Killing screenshots, one HYFY at a time
Distributed teams deserve better tools
Our technology firm Kickdrum has been working with hybrid onshore and offshore teams for many years. Our people are distributed geographically and across many time zones, working on very large software projects around the clock.
Most of the work is done by people that are not in the room with you - people who are awake when you are sleeping.
This gap makes it critical to communicate vision, requirements, status and bugs as clearly as possible, or else you’re stuck having to wait until tomorrow to try again.
Things That Don’t Really Work
Here’s a list of things we’ve tried for explaining bugs and requirements to our colleagues around the globe:
- ridiculously detailed software requirements specs (nobody reads these)
- lean user stories (nowhere near enough detail)
- screenshot decks annotated with a few sentences in callouts (too static)
- long chat threads in Skype, HipChat and Slack (missing context and requirements get lost)
- live video conferences (our global internet providers seldom cooperate, not to mention the time zones)
None of the above can replace the simple act of sitting in a room together. However, we just don’t have that luxury, so we decided to invent our own tool for improving team communication — we call it HYFY.
The Principles of HYFY
We set out to design something that is a game-changer for remote team communication.
We needed HYFY to be as powerful as video conferencing but not require everyone to be online at the same time.
- CONTEXT matters most —We must be able to show AND tell as much of an idea as possible in a very short amount of time.
- MOTION enhances understanding — Video with mouse capture is the easiest way to point directly to what’s wrong or show what’s right while moving through all facets of an issue.
- VOICE speeds creation and helps consumption — Talking through an issue verbally avoids delays associated with word-smithing, overly formal language or “writing it up later.” Hearing the author’s own words and tone increases empathy; the ability to replay over and over again ensures understanding.
- SHARING must be fast and simple — Make sharing as simple as copying/pasting a link — anyone on a team can do it on the first try and it’s not painful to repeat many times throughout the day. Also, make sure anyone can view it without needing to install anything.
- INTEGRATE to existing team rooms — Don’t create yet another inbox — instead, make it look and work great in Slack, HipChat, JIRA and anywhere else the team already works.
- THE CLOUD helps all the things — Use the cloud to eliminate traditional video concerns with file size, formats, encoding, storage, sharing and upload.
Welcome to HYFY
Our goal is to make HYFY the simplest way to record your screen & voice and share instantly so the team just “gets it.” With a single click, you can narrate a video story of your work and share it immediately wherever your team works.
HYFY videos go beyond screenshots and text to help you communicate faster and more clearly with today’s distributed teams.
Here is a sample HYFY video to help you get the idea — just click to view:
Getting started
HYFY is a Google Chrome extension that can record your screen and moving mouse pointer while you narrate the action. Simply install the Chrome Extension and activate it by clicking this button in the browser’s toolbar:
Choose tab or desktop
HYFY lets you choose between recording just the current Chrome browser tab or the entire desktop/screen. HYFY remembers your choice for next time.
NOTE: If you choose “Desktop”, you’ll be asked to choose which window or screen (if you have multiple monitors) you want to capture before recording begins. This is really handy if you want to limit what your viewers see.
Then “Start Recording”
Just click the “Start Recording” button and after a 3…2…1… countdown, HYFY will start capturing your screen and voice.
Stop recording
When you’re finished, just click the stop button in the overlay or the extension icon to end the recording.
If you’re not happy with it, you can just click the trash can to discard and try again. If you want to hide the overlay so it doesn’t show up in your video, simply click “HIDE” — it will come back next time.
Share with your team
HYFY immediately provides a shareable link for the video you just created. Simply copy and paste that link into an email, chat or document and share away. Or you can share directly to a HipChat room, JIRA issue or Slack channel.
Watch, replay, re-share
Anyone on your team can view and review a HYFY video on any desktop or mobile device with no software to install. They can then re-share the link with other team members, and so on.
Easy access via your library
HYFY lets you view and manage a library of all your previous recordings, stored conveniently in the cloud. You can see the number of views and re-share any video from here.
Here’s a HYFY video that explains the library in more detail:
Under the hood
HYFY is a Chrome Extension that uses the Native Client (NaCl) to harness the considerable encoding power of your local machine. As soon as you stop recording, HYFY provides a shareable link while it finishes encoding your video and uploads it straight to Amazon Web Services S3 cloud storage.
HipChat integration
We’ve had some early success enabling a rich experience for HipChat groups using their excellent new Connect API. Ask your HipChat admin to enable it today!
Slack integration
You can share HYFY videos with any channel or member on any of your Slack teams. Use the share dialog or just copy/paste the HYFY link. Learn more and view HYFY demo videos at http://www.hyfy.io/slack
JIRA integration
We’ve just released a new JIRA integration that lets you create new issues or update existing issues with HYFY videos. You can even include session/browser/screen information for capturing professional quality defect reports. HYFY detects your required issue fields and presents them so your issue can be complete. Learn more and view HYFY demo videos at http://www.hyfy.io/jira
“Sometimes it’s actually easier to create JIRA issues through HYFY than through JIRA directly” — HYFY beta tester
Record Your Screen & Voice. Share Instantly.
We are excited to share that HYFY is available for Chrome on Mac, PC and Chromebook. Download it today and let us know what you think at support@hyfy.io
What is it good for?
We think HYFY is a great fit for QA, dev and support teams that need a fast and easy way to communicate about bugs and feature requests.
We’ve been using it on large scale software projects for months, and team members report significant time savings right out of the gate.
Here are some other good uses we’ve discovered for HYFY:
- documenting customer complaints, bugs and feature requests
- providing support assistance back to customers
- sharing feedback on a live application or set of comps/screenshots
- narrating a peer deliverable/code review
- recording sprint reviews and status reports
- explaining product roadmaps or demoing competing products
- sending feedback to designer and UX pros
- HOWTOs, walkthroughs, help articles and product demos
- practicing video broadcasting for upcoming demonstrations
- training videos
- collaborative shopping
- task list capture/bookmarking
