#160 - Realising the Mission

#160

        December 4, 2023

#160 - Realising the Mission
A review that reminded me of a four-year-old piece of paper, readalongs are finally live, and the three focal points for the next two weeks! 📚 💬

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#160 | 4 December 2023

Realising the Mission

A couple weeks ago, a user submitted this review on the Google Play Store:

It was the first sentence that stuck out to me because it reminded me of our official mission statement, which we don't really publicise.

I dug out the four-year-old piece of paper from when I first wrote it down:

We exist to enhance the lives of avid readers everywhere and to inspire non-readers to discover the joy of reading.

It was a cool moment to reflect on the fact that, at least for some avid readers around the world, we've realised the mission! And, we often hear from people who got back into reading after discovering the app. 🥰

It's hard to read, but the three sections at the bottom, titled "Core Values", say:

Mission-driven: Whatever we do should reflect our mission statement. Does it enhance the lives of avid readers? Does it inspire budding readers?

Customer-first: We focus on listening to our customers and letting them guide the direction of the product.

Continuous Improvement: We're striving to continuously improve our people, product, and processes. We regularly seek feedback, reflect, and iterate.

And I'm so proud to say that we've stuck to this so far and plan to do so indefinitely! 😃

Since last time...

Our readalongs feature, where up to 1000 people can read a book together, is finally live! 🥳

Here are some screenshots from The StoryGraph's first official one:

We've also got a live readalongs page where users can look for ones to join:

To find out more, check out the most recent changelog post on our roadmap!

In other news, as part of the upcoming recommendations overhaul, for the private Admins-only beta, we added the concept of "Reference reads" to the preferences survey:

This is so users no longer need to fill out a free-text box listing their favourite themes, topics, and tropes in order to get high-quality recommendations, though this option will still be available as part of a new "Advanced Configuration" section.

Next two weeks

Three key things:

1. Book Clubs

2. Barcode Scanner: Main search and Owned Books options

3. Giveaways: In-app digital and audio prize delivery

And then a bunch of other things that need to be out before the end of the year. 😅

What I'm reading

I'm reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern for our readalong. I had planned to say "click to join", but we're filled up! Do periodically check the readalongs page though. One or two spots open up now and again. 👀 

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. Know somebody who's an avid reader or would enjoy following along with this journey? Please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)

Haven't tried The StoryGraph yet? Check it out today!

Love the app? Consider upgrading to our Plus plan!

Want to volunteer? Apply to be a Librarian!

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