
Ask HN: Feedback on my startup - fananta
The landing page is here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;productmap.co<p>Is the landing page too simple? The concept is to consolidate the way different companies share their product updates (release notes, emails, changelog, etc.)
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hunvreus
\- I'd recommend you look into Amy Hoy's writings, especially about her
"Pain/Dream/Fix" approach to pitching products [1]. Sign up to her newsletter
as well.

\- Colors and logo seem to be inspired from ProductHunt. It's fine to steal
(really), but at least be a tad more creative with the logo.

\- If you're going for a simple page, I wouldn't hesitate to use larger font
sizes.

\- "Designing Web Applications" from Nathan Barry may be a good investment of
money [2]. He actually also took advices from Amy Hoy for his own products
[3].

\- I'd put a human face on this page, maybe of yourself. There are tons of
studies showing that this helps building trust and rapport [4] (especially
useful as it is a product in the making with no users yet).

[1] [https://unicornfree.com/2013/how-i-increased-
conversion-2-4x...](https://unicornfree.com/2013/how-i-increased-
conversion-2-4x-with-better-copywriting)

[2] [http://nathanbarry.com/webapps/](http://nathanbarry.com/webapps/)

[3] [http://nathanbarry.com/step-by-step-landing-page-
copywriting...](http://nathanbarry.com/step-by-step-landing-page-copywriting/)

[4] [https://vwo.com/blog/human-landing-page-increase-
conversion-...](https://vwo.com/blog/human-landing-page-increase-conversion-
rate/)

~~~
fananta
Excellent suggestions, thank you!

Just to note, really didn't use producthunt as an inspiration. Simply tried to
make a "blob" with the letter P in it. Not sure how the colors are similar?

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andrewtian
> Not sure how the colors are similar?

The fact that it does look similar to someone is feedback. Take it how it is,
but at the end of the day someone is going to think it's inspired by
ProductHunt. :)

~~~
fananta
That's fair :)

Was just curious where OP saw red, navy blue, and teal on producthunt.

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ErikVandeWater
Pros: It's pretty and it's simple. Excellent selection of color. Very
likeable.

Cons: Yes it is unclear what you are trying to offer. I'd suggest replacing
the blue rectangles with text of what you imagine the product update timeline
would look like for an example company. Signup page takes a while to load.

~~~
fananta
Appreciate the feedback. I'll be adding a demo to see our live productmap from
there.

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jaisonjustus
I like your page, good minimalism. Also, I like the why you handled branding.
I got a good feel of the talent behind the scene. But there are couple of
things you need to take care. Some are critical too.

The main thing as everyone spotted you required a good short description. It's
better to put a short description just below the message about the problem
that you are trying to solve. for example, if you take basecamp landing page,
they give more focus to the heading - “Work together the easy way”. Just after
that, they had a short description about the problem they solve - “Basecamp’s
unique blend of tools is everything any team needs to stay on the same page
about whatever they’re working on. There’s nothing else like it!”. From this,
I got a gist of what basecamp do.

Once you add the short description, bring the early access button to upfront.
Then it makes sense. It will be like in an order message, short description
and call to action. check this
[http://i.imgur.com/vUxKt5B.png](http://i.imgur.com/vUxKt5B.png) I made small
modification on your web page.

Another thing I like to say is about the timeline. For me, When I saw it in
first glance, I felt it as a screenshot of actual product. But I later got
confused. it seems more like a design that you added for aesthetic because
inside the timeline slice there is no text saying like for example “Release
1.0.5” instead a green rectangle. If it's an actual screenshot make it a bit
more intuitive. It's just a suggestion.

If possible, try to add a bit more drilled down information on page scrolling.
Because sometimes people require a bit more details. for example, you can
refer basecamp website. On the website as you scroll more details information
starts coming and make more sense to the app. Even you are in early access
stage but still you require some more supporting descriptions. Which helps you
to get more clicks from your target audience.

Also, I suggest putting your address/country. Becuase I like to know where are
you from? :). Nice to see a lot of energy. All the best to your team.

Peace

~~~
fananta
Thank you! Super helpful feedback. I'll add a second like explaining the
problem this solves (replacing release notes, changelogs, etc.)

I'm from Toronto :)

~~~
jaisonjustus
Awesome!

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gigamick
I have requested an invitation for both my personal and work email addresses.
I seem to have an account for my personal address but I can't for the life of
me think how this happened. I don't have any emails from you... Really odd?
Anyway, regards the work account - how long till my invitation is actioned.

And no - Homepage isn't too simple. It's great.

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CyrilBoh
Don't know if I'm missing a link somewhere but I really can't find anything
that explains what your product/service is.

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dopamean
This tells me nothing about the product... It looks very clean but I have no
idea if this is something I need and I feel like that information should be
easily attainable from the landing page.

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beiyuame
The landing page should be enough if there were not so many bugs. I don't know
where to contact you directly about bugs!

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isaiahg
I wish there was a bit more information to be honest. Is this a patching
system? Or is it just like an alert system for updates? I'm not really sure
what it is.

