Duuoo helps improve your 1-on-1’s with your team

BetaList features the newest startups. Today, we take a closer look at Duuoo, a tool that helps managers lead happy teams. Submit your startup to get featured.

What is Duuoo and how did it start?

Duuoo which gives managers the foundation they need to lead happy teams. It makes you a better manager by embracing real human connection.

We combine the virtual and physical worlds through our Slack assistant that facilitates 1-on-1 sessions between manager and employee. We guide you before, after and under the session. Preparation and talking points are handled through our Conversation Engine™ that understands the context and needs of each employee.

Our mission is to build a tool that will augment managers by facilitating human interaction at scale, providing managers with training and recommendations necessary to unlock the true value of each employee.

Can you talk a little bit more about the challenges distributed companies face these days?

We are focusing on both distributed and non-distributed teams. What we have found from our customer discovery is that a lot of managers are in fact not very good at managing. 70% of people leave their manager, not their job. Scary statistics – especially because the effect of this is a high employee turnover, which is a very costly affair.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

According to a CAP study [PDF] the cost of replacing a $40k employee is $8,000.

Why is this? Because most managers are promoted for their technical skills, not their leadership abilities. Managing is often seen as a ‘soft’ skill which is hard to quantify and therefore improve. With Duuoo we hope to help managers become better by offering them a ‘helping hand’.

All of these problems are 5x’ed in distributed teams. Less communication, no ability to read body language, no watercooler etc. Managing people working remote is a much harder task and something that we really can help improve with Duuoo.

Are there any concrete examples you can give on how Duuoo has helped managers?

The combination of auto-scheduling and talking points just removes so much friction for the manager.

One of our first beta customers is the CEO of a startup with 33 employees. He has always done 1-on-1’s with his team, but on a much more ad-hoc basis. This lead to many conversations with outspoken employees and less with those who are more introverted by nature.

By using Duuoo, and putting a framework on top of his activities, he now has a much more structured ‘auto-pilot’ approach – he makes sure he meets everyone, asks the right questions and enter action items into the system so he has a history.

One of the insights he had was from an otherwise quiet employee. After talking for a bit and creating rapport with the employee he confessed that he thought a particular feature she was building was a waste of time and that it did not fit into the vision of the company. The CEO brought this up in a separate meeting. It was decided that the feature should not be a priority, which turned out saving the company a lot of cash and making the employee feel heard. A win-win!

What’s the long-term vision for Duuoo?

To help companies become people-first workplaces, by giving managers the tools they need to lead happy teams.

Visit http://duuoo.io to learn more.