Penn grads create new app that lets you 'Know Your Crew'

Have you ever wondered what three words describe you on the dance floor? Or which of your friends can best fake an accent? Two Penn graduates’ new app lets you find out.

With its wide variety of quirky and comedic questions, Know Your Crew combines the insights of classical psychology and personality tests with the fun of group games in a mobile multiplayer app that lets friends and family — and, starting in early 2016, coworkers — learn more about how they see themselves and each other.

An app for friends by friends, Know Your Crew was founded by Wharton MBA graduate Alison Bloom-Feshbach, with School of Social Policy and Practice graduate Virginia Harr and University of Rhode Island graduate Elisabeth O’Bryon, her two best friends since the ninth grade who share her passion for psychology and personality tests, like the Myers-Briggs.

They noticed that while most of these tests are self-reported, close friends and family knew the nuances in people’s personalities even deeper than tests could gauge.

“We were thinking, ‘What if there was a way where you could almost crowdsource an understanding of your personality from your closest circle?’” Bloom-Feshbach said.

This is how the idea of Know Your Crew was born.

The game, which can be downloaded for free in the App Store and Google Play with various in-app purchases, lets teams of at least three players spin a question wheel or write their own questions to send to their friends. Each person then answers the question, and players guess who said what, earning points for correct answers.

“It’s sort of like Cards Against Humanity but about you and your friends,” Bloom-Feshbach said.

Users can play different categories such as "Hashtag That," where they upload a photo and hashtag it; "Hypothetical," where they answer a fun open-ended question; and "What the Blank," where they complete sentences.

Although the current version is intended just for the average consumer, Bloom-Feshbach says the company’s mission is to ultimately make the app a tool for businesses to help employees learn about teamwork. Currently, the company is working on a new version for business enterprises that will be piloted in the upcoming year. The new version will have entirely new content tailored to enterprises, focusing on building trust, aligned teams and improved performance.

As part of the testing process, Bloom-Feshbach and her crew will send out a survey this week to associates who manage teams, to better understand specific aspects for the enterprise version. They will work with focus groups and other researchers for suggestions for improvement.

While Bloom-Feshbach said that the app appeals to groups across different demographic backgrounds, she added that it has a specific appeal to students.

Apart from letting students connect with friends and family who are far away, the app gives them a way to form meaningful relationships and start deeper conversations with new people.

“I think there’s a lot of tools out there that help people connect in big groups, like Facebook, but this is actually something more intimate that can help you connect with teammates on a project or roommates or your close circle of friends and share in a meaningful way,” Bloom-Feshbach said. “I think that’s very important, especially in that formative time in college.”

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