What is Voohy?
Voohy is a platform for professionals to coach themselves towards career success. It provides a set of tools to help you think about yourself and your career in a better way.
Why make it?
I've spent quite some time in managerial roles (most recently as VP at eyeo), but for quite a long time in my career I've spent time as an individual contributor. At that time I really didn't have the tools nor inclination to think about my career properly. In some ways, I let my career "happen", instead of really taking charge of it.
This changed when I got my first managerial job. I realized that what got me here won't get me to the place I want to be in my career unless I really invest in managing myself and others. I also had to think effectively about other people's careers and had to make decisions that were both smart and kind to them. It was way more complex than what I thought it would be.
It took a long time and a lot of experience, observation, reading, writing, talking and above all, reflection to do it effectively. I wish I had a solution to help me think clearly about my professional life - how to keep track of stakeholders, how to effectively lead, how to effectively advocate for myself in performance reviews, and how to generally think about my career in a more structured manner.
With my time mentoring and coaching people, I've realized that I wasn't the only one. It's still a common problem that almost everyone, especially high-performing people, struggle with.
Often high-performers do well in their current role and then are given additional responsibilities, more pressure, greater complexity, and have to figure out things on their own. This is not just in in the context of managing others, but also managing themselves.
They find themselves not set up for success. Voohy aims to change that.
What problem is it solving?
Voohy provides you tools to rise in your career.
It does so with the point of view that the best way to do that is to become a better professional. Not with tricks, hacks, insider info etc - but to just solidly trying to operate better as a professional.
This means trying to lead better (regardless of whether you are a manager or not), advocate for yourself better, and to reflect better on your work. If you do this well, you give yourself the best chance to rise in your career. Voohy aims to help you with that.
As such, Voohy is opinionated software.
It focusses on developing areas related to structured thinking and emotional regulation. It helps you think with communication skills, emotional intelligence, adaptability, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership.
As you go higher in your career, these things (often called soft skills) start to matter as much, if not more, than simply your hard technical skills.
These are also the parameters people heavily look into when deciding to give you the next big opportunity in your career - whether it's a new a stretch assignment, a new role or a promotion.
People focussed on career growth often try executive or career coaching, reading self-help books, or joining workshops or courses. While human based coaching will always be relevant, and I certainly recommend it for people who can afford it, they are often expensive and you have very limited time with them.
Books are great and often inexpensive, but are usually focussed on a specific topic and are not interactive like an application. It doesn't learn from you and grow better based on your usage of it.
Courses are often valuable, but are often expensive, and are for a limited period only. They are not with you 24x7x365.
Great coaches have a way to have you reflect on problems, so that you can come up with your own solutions organically. This means clients have to invest in not just talking to coaches, but ultimately, on doing some self-reflection on their own. Without that, even human coaching will have limited use.
Voohy is aiming to harness that power of self-reflection and be there for you everyday, at a fraction of the price of human based career coaching or online cohort based courses, and unlike books, it learns from you and becomes better the more you use it. This means that regardless you whether you are privileged enough to afford an expensive resource - you still have access to a world-class resource for self-coaching that will stay with you 24x7x365.
This can help you reflect properly and regularly, help you keep track of important work relationships, help you think about advocating for yourself better in moments that matter (like performance reviews for example) and overall give you a better sense of confidence in operating at your best at work.
Join Us
Voohy comes from the belief that people can operate their best at work through the power of self-reflection. If your thoughts align, and you would like to see how Voohy can help you rise in your career over time, then join the waitlist and try it out. We can't wait to share it with you!
