#135 - A new community for book lovers!
Announcing our new Mastodon server for book lovers around the world and discussing all of the things we have to do in only two weeks! 😅 😁
#134 - T Minus Four Weeks
The large amount of work left to do in the next four weeks, progress with stats and usability testing, and our upcoming Instagram Book Club session!
#133 - Prizes Outside of the US
Getting in touch with your fave non-US authors and publishers and new stats for owned books!
#132 - Five Stars in the App Stores
Seeking app store reviews from those that enjoy using the app, new fields in the reading preferences survey, and usability testing in progress!
#131 - Improving Our Look and Feel
On our upcoming usability testing, an update on our giveaways platform, and a teaser into the stats developments! 📊
#130 - An Ambitious Quarter
Sharing our ambitious plans for the final quarter of 2022, my conference talk in Hollywood, and next steps for Giveaways.
#129 - Worldwide prizes!
The launch of our Giveaways platform, an emergency wake-up call, improving recommendations, and an upcoming conference talk!
#128 - When "Small" Additions Lead To Big Changes
When working on a few extra features becomes a site-wide redesign, a sneak peek into our upcoming giveaways platform, and a fun upcoming two weeks. 😁
#127 - Advanced Stats
Transitioning Plus to an "advanced stats" package, the launch of language stats, and our upcoming Giveaways beta launch!
#126 - Giveaways!
Our Giveaways Beta Programme, improving the UX around adding books to reading challenges, and a viral tweet!
#125 - Repositioning Plus
Potential upcoming tweaks to our Plus plan, accessibility improvements, and our next Instagram live show!
#124 - What's left for 2022?
Some of our plans for the rest of the year, the new search results dropdown, improved resources for our volunteer librarians, and TikTok buddy reads.
#123 - What about the pageviews?
On our millions of pageviews, reaching a new user signup milestone, a not so nerve-wracking database upgrade, and an upcoming search dropdown.
#122 - Do we talk about Plus enough?
Posting about our paid plan some more, bug fixes, accessibility improvements, a potential mini redesign, and our next user milestone!
#121 - What's this TikTok thing all about then?
Venturing into #BookTok, audiobook tracking and stats, impending work on search and reading challenges, and our Instagram Book Club!
#120 - Stats V3 Soon...?
Looking ahead to upcoming stats updates, larger buddy reads, and an audiobook stats teaser! 👀
#119 - Not A Book
Our upcoming "Not A Book" concept, users being able to add in missing data, and impending work on audiobook tracking and stats.
#118 — Online Events and Giveaways
A fun online event we ran on Twitter the other day, some small product updates, and a trip to meet a friend and colleague... 👀
#117 - "Invisible" Work
What it means when you're focusing on behind-the-scenes improvements, on the road to one million signups, and viewing edition info on the book page.
#116 - 37x Better
On the power of daily marginal improvements, small UX changes with big impact, and delayed customer interview synthesis.
#115 - Sixty Percent
What happened with Early Bird renewals, social media polls, and working on how editions are displayed around the app.
#114 - Stats and Suggestions
The most popular Plus features, the co-founder reunion, impending Early Bird renewals, and the next instalment of our Instagram book club. 📚
#113 - Co-founders Reunited!
Seeing Rob in person once again, the launch of the 2021 Reading Wrap-up, customer interviews, and improving the user experience with book editions.
#112 - Cutting Costs
More efficiently serving our book images, a status update on the end-of-year wrap-up, and starting customer interviews with our Early Bird customers.
#111 - Maximising User Happiness
Changing features to optimise for user happiness, a new user number milestone, and the continual work on the app's performance and stability.
#110 - Made it!
Record visitor numbers, a review against last issue's checklist, and the impending shifting of gears into product polish.
#109 - The Perfect Gift for Book Lovers! 🎁
Gifting StoryGraph Plus, an update on buddy reads, our Instagram Live show with Isabel Allende, and what's on the roadmap for the rest of the year!
#108 - Four Weeks Left...
The plan for the rest of the year, progress on buddy reads, and our new January reading challenge!
#107 - Product Polish
Dreams of making the product even more slick and intuitive, exciting new community features, and our first ever book club!
#106 - Where's your FAQ?
Why we don't have an FAQ, a snazzy new landing page, what we're working on next week, and a call for more volunteers!
#105 - No Strings Attached
The thinking behind our no-strings-attached free trial, an update on a long-running piece of work, a lil' teaser, and a fun weekend of calls!
#104 - Going down the right path?
Reflecting on our upcoming community updates, solved progress tracking bugs, and a mini update on customer interviews!
#103 - Why did you subscribe?
On why users pay for the product, our huge user number milestone, the incoming new version of similar users, and help needed to flesh out buddy reads!
#102 - When Search Disappeared
What happened when our search function suddenly stopped working, an overview of recent stats updates, and what's on the agenda for the next two weeks!
#101 - Quietly Social
An upcoming new social feature, updates to the stats dashboard, and a customer interviewee request!
#100 - A Trip Down Memory Lane...
Celebrating 100 issues by looking back over past highlights, discussing our most exciting feature release yet, and looking ahead on the roadmap.
#99 - Going Viral on TikTok
A midnight phone call, topping the App Store charts, improvements to our Goodreads import, being featured in Bustle, and a request for help!
#98 - Climbing Conversion
Making it more obvious we have a Plus plan, passing a quarter of a million users, a cool media mention, and upcoming features.
#97 - Challenging Amazon in the App Store
Charting alongside Amazon-owned apps in the App Store, an updated similar users algorithm, guidelines for recommendations, and compatibility issues!
#96 - Slow-paced, please!
Some people love a slow-paced book, an online controversy, and planning for upcoming new features!
#95 - Two Point Five
Working with a small team, a user number milestone, a great monthly conversion rate, and machine learning model updates!
#94 - A Nice-to-have Problem?
When your free product satisfies the needs of most customers, more user research, and behind-the-scenes work to make the user experience even better!
#93 - Slow Feedback
What it means when machine learning is a key part of your product, showcasing the redesign, and selling more Plus subscriptions.
#92 - Healthy Habits
Why some people use The StoryGraph every day, a new look and feel for the site coming soon, and why we had a mini spike recently!
#91 - Perhaps We're Not Far Off!
Maybe we're closer to product/market fit than we think. Also, our similar users feature is now live! 🥳
#90 - Product/Market Fit? Still Not Yet!
We've still not reached product/market fit, but we have massively improved our progress tracking. Just one more feature and we'll be fine, right? 😅
#89 - On the roadmap...honest! Part 2
What it's like having a public roadmap, the launch of the "People You Follow" tab, and upcoming enhancements to page stats and progress updates.
#88 - The StoryGraph Plus has landed! 🎉
The Plus plan has launched, alongside our machine learning-powered similar books feature and a public roadmap! 🙌🏾
#87 - Standards and Tradeoffs
Accessibility standards and unintended efficiency tradeoffs, using tech to organise rather than police, and machine learning with millions of books!
#86 - An Extra (100) Pair of Hands
What it's like having a lot more people updating the site, upping the ante on getting Plus out, and what you can expect to see in the product soon!