Hacker News: zacharybk

New comment by zacharybk in "Why most product tours get skipped"

zacharybk — Wed, 06 May 2026 01:55:35 +0000

I 100% agree that no one uses your product to watch a walk-through, they’re there to do a job. The author primarily talks about new user onboarding.

While they do make the point about introducing new features, they don’t address how to make an interrupt-driven announcement successful with existing users.

Has anyone seen a good way to make ongoing update announcements

New comment by zacharybk in "How Google Maps allocates survival across London's restaurants"

zacharybk — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:07:13 +0000

This is incredible, thank you for putting in the time to create it.

New comment by zacharybk in "Show HN: Tinder, but to Decide What to Eat"

zacharybk — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 02:39:07 +0000

That’s fun, what did you do on your first date? Ironically, there was also one called how about we.

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: What are you favorite resources on children's education?"

zacharybk — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 02:56:03 +0000

Taking Cara babies

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: How does HN choose which "hiring" posts to show?"

zacharybk — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 02:00:37 +0000

They’ve also been hiring for a few of the same roles for over a year.

New comment by zacharybk in "So you want to build your own open source chatbot"

zacharybk — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 21:06:21 +0000

Does it use Intercom’s interface or Intercom’s AI to answer questions? There’s a huge difference.

New comment by zacharybk in "So you want to build your own open source chatbot"

zacharybk — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 20:56:12 +0000

I’m curious what you’re using, it sounds awesome!

New comment by zacharybk in "So you want to build your own open source chatbot"

zacharybk — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 20:53:34 +0000

What bot do you use?

New comment by zacharybk in "So you want to build your own open source chatbot"

zacharybk — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 20:51:32 +0000

This is because the tools that CX teams have been provided by companies like Zendesk or Intercom are no more then IFTTT widgets. These tools are rigid and scream RTFM because they’re incapable of taking action or providing anything specialized to your situation.

What you want is to be understood and treated like you’re a human with unique needs. You need someone or something to look up your account data, listen, and to act based on your situation. The current tools were never built for this.

The next generation of these CX tools will deliver this. Here are ways that they will be dramatically better for customers and companies: - They will learn from successful interactions in the past and mirror those outcomes - Handle customer interactions based on company policies such as escalating bugs - They will surface new insights for the company - Won’t hallucinate

When you watch any CX agent do their job you’ll witness them utilizing 4-5 SaaS applications to get a simple answer for a customer. The hurdle to adopt Generative AI in a company will require that companies care to build read/write APIs for these tools to utilize.

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: How do I stop card testing attacks on my Stripe account?"

zacharybk — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 09:50:02 +0000

It would be awesome to hear/see more about the system you built to auto-generate and submit evidence. This is a huge pain for many companies which an open source tool could solve.

New comment by zacharybk in "How a heat pump works"

zacharybk — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 14:20:04 +0000

It partially depends on your climate. I’m in Portland, Maine, so for us, we have a natural gas furnace with radiators, but they’re heavily supplemented by a few heat pumps. For us, the temperature frequently gets very low in the winter, sub 10°F, and this is the point when heat pumps aren’t as efficient. An ideal set up in a small home could be heat pumps running off solar and a woodstove for when it gets really really cold.

New comment by zacharybk in "A Maine community comes together to save a candlepin bowling tradition"

zacharybk — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 13:30:08 +0000

Similar to many others here I grew up with candlepin in Bangor, ME. While there was a tenpin lane, I also never went until post-college.

We actually had my cousin’s birthday party at a candlepin lane call Big20 in Scarborough, ME last week. It’s a great spot!

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: What do I do about LastPass and how do I switch?"

zacharybk — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 14:19:04 +0000

I’ve been using Dashlane for a few years and I’ve been above-average happy. Here’s a blog post on how to make the move: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/transfer-passwords-last... Referral link for Dashlane: https://www.dashlane.com/en/im/jLhbGWdXVSnR

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: Why are some YC startups not posting salary ranges when law requires it?"

zacharybk — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 22:17:54 +0000

I actually heard back from them today! Crazy how long it took them

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: Why are some YC startups not posting salary ranges when law requires it?"

zacharybk — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 20:47:01 +0000

Do they blame this one on the lowest level recruiting employee who “must have forgotten to do their job”? That’s as plausible as what SBF’s defense will be.

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: Why are some YC startups not posting salary ranges when law requires it?"

zacharybk — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 18:00:38 +0000

Different companies clearly have different legal teams giving differing advice. I found this one fascinating:

“If you are a Colorado or New York City resident and this role is a remote role, you can receive additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role, which we will provide upon request. Requests can be submitted here.“

link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOlYgPtpG56uqO0O9j...

When I submitted my information I did not hear back, which does feel like a blatant violation of the law(s)

New comment by zacharybk in "Learn Exponentially"

zacharybk — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 19:55:10 +0000

Is anyone aware of a commercialized app that enables team learning through spaced reputation? Say for a support team learning a new process or skill where the learning can be heavily curated?

Thanks in advance.

New comment by zacharybk in "Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus"

zacharybk — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:40:58 +0000

Slack was, and is, a business tool; It was never intended for communities (though they clearly didn’t discourage this type of usage).

In Lenny’s podcast (link below), you can listen to Slack’s former head of product and growth, Merci Grace, talk about why they never implemented a block feature. The answer, like this 90 day limitation, is obvious once you look at it from the lens of a business tool.

When you mistakenly look at Slack as a community tool, this change is bound to upset you. On a personal level, loss aversion sucks, and I’m sorry to lose all of the slack history that my wife and I had.

https://twitter.com/lennysan/status/1546515666420649984?s=21...

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: What do you use to make headcount planning less painful?"

zacharybk — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 12:04:12 +0000

I’m sure people mean Google Sheets, not Excel, because it’s shareable. Some tips based on my experience: -Search for pre-built sheets to get an idea of how to build things out for your company -Build with ways to easily adjust headcount, salary, start dates -Factor overhead separately from salary -Version control/who’s allowed to edit is important -Know that it won’t go exactly to plan, so don’t worry -Tools like anaplan are just as hard to use as sheets, and cost a lot of money, avoid them for as long as possible

New comment by zacharybk in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2022)"

zacharybk — Mon, 02 May 2022 16:11:25 +0000

Location: Portland, ME Remote: Yes Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybk https://www.zacharybk.com/

Zach here. I'm an experienced Customer Success, Experience, and Support leader in SaaS/Infrastructure and e-commerce. I grew and lead DigitalOcean's Support Team from 2014-19, helping the business grow to ~$250m ARR, while leading multiple functions along the way.

I'm looking for a Business Operations or Customer Success Leadership role at an early-stage company, remote from the US.

Get in touch if you're looking for an experienced leader who can help your business scale.