TechCrunch, Fit, Figma, Paths & Planning
A lot has happened since our last post. We got into the Canadian Technology Accelerator Digital program, through which we'll participate in TechCrunch Disrupt 2020. We implemented a beta version of Figma import. And, we've pushed hard on prepping for our upcoming fundraise.
CTA / TechCrunch Distrupt 2020
We have been selected to participate in an amazing program, called the Canadian Technology Accelerator. The CTA “specializes in growing high potential Canadian technology start-ups” and comes with a very high bar for admission. The program started this morning, and we’re really looking forward to extracting as much as possible out of our participation. It culminates in our participation in TechCrunch Disrupt 2020, where we’ll be able to tell our story.
This is flat-out awesome.
Strong Indicators for Product Market Fit
Via Rahul Vorha, founder of Rapportive (acquired by LinkedIn) and Superhuman I stumbled onto Sean Ellis, who ran early growth at Dropbox and Eventbrite. Ellis found that a leading indicator for product market fit is to simply ask your users “How would you feel if you could no longer use Flow?” Companies that had strong traction always exceeded 40%. I figured, let’s run this test through our current paid customers and see where we end up.
Within a day I crafted a survey, built an email campaign, targeted our paid customers, and fired it off. There were 4 questions.
- How would you feel if you could no longer use Flow?
- What type of people do you think would most benefit from Flow?
- What is the main benefit you receive from Flow?
- How can we improve Flow for you?
After an intro email, and a second nudge to those who didn’t initially respond. We received some very promising…
- Very Disappointed – 39%
- Somewhat Disappointed – 55%
- Not Disappointed – 6%
We asked What we also found was that a majority of people in the “Somewhat Disappointed” category suggested improvements for things that were either in Flow but they hadn’t learned that yet (e.g. copy / paste animations), recently released and not yet documented (e.g. path editing), or that are in active development and will be released soon (e.g. sharing tools).
I’m convinced that, with just a little bit of effort, a majority of respondents will tip into the Very Disappointed category.
Figma β
Another big piece of news is that we officially have an unofficial beta for Figma import. Last Friday, I was working on producing a step-by-step doc on how to use this new feature. It’s a beta, and we have to release it soon… but, it’s there, and it works, and it’ll only get better from here on out.
Untethering from Sketch is a massive step for Flow.
Path Editing
We introduced a βeta version of path editing into Flow. It’s slick. It was a lot of work. This was a feature that people have been requesting for quite some time, and now it’s very close to being fully complete.
Here’s a doc we pulled together showing how to work with paths in Flow.
Roadmapping & Financial Planning
In the last few weeks we have been refining our product roadmap, with a vision for 3 years, and a detailed version 18-months out. On top of that, we’ve created a version that ties growth and revenue projections into this plan. Our goal is to find a reasonable balance between what we want to grow to, what’s most likely possible, and what people want to hear.
There’s gold in what we’re doing, it’s just going to take time to get there. We’re crafting an awesome story that’s based in some semblance of reality, with a minimal amount of bullshit.
The goal is to build a successful business, not just ride on hype.
