#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!
#85 - See you in two weeks!
The results of the "newsletter frequency" survey, the responsibilities of our Librarians, and a brief update on our upcoming Similar Books feature.
#84 - How often should I write these?
Seeking your feedback on newsletter frequency, and an update on editions, our volunteer librarian programme, and last night's live Instagram show!
#83 - Launched! 🎉
How our launch went — the good and the not so good — and what's next! Another launch, of course. 😅
#82 - Behind Schedule
We're running out of time to do everything we want to for launch, but...there's still a lot of time left! 😅
#81 - Two Launches
The second 'product' we'll be launching in February and the social media love and excitement we've received over the January launch!
#80 - Secret, Internal Deadlines
A secret launch date, an update on our two big projects, and another feature that needs rethinking.
#79 - From Early Adopters to Mainstream
(Potentially) Breaking up with your early adopters, fixing the new recommendations page, and big, scary tasks still outstanding for launch!
#78 - One Month To Go!
It's surprisingly calm at TSG's HQ given how much we still have to do. Oh, and we have a new recommendations page! 😁
#77 - Why Did You Buy?
Customer research findings from Early Bird Plus customers, app and reading challenge updates, and looking ahead to a new recommendations page!
#76 - One-Stop Shop
Protecting our simplicity whilst making our users happy, reading challenges and the behind-the-scenes database migration, and upcoming design tweaks!
#75 - I Just Don't Like It
Deciding on where best to invest energy, our updated stats section, and our next round of customer interviews.
#74 - What Works For Now
Two exciting product updates: one very much behind-the-scenes and another eagerly-awaited one. Also — we don't have much time until launch. 😅
#73 - When Stats Get Personal
Learning about our community members' lives via our stats, figuring out a colour scheme for 60 genres, and an exciting upcoming, long-awaited feature!
#72 - People Can Wait
On not getting stressed around replying immediately to customer support emails, an update on editions and new tracking features, and news of Stats V2!
#71 - The StoryGraph Plus
We have a paid plan available for pre-order! Find out how it's being received and how figuring out the editions/ISBN thing is our next big project!
#70 - So...when are you launching?
Discussing when we hope to launch and some of the things you can expect to see in the product by that time!
#69 - On the roadmap...honest!
The challenges of an always-changing roadmap, the sort options on the Browse All Books page, and upcoming work on duplicates and language preferences.
#68 - All In One
Findings from the first round of my customer interviews, some more StoryGraph social media attention, and why this week is called "The 3 B's"!
#67 - Indirectly Trending
Discussing our little burst of Twitter fame, revamping the revamped recommendations page, customer research, and maintenance tasks!
#66 - Every day? Why?
Announcing our new, highly-personalised, recommendations search engine and discussing the importance of knowing who your most engaged users are!
#65 - The Benefits of Beta
Discussing the reception to our app and the upcoming work on content warnings. And, what exactly is "Your StoryGraph"? 🤔 😁
#64 - Problematic Language
On handling complaints about language on the site and introducing a first draft of our mobile app... 👀
#63 - Money, Money, Money... Part 2
How is The StoryGraph funded? How will it make money? Will there be ads? Also — why did we get a spike on Saturday? So many questions! All answered. 😁
#62 - PMF? Not yet!
How we know we haven't yet reached product/market fit and how the site seems to be struggling a little with all the new books! 😅
#61 - This is probably really difficult...
On not filtering your feedback and feature requests based on perceived difficulty, 60k new books on the filter menu, and an upcoming OFY update! 🤓
#60 - Since you're seeking feedback...
On continually looking for user feedback and announcing our new homepage! 🤩
#59 - Fast Enough?
On whether The StoryGraph is moving too slowly, site upgrades past and future, and the relaunch of the Librarian volunteer programme!
#58 - Recommending or Sorting or Both?
On making "Ordered for you" clearer, and how importing books and finding your friends on the site is now much easier. Oh, and we passed 30k users! 🎉
#57 - Caught up!
We've fully caught up! This issue explains how we did that and what's up next this week, including a feature a lot of y'all have been asking for! 😇
#56 - The Alternative
On focusing on our core differentiator and upcoming improvements to search. Also, an update on how we're catching up with our new, large user base!
#55 - The StoryGraph Explodes!
How a series of tweets at the beginning of last week led to wild user growth and how we're still playing catch-up! 😅
#54 - A Path To Monies?
We discuss a potential business model as well as upcoming improvements to "Ordered for you" and the filter menu. Also — we hit 1k users! 🎉
#53 - When Your Customers Sell For You
Customers pitching the product of their own accord and working away behind-the-scenes to make the site work better and faster!
#52 - Happy One Year Anniversary, Newsletter! 🎉
Reflecting on a year of newsletters and an update on our plan to spread the word about the site more widely!
#51 - Read With Us!
Join in with today's May Bank Holiday Readathon! Also, exciting news: Goodreads imports are now completely self-service from within the website! 🥳
#50 - Putting TSG Out There
Is it time to start engaging with discussions about there being no great Goodreads alternative? Also — "Ordered for you" is now available for all! 🎉
#49 - A Little More Polish
When the rough edges on a beta site start to grow in importance. Also, news of "Ordered for you" feedback and developments!
#48 - Please, Tell Us!
On the necessity of us hearing all feedback and pain points from our users, the release of monthly stats, and fine-tuning "Ordered for you"
#47 - Reading At Home
A feature that's helping during lockdown, another feature that we're furiously iterating on, and a final feature that's hopefully coming this week!
#46 - Goodbye, Personal Recommendations!
Why we've finally shut down our personal recommendation service and what we're focusing on instead.
#45 - Fighting Behaviour
On whether we keep our personal recommendation service around and our new "Recommended for you" sorting tool.