#60 - Since you're seeking feedback...

Beta equals feedback, right?

We get a lot of messages that open with a line similar to: "Since you're in beta and seeking feedback now...".

It's as if to say: "I wouldn't have sent this if the product had officially launched, given you'd be unlikely to be listening to, or needing any, feedback at that point."

And that sentiment couldn't be further from the truth!

The StoryGraph will never be 'finished'. It'll be continually evolving. We will always seek feedback and use customer insights to inform what we need to work on next.

One of our frequent suggestions is allowing users to mark books as read without requiring a finish date. Maybe it's time I addressed this... 👀

The fact that we're in beta now is more of an expectation-management device: "hey, we're here, but we're still rough around the edges and figuring things out. Bear with us!" 😅

Officially launching will signal: "we're now confident in our core product and we're presenting that to you with an increased level of finesse and polish." 😎

But there'll always be room to improve the product.

And for us to stay exciting and valuable to our users, it's imperative that we stay aware of what those ways are and that we're executing them as quickly as possible. 🤓

Last week

For most of the week, The StoryGraph's homepage looked like this:

As of about 5 hours ago, the homepage now looks like this:

This is meant to make finding a book on The StoryGraph a more fun, yet straightforward, experience!

The page showcases three of your top ten "Ordered for you" books, a random selection of books from your To-Read Pile, and some of the books that have been recently added or updated on the site. 🤩

For each section, you can click through to explore further and then filter down the respective list to find your perfect match.

Personal Recommendations are your very top "Ordered for you" books. The number you have depends on how many high-quality matches we've found based on your preferences.

This week

A lot of it will be spent hearing what people think of the new homepage and addressing any pain points. We've got a call with some Editors mid-week and it'll be interesting to see what some of our oldest users make of this change!

Depending on how it's received will indicate whether it's full steam ahead on redesigning the filter menus or whether I need to go back to the drawing board!

Will it be one filter menu to rule them all or does each list require different options? 🤔

What I'm reading right now

I've been wanting to read this for the longest time and I'm so excited to get going!

Are you an N.K. Jemisin fan?

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. If you know a friend 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 beta site yet? Give it a go today!