Ask HN : What is your feedback on our site's new name and landing page?
5 comments
First off, I think your product looks and sounds great!
Whenever somebody posts a request like yours on HN, I always go to the link right away, so as not to be influenced by your HN description. Then I read your description, and it is amazing how often the description on HN is different from what the website says. Yours is a perfect example of this.
Your whole description of a "Knowledge Management tool and Collaboration Platform..." is a horrible way to describe what you're doing. It's full of a bunch of buzzwords, and I assume most people wouldn't know what you're talking about, but you've done quite a good job on your website of describing the product, so stick with one message.
Another reason to go with the messaging on your website is that a 'knowledge management tool and collaboration platform' (said in your most serious voice) limits your market to professionals only, when there is no reason for that. If your massive market ends up being 25-35 year old women planning their weddings, go with it. So don't overly define your product in the early stages if you can get away with it, and in this case I think you can.
Ok, now to ACTUALLY review your website.
"Your Group Content in One Place, Organized" - that's a great start, it's simple and well defined. However, I think you could improve it a bit and make it more compelling. Your name "GemShelf" can be easily forgotten, but I think what you're trying to say is "You have a bunch of content you love and want to share. These are your Gems, GemShelf lets you organize and share your Gems".
The only reason I made the connection with Gems is because you've asked us for input. Without that, I probably wouldn't have made the connection, and therefore your name may be forgotten.
"Collect, organize and share the content that matters most to you and your group." - again, really well done. My only concern is the "group" thing, and I wonder if people will try to figure out what their "group" is, and if they have a "group". It might be better to just cut it out after "matters most to you", as you've already said 'share' which implies they'll be sharing with somebody. But maybe that just needs to continue to be tweaked. But again, great start.
"GemShelf is a single, easy to use, hub for your group’s content. Once you use GemShelf, you’ll quickly realize that there is no better way to:" - huh? 'single', as opposed to? Less is always more, so if any word here isn't needed, ditch it. I'd just say "Once you use GemShelf..."
"an Evernote Alternative, " by saying you're an evernote alternative (which you may be), I think you're casting yourself in a light that many people won't understand. Evernote is big, but not that big, and I suspect more people have heard of it than have actually used it, and used it well. This might not be necessary, again, it's putting yourself in a bucket where I don't think it is needed. You've done a good job describing yourself to this point, I never would have compared you to Evernote up to then. "Group Evernote Alternative" and then you did it again.
SCREENSHOTS!!! Fantastico!! Oh please tell me that is not what your site looks like!? You've done so well up to this point, I worry that I look at that screenshot and it looks so busy. You were going to make this simple! I know it's probably a work in progress, but go with the feature limited screenshot if you have one. It could be just that I'm looking at a minified version of the site, maybe it's fine in full detail, but it just looks busy and a bit tired with the gradients and such.
Hope this is helpful, seems like a cool product. Best of luck.
Whenever somebody posts a request like yours on HN, I always go to the link right away, so as not to be influenced by your HN description. Then I read your description, and it is amazing how often the description on HN is different from what the website says. Yours is a perfect example of this.
Your whole description of a "Knowledge Management tool and Collaboration Platform..." is a horrible way to describe what you're doing. It's full of a bunch of buzzwords, and I assume most people wouldn't know what you're talking about, but you've done quite a good job on your website of describing the product, so stick with one message.
Another reason to go with the messaging on your website is that a 'knowledge management tool and collaboration platform' (said in your most serious voice) limits your market to professionals only, when there is no reason for that. If your massive market ends up being 25-35 year old women planning their weddings, go with it. So don't overly define your product in the early stages if you can get away with it, and in this case I think you can.
Ok, now to ACTUALLY review your website.
"Your Group Content in One Place, Organized" - that's a great start, it's simple and well defined. However, I think you could improve it a bit and make it more compelling. Your name "GemShelf" can be easily forgotten, but I think what you're trying to say is "You have a bunch of content you love and want to share. These are your Gems, GemShelf lets you organize and share your Gems".
The only reason I made the connection with Gems is because you've asked us for input. Without that, I probably wouldn't have made the connection, and therefore your name may be forgotten.
"Collect, organize and share the content that matters most to you and your group." - again, really well done. My only concern is the "group" thing, and I wonder if people will try to figure out what their "group" is, and if they have a "group". It might be better to just cut it out after "matters most to you", as you've already said 'share' which implies they'll be sharing with somebody. But maybe that just needs to continue to be tweaked. But again, great start.
"GemShelf is a single, easy to use, hub for your group’s content. Once you use GemShelf, you’ll quickly realize that there is no better way to:" - huh? 'single', as opposed to? Less is always more, so if any word here isn't needed, ditch it. I'd just say "Once you use GemShelf..."
"an Evernote Alternative, " by saying you're an evernote alternative (which you may be), I think you're casting yourself in a light that many people won't understand. Evernote is big, but not that big, and I suspect more people have heard of it than have actually used it, and used it well. This might not be necessary, again, it's putting yourself in a bucket where I don't think it is needed. You've done a good job describing yourself to this point, I never would have compared you to Evernote up to then. "Group Evernote Alternative" and then you did it again.
