thanks for the reply, this is now a good guy Mills appreciation thread.
Y'all need a public roadmap and a writer-to-writer beta program.
Above all there needs to be writing about the design of Substack! These threads are great, but they run counter to ambition of the platform in terms of clarity of communication. There's a better way! :)
thanks for the reply, this is now a good guy Mills appreciation thread.
Y'all need a public roadmap and a writer-to-writer beta program.
Above all there needs to be writing about the design of Substack! These threads are great, but they run counter to ambition of the platform in terms of clarity of communication. There's a better way! :)
Haha, "good guy Mills"! I'm telling my family about this!
I love public roadmaps. To be candid, I think we're not quite "settled" enough internally / as a company to get there in the near future. As quickly as Substack-the-platform is changing, so too is Substack-the-company: scaling, experimenting, exploring, bringing in new POVs. Another way to put this: we can't share a public roadmap if we barely have a private one! (I shouldn't exaggerate; we have plans, of course). Basically: we'd love to get here and I think we will someday, but probably not in the next few months.
It looks like Jasmine is following up re: a potential beta program, which we'd *also* love to productize / scale. That one might happen sooner!
To your last point: you and my bosses are in complete agreement that there should be more writing about the design of Substack! The team is full of wonderful writers, like Jasmine, so it can definitely happen. Not to sound like a broken record, but we're just a bit busy at the moment! As we scale and settle, it'll be easier to slot in time for these kinds of very important things, and as someone who's written a lot about design over the years, I can't wait!
Having too many amazing things to build all at once is what my Grandpa would have called a "champagne problem". I have confidence y'all will get it right and get it done in time. Thanks again!
What I mean by this is that in a two-sided marketplace like Substack, you should have your writers operate as public beta testers with a different set of account permissions that allow them to test new features before they are rolled out to the larger substack community. This is a pretty widespread practice for platform companies in my experience, and it allows your most passionate and invested users to invest themselves in improving the platform.
thanks for the reply, this is now a good guy Mills appreciation thread.
Y'all need a public roadmap and a writer-to-writer beta program.
Above all there needs to be writing about the design of Substack! These threads are great, but they run counter to ambition of the platform in terms of clarity of communication. There's a better way! :)
Haha, "good guy Mills"! I'm telling my family about this!
I love public roadmaps. To be candid, I think we're not quite "settled" enough internally / as a company to get there in the near future. As quickly as Substack-the-platform is changing, so too is Substack-the-company: scaling, experimenting, exploring, bringing in new POVs. Another way to put this: we can't share a public roadmap if we barely have a private one! (I shouldn't exaggerate; we have plans, of course). Basically: we'd love to get here and I think we will someday, but probably not in the next few months.
It looks like Jasmine is following up re: a potential beta program, which we'd *also* love to productize / scale. That one might happen sooner!
To your last point: you and my bosses are in complete agreement that there should be more writing about the design of Substack! The team is full of wonderful writers, like Jasmine, so it can definitely happen. Not to sound like a broken record, but we're just a bit busy at the moment! As we scale and settle, it'll be easier to slot in time for these kinds of very important things, and as someone who's written a lot about design over the years, I can't wait!
🙌🏽 🙌🏽 🙌🏽 thank you for honest and clear reply.
Having too many amazing things to build all at once is what my Grandpa would have called a "champagne problem". I have confidence y'all will get it right and get it done in time. Thanks again!
Hi! Can you elaborate on what you mean by a "writer-to-writer beta program"?
Hi Jasmine, pleasure to hear from you.
What I mean by this is that in a two-sided marketplace like Substack, you should have your writers operate as public beta testers with a different set of account permissions that allow them to test new features before they are rolled out to the larger substack community. This is a pretty widespread practice for platform companies in my experience, and it allows your most passionate and invested users to invest themselves in improving the platform.
More questions, hit me up by email: caithrin@caithrin.com cheers
Got it, thanks for clarifying! We're exploring something along those lines & will reach out as it progresses.