found many sites where I can talk with fellow working moms, get some helpful advice, and just vent about my life.
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So here’s an idea - as a three-month birthday gift to Work It, Mom! take a minute and share your own reactions, suggestions, and ideas for anything from site design to content that you like, don’t like, or would like to see on Work It, Mom! Be honest, brutal or kind (yes, we mean it!) and know that by sharing your feedback you’re helping us shape Work It, Mom! into a community and resource that works for you!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 8:12 am and is filed under Work It, Mom! Latest.
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July 10th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I love that this is a new website and that we all have the opportunity to contribute and create something of value to us.
I would like to see more effort to include women who are not in careers, but simply working for necessity. I haven’t seen many websites that address the working mother who works in blue or pink collar jobs. I often wonder how you arrange daycare when you work outside the white collar 9 to 5 work day or work shift work.
I would also like to see opportuities for women to women business connections. How can we support each other’s businesses and make them grow?
By the way - I love the colours because they are not typical. The layout is great. I too would love more connection opportunites such as real-time chat, scheduled hosted chats and webcasts and more community building.
Great job! I’m proud to be part of this website.
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Thank you, Trudi - we love having you! (And I check out your magazine all the time!)
We are working hard on more ways for members to connect and your suggestions are great!
–Nataly
July 10th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Ok here are my opinions!
I personally like the clean cut look of the website. It’s not irritatingly distracted from all the ads and colors that some sites display. I also read too much about the ‘expert’ articles (many of which probably don’t even have kids) and it’s such a breath of fresh air to read from actual moms that have tried and true situations. This site doesn’t have to be 100% kids and parenting. What working parent has 100% children on their minds every single moment of every single day with our deadlines and meetings and whatever else we have to accomplish?
My favorite feature, I love how anyone can post an article. You get to know other members better from their Speak It! essays and understand more of where someone may come from if they comment you by reading what they have said in their own articles.
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Marcia - thanks for your feedback re Speak Your Mind! essays. We wanted to test out this idea and were so excited to see all the wonderful articles that members submitted. Based on the feedback we received we’re going to make this a regular bi-weekly feature at Work It, Mom! and will continue to offer some great prizes as incentives! (By the way, if you ever have a topic suggestion, I’d love to hear it!)
–Nataly
July 10th, 2007 at 9:45 am
For once a working mom website that doesn’t focus on working moms in technology! YAAY! Even tho I work in technology, it is nice to interact with moms in other fields.
Also, I’d like to second what Trudi said about moms that work out of necessity in blue/pink collar jobs. Most websites I see are focused on corporate or entreprenuerial careers. Are their women in law enforcement here? What about waitresses and factory workers?
Lastly, I am more than a working mother. I am also the daughter of aging parents, a neighbor in my community, a volunteer at various organizations and I have hobbies! Oh boy do I have hobbies! I would love to hear how other moms are juggling their two primary responsibilities (mom and employee) with all the extras.
Overall, I love the site. Which is why I keep coming back!
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Kathy - my background is also in technology (well, investing in technology), but I never found a great community for moms there - which ones are your favorites? (I am asking because we should partner up with them.)
Can’t wait to start reading your blog!
–Nataly
July 10th, 2007 at 10:05 am
I like the layout and functionality.
re experts versus moms, I say: a little of both is good
re inclusion of parenting tips: I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. As long as it doesn’t get caught up in mommy-bloggery, e.g. the daily stories and pics of your loved ones.
I like the concept of Work It, and I believe that the time has come for a work/life marquis site. The challenge I see is fostering a sense of community, which in turn is a function of traffic. In time, I’m sure both will come. And by community, I mean the conversational feel of a blog like The Juggle. The Juggle does a good job at both fostering community and paying respect to the time demands of working mothers, i.e. the blog entries are brief and engaging.
Best wishes. I think you’re on the ground floor of something great!
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Thank you!
A sense of community is the most important aspect we’re after. Yes, we want to offer great, useful, and practical content to make working moms’ lives easier and more manageable, but we want to build a community most of all and to have a community come up with this type of advice and ideas. (I like the Juggle, by the way, quite a bit!)
–Nataly
July 10th, 2007 at 10:40 am
I’m enjoying being part of this community, and I feel like a real participant - I think that comes from getting into it so early on. I think your blogs cover a great mix of topics, and I’ve become a pretty regular commenter on several of them, which is fun.
I’m also really enjoying the opportunity to contribute content - you might have noticed that in the “Articles” section :-).
I think Trudi makes a great point about reaching out more toward moms who are working primarily because they have to, and not necessarily career-based, since that probably covers a pretty sizable percentage of us overall - that, and working for someone else.
I think the content has good range overall. As far as the “kids and parenting” angle, I’d personally like to see more regarding older children, but that’s mostly because that’s what reflects my life, but I don’t think that material should outweigh anything else. We’re moms, we work, we keep homes, many of us are in relationships (or want to be), we’re trying to have interests and activities and time for ourselves in addition to all that - there’s SO much material for us to talk about!
I’m at a stage in life right now where not many of my off-line friends are working moms, so I haven’t been able to recommend this site nearly as much as I’d like to, but I’m really loving being part of it.
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I have noticed your contributions and they are great! Keep them coming!
Yes, we’re very much focused on being a site where working moms of all types of jobs and careers feel like they belong - if you have suggestions for how we can do this better, please share!
–Nataly
July 10th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time to share this feedback - truly. Keep it coming because what you, our members, think and say is more valuable than any other type of feedback as we work to build Work It, Mom! into a great community and resource for working moms!
July 11th, 2007 at 6:07 am
Congrats on your three month anniversary!
I stumbled upon your blog a couple weeks ago and have found it very interesting. I maintain a work search-related blog, The Daily Machete (http://machete.wildjobsafari.com) and by day work in the HR/placement/career services field. As such, a lot of what you’re writing is relevant to many of my clients and readers.
Thanks for your contribution to the work search field. You’re off to a fantastic start, here! Keep up the good work!
- Mike
P.S. I’m putting you in my blog roll today!
July 11th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Ha! The feedback just goes to show that you can’t please everyone!
Just continue to be who you are and give what you have to give. You’ll attract your sisterhood — others will find their community elsewhere. As the cliche goes, you can’t be all things to all people.
Keep up the great work!
Sarah Zeldman
http://www.SolutionsForBusyMoms.com
July 12th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I was happy to have been invited to view and become a member at workit mom. The only suggestion I have is to try to make the networks a little more active I joined one and it has not had any new postings in awhile. I know this will get better as time moves on. Other than that, I am happy with the way things are, and like reading posts from other moms. I am not an expert and I like hearing the opinions of non-experts like me. You never know what great advice you might get from someone just like you.
Michelle
July 13th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Really like this resource but haven’t had time to explore it fully! I immediately resonated with some of the essays and started to leave a comment, but had to run to a meeting!
Keep up the good work, and I look forward to reading more and making this a regular “break time read”!
July 15th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
KathyHowe, I can take care of all your “daughter of aging parents” needs…