#34 - Not A(nother) Social Site

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                            January 27, 2020

                #34 - Not A(nother) Social Site

                        Why the product is moving away from any more social features for now and upcoming product improvements around reading challenges and design.

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Finding Focus

A recurring theme in the stories of the most successful products is that they focused on being really good at only one thing in the early days.

For a while, I've been anxious about adding social features to the site. 

On the other hand, users are starting to see The StoryGraph as the place for recommendations and choosing their next book.

That's our unique selling point.

But we still have a long way to go.

So, rather than getting caught up perfecting features that don't advance what's special about us — commenting, chat, etc. — I've decided to put a hold on social features for the foreseeable future.

A great side effect of this is that The StoryGraph remains an extremely safe space. After reading updates and reviews, readers can choose to hit the heart button, or they can move on. 😏

Last week

One last social feature snuck its way in before the change of direction:

I don't regret adding likes to the News Feed. Seeing who 'liked' what is a great way to round out that experience and help people get to know The StoryGraph's Community better.

We had our first Editors group call of the year. One topic of conversation was getting the product to a point where personal recommendations always arrive within 24 hours. 😬

This will be possible, but only with Rob's help. He's working on it. 😎

We also got a lot of Instagram exposure last week after our account was shared by The Reading Women and our very own Abbie. 😍

I better get a move on! 😅

We gained just under 100 new users, with almost each new user signing up to a reading challenge, and a bunch signing up for more than one!

This week

Three main things:

Completing the end-of-month 1:1 check-ins with the Editors. I'm curious as to their reactions to the latest product news given there was a lot of talk about wanting to be able to comment on reviews in the last group call.

Adding tools to improve discovery with reading challenges. It should be easier to spot if a book is a good contender for a reading challenge you're taking part in.

                         How do I know if this book fits any of the prompts? 🤔

It's about time I started thinking seriously about how to improve the user experience and interface on the site. The plan is for the product to have levelled up in this domain by the end of March.

What I'm reading right now 

I love books on founder stories. Do you have any favourites in this genre?

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. If you know a friend who's an avid mood reader or would enjoy following along with this journey, please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)

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