SCREENSHOTS!!! Fantastico!! Oh please tell me that is not what your site looks like!? You've done so well up to this point, I worry that I look at that screenshot and it looks so busy. You were going to make this simple! I know it's probably a work in progress, but go with the feature limited screenshot if you have one. It could be just that I'm looking at a minified version of the site, maybe it's fine in full detail, but it just looks busy and a bit tired with the gradients and such.
Hope this is helpful, seems like a cool product. Best of luck.
I'll support the contrary viewpoint that you should limit your audience.
You can't have a new product targeting both professionals and consumers. These are very widely different markets, that buy differently, that you'll reach differently, for which you need different messaging, features etc.
For a new product, the more targeted and focused your audience, the better.
"for professionals" for example is far from targeted enough.
"for growing startups" is a more focused audience: they tend to hang out at the same place (online on forums or offline in conferences for example) they exhibit some of the same buying behaviors, they have similar needs, etc.
Not saying "growing startups" is a good target for OP's product but just using it as an illustration.
You can't have a new product targeting both professionals and consumers. These are very widely different markets, that buy differently, that you'll reach differently, for which you need different messaging, features etc.
For a new product, the more targeted and focused your audience, the better.
"for professionals" for example is far from targeted enough.
"for growing startups" is a more focused audience: they tend to hang out at the same place (online on forums or offline in conferences for example) they exhibit some of the same buying behaviors, they have similar needs, etc.
Not saying "growing startups" is a good target for OP's product but just using it as an illustration.
Thanks a ton for taking the time.
We're working on something revolutionary in the learning space and if our wording makes us sound like just another cloud platform then we clearly need to go back to the messaging drawing board.
But does the actual problem that we're addressing on the landing page make sense to you?
But does the actual problem that we're addressing on the landing page make sense to you?
Seconded. You guys both make great points, but I agree that if you're going to err one way or the other, err in the direction of the smaller niche, not away from it.
"for professionals" is both not specific enough and also far too buzz-wordy. A good market for this might be help desks, or small startups that offer round-the-clock support. Round-the-clock support usually means at least one person per shift, and small startups don't generally have a lot of overlap there -- so they have an increased need for quickly findable knowledge, which means that they need knowledge management.
Target that, or something like it. If you can niche further, do it -- if that niche gets traction, expand it slightly. If it doesn't, change it altogether. Expansion can occur in the form of a new site with different branding or subsites.
There are plenty of startups that make accounting software, but of the ones I've worked with, the one killing it the most is the one that makes accounting software "for landscaping companies". If you're a landscaping company, looking at a hundred different accounting packages, your choices are now limited to the best known (e.g., Quickbooks), and/or the ones most specifically targeted to you. You won't win that comparison every time, but you'd rather be in the top 3 90% of the time than in the top 100 100% of the time.
"for professionals" is both not specific enough and also far too buzz-wordy. A good market for this might be help desks, or small startups that offer round-the-clock support. Round-the-clock support usually means at least one person per shift, and small startups don't generally have a lot of overlap there -- so they have an increased need for quickly findable knowledge, which means that they need knowledge management.
Target that, or something like it. If you can niche further, do it -- if that niche gets traction, expand it slightly. If it doesn't, change it altogether. Expansion can occur in the form of a new site with different branding or subsites.
There are plenty of startups that make accounting software, but of the ones I've worked with, the one killing it the most is the one that makes accounting software "for landscaping companies". If you're a landscaping company, looking at a hundred different accounting packages, your choices are now limited to the best known (e.g., Quickbooks), and/or the ones most specifically targeted to you. You won't win that comparison every time, but you'd rather be in the top 3 90% of the time than in the top 100 100% of the time.
Thank you very much for a very comprehensive review. I guess you're right, 'knowledge management tool' and 'collaboration tool' are pretty much overused. To your point on the target market- could you offer some additional insight after reading the following:
So our platform is more of a library where you could "shelf" the experiences and things of interest that are relevant to you and your group in one place where you can easily find them again later. The things that you could capture would include; pictures from trips, an interesting article, a chapter from a book, lists of movies, things to do, places to go, products you'd like to buy, presentations from events, audio files from events, research, etc. It's like your own customized local library.
I like your landing page, but the four topics you speak about have no visuals to provide context. The picture at the bottom looks just like Google drive. I think you should stop describing and showing what everyone else does, and focus on what you do. Just show what features you made to improve the experience and reduce the hassle.
The only thing your landing page would need to be to get sign ups is to state and show how your are different. I don't need to switch to your service to do the three things you have listed. I still think there is great room for improvement in online storage, and hope you can build something that comes closer to that.
The only thing your landing page would need to be to get sign ups is to state and show how your are different. I don't need to switch to your service to do the three things you have listed. I still think there is great room for improvement in online storage, and hope you can build something that comes closer to that.
Thanks a lot for the messaging advice. As we iterate our design and messaging we will certainly take it to heart.
Only one suggestion: Fonts matter. Change those fonts
So what do say about the landing page and the new name?