~~~
fananta
Sorry, the site is a bit broad at the moment (will fix). It's to post new
features and product updates in one place. The idea is to replace changelogs,
product update emails/blog posts, and release notes.

~~~
bichiliad
Out of curiosity, how would this be different from a blog?

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fananta
There's much less overhead (simple setup, easy posting, chronological
display). I'll also be building out a set of features that help customers
provide feedback.

~~~
isaiahg
There needs to be more information about how it's better and why. Because
there's nothing about it now. Even just a paragraph explaining how it's
different would be nice.

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vecter
Are you targeting B2B or B2C companies? Of those two, B2B sounds like the
obvious choice, but even then, I'm not sure there's enough value for companies
to adopt this. What makes you think companies actually want this and are
willing to pay money for it?

~~~
fananta
I spoke with an admittedly small set of potential companies, both B2B and B2C.
There's enough value in replacing the current way of communicating updates
with customers which involves: newsletters, notifications, emails, blog posts,
release notes, PDFs (B2B mainly), etc.

------
eps
If I understand correctly, this is a beautified Changelog, probably with an
opt-in (email and/or social media) notifications. Does this also provide means
for in-app update checks and downloading updates/binary patches? If it's a Yes
for all of the above, then it'll be what most software development shops
already have in place (and it's trvially simple to set up compared to all
other stuff that they need to do).

I mean - it looks nice, but it doesn't seem to solve any pertinent problems
for its target audience.

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MattBearman
It's a good, clean design, but the page doesn't make it clear what your
product does. To be honest, I'm guessing it's road map / change log as a
service based on the name more than anything. So assuming I'm right in what
productmap does, you've definitely got a good name :)

~~~
fananta
Thank you. That seems to be the feedback here (page isn't clear enough).
Considering you run a service, how do you convey tell your users about new
features in an engaging way?

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MattBearman
At the moment I don't have a defined way of updating users of new features. As
I'm aiming to run BugMuncher as openly and transparently as possible, a public
road map has been on my todo list for quite a while. I'm very interested in
your product, which brings me to my next bit of feedback:

I clicked the 'Get Early Access' button, and it opened what looked like it was
going to be a survey, which put me off. I decided to give you the benefit of
the doubt and clicked the 'Start' button, but my initial instincts where
correct, and there where 8 survey questions to answer. I'll be honest, at that
point I closed the tab and went about my day.

I'm BugMuncher's solo-founder and only employee, so all tasks fall to me, this
makes me really value my time, to the point where those survey questions where
enough to make me move on.

When someone clicks the early access button you should do nothing but capture
their email address, so you can keep them updated and notify when beta access
is granted. Once I've started using your product I'll be much more receptive
to the survey.

~~~
fananta
Appreciate the honesty here! I'll make sure to shorten that down to 1-2 Qs.

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beiyuame
Is productmap not open to everyone now?

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mumino
where is your productmap? I liked idea personally but I would like to see your
own productmap first.

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exolymph
My first reaction: Is this something that companies actually want/need? Have
you validated the market? That's ultimately more important than the v0 landing
page design.

~~~
fananta
You're right. I have talked to a handful (<10) of potential customers already.
They're willing to try it out and going to share with them over the course of
the next week.

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ldpg
willing or eager?

~~~
fananta
about 50-50. had a few new signups in the last couple days that were very
eager.

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ItsMeVlad
I love the design and the "Get early access" button, especially the minimalism
involved in the side bar. However, I do have a question on the site's
functionality, if it's meant to provide a singular place for product updates,
changelogs and emails, how does it differ from Atlassian's JIRA?

~~~
fananta
Thanks :) I think Jira is more for managing the sdlc and an internal tool.

The focus here would be to have an intuitive interface for product updates and
getting feedback on new product decisions.

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ecesena
Clickable link [http://productmap.co](http://productmap.co)

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anthony_franco
Reminds me of Marc's Changelog. Here's a live example:
[http://changelog.nomadlist.com/](http://changelog.nomadlist.com/)

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fananta
Perfect, hadn't come across that before. Would love to exchange thoughts with
the builder.

~~~
tzm
[https://www.producthunt.com/tech/productmap#comment-211473](https://www.producthunt.com/tech/productmap#comment-211473)

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rekoros
This would be awesome.

Heads up though: people will want to embed this on day one.

~~~
fananta
Appreciate the kind comment. Considering going making it free for basic users
and have premium features for $ (like embedding/custom subdomain)

