Product Review: Blind App

We all know the legendary social media products in the market today which occupy our daily life— Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Amazon.com etc. But one product which entered my radar in the last two years has proven to be a unique one with amazing PMF (Product Market Fit) is the Blind app.

Especially during the tumultuous times that we are living in today where companies are laying off employees left and right, Blind has provided a safe space for professionals to talk their heart out, vent their grievances and discuss salary negotiations within their companies and others. The sense of support of it provides is a true triumph of the power of technology to continue adding value to the society at large. I strongly believe that Blind has carved a niche for professional networking despite of the presence of LinkedIn as a behemoth in the market. LinkedIn I believe is a great generalist application for professional networking and job search, but is not tailored to optimize the experience of job seekers and is not a safe space to discuss controversial topics on the minds of users.

As per the Business Insider article here, Blind boasts of 7 Million registered users (MAU/DAU numbers are not clear but this number is impressive as well) across 300K companies. Overall Blind operates by the model of network effects which targets three major persona types (there can be more but this was explicitly clear to me from their app/website) —

• Employees — They not only want to anonymously discuss the state of affairs in their company but can also be interested in finding jobs in other companies and compare their compensation and role against their peers.
• Recruiters — The most clear cut persona of all. There are here to recruit talent and can find the job seekers at the bottom of the funnel for maximum conversion for their job openings.
• Corporate leaders — They can leverage the data at Blind to learning about the trending sentiments of their companies and how they are faring against the competition to help them take better leadership decisions.

Let’s list down the key user benefits / features for each of the personas defined above.

Employees

• Verified users — The users who are able to post their content and engage with the posts in the app are verified via their official email id. However, one can join the platform in read only mode through their personal email id. This verification process helps increase user trust and is a key value proposition of the product.
• Anonymous gossip — Anonymity has its drawbacks but it also allows users to vent out or discuss complex but important topics. Especially in a time when people are living under the trauma and anxiety due to ongoing layoffs in the tech, banking and consulting industry, Blind has become a safe space for professionals to discuss and plan their situations without the fear of judgement. This can really help alleviate mental health issues arising out of the economic crisis we are living in today.
• Ask for referrals / connect for advice — Ability to connect with professionals in current and other companies gives avenues to the employees to get referrals for internal / external jobs.
• Evaluate themselves against their peers within and outside their company — One of the common theme in Blind is that employees can anonymously share and discuss TCs. The larger impact on pay equity must be acknowledged.
• Evaluate the market — Employees can also assess the major themes of discussions across different companies, can know which ones are hiring and in what verticals and also vet their suitability within those companies they are interested in.

Recruiters

Blind provides two categories of recruiting solution based on marketplace and agency model defined in their website as below:

Additionally here are the user benefits from Blind team in their own words on their website —

Corporate leaders

Blind provides a feature to provide company insights which can be handy those in leadership positions and also the recruiters. The describe the following user benefits relative to their competitors:

What doesn’t work or needs improvement

• Loss of data as workers switch their company

Who are the notable competitors

• Grapevine
• Glassdoor
• LinkedIn
• Anonymous social media platforms such as Reddit, Quora etc.
• Job boards such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, BuiltIn etc.