[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":192},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-new-onboarding":3,"related-building-capacities-transparency":79},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorKey":6,"body":7,"category":58,"date":59,"dateFormatted":60,"description":61,"extension":62,"icon":63,"iconColor":63,"imagePath":64,"keywords":65,"meta":69,"navigation":70,"path":71,"readingTime":72,"relatedArticles":73,"seo":76,"stem":77,"__hash__":78},"blog/blog/new-onboarding.md","Getting started should be easy.","steffen",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":54},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,36,39,42,45,48,51],[11,12,13],"p",{},"At Capacities, one of our core philosophies is to build beautiful, simple and elegant software that works out of the box. We hear from users all the time that Capacities “just works.” But what about the users it doesn’t click for straight away?",[11,15,16],{},"We realised our onboarding was one of the biggest areas of potential for us in getting new users to understand Capacities as quickly as possible, and to mitigate for some of our churn reasons. To be fully transparent, our biggest churn reasons at this time are: “I’m not using the app enough” and “it’s too complicated”. We know that with a strong onboarding, we could fix these issues.",[11,18,19],{},"Designing a good onboarding is a game of balance. You don’t want to alienate users who already have a good understanding of software and apps by over-explaining concepts they might be familiar with, but you don’t want to under-explain to new users who might need a bit more help initially. We had a couple goals with this new onboarding flow:",[21,22,23,27,30,33],"ol",{},[24,25,26],"li",{},"Flatten the perceived learning curve.",[24,28,29],{},"Get users into the app as quickly as possible, while providing enough information.",[24,31,32],{},"Get users to engage with the core concepts of Capacities straight away, and help them realise that they don’t need to watch endless tutorials and read all of the documentation to start using Capacities.",[24,34,35],{},"Be fun and exciting!",[11,37,38],{},"We might be biased, but we don’t think Capacities is a complicated app. Quite the contrary. The foundational elements of Capacities (object types and objects, linking your notes, anchoring them through time), are incredibly simple and come naturally to people, because we already think in these terms. The complexity was introduced to us elsewhere by folders and files, and hierarchical organisational systems that aren’t human-friendly. The complexity users feel when trying Capacities for the first time isn’t in Capacities directly, but in the letting go of existing systems they are used to. Ones that are less intuitive, but familiar.",[11,40,41],{},"We wanted the onboarding to reflect this mindset shift directly, which is why we decided to design an interactive onboarding that takes users through the creation of their first object, their first link, and their first daily note where they can see all of the objects they just created. Using the app really is that simple. We hope the onboarding reflects this sentiment.",[11,43,44],{},"We also made sure that users entering the app for the first time after the onboarding are greeted with content they are familiar with (made during the onboarding), as well as some further resources to support them in their first interactions with the app. This way they aren’t entering a fully empty blank canvas, which can feel daunting.",[11,46,47],{},"We want the onboarding to feel exciting, fresh, and a little magical. You are starting a whole new journey with Capacities after all. We wanted to capture this feeling.",[11,49,50],{},"Additionally, we updated our onboarding email series with six daily emails sharing ‘aha moments’ from existing users that explain features that made Capacities click for them, as well as insights from us.",[11,52,53],{},"The new onboarding, coupled with the email series, should have a significant impact on our churn rate and decrease user frustration. It is already live, and we’re really proud of it! It’s an entirely new introduction to Capacities for new users, hopefully one that feels exciting and even a little magic!",{"title":55,"searchDepth":56,"depth":56,"links":57},"",2,[],"team-product","2026-03-25","March 25, 2026","We completely redesigned our onboarding.","md",null,"/blog/new-onboarding-cover.jpg",[66,67,68],"onboarding","app design","customer journey",{},true,"/blog/new-onboarding","5 min",[74,75],"building-capacities","transparency",{"title":5,"description":61},"blog/new-onboarding","Xcl__niBgDBQMEMWpzy2hXIGlhcW5csZJ81WULO98yw",[80,130],{"id":81,"title":82,"authorKey":6,"body":83,"category":58,"date":114,"dateFormatted":115,"description":116,"extension":62,"icon":63,"iconColor":63,"imagePath":117,"keywords":118,"meta":121,"navigation":70,"path":122,"readingTime":123,"relatedArticles":124,"seo":127,"stem":128,"__hash__":129},"blog/blog/building-capacities.md","How we decide which new features to add",{"type":8,"value":84,"toc":112},[85,88,91,94,97,100,103,106,109],[11,86,87],{},"We often get asked how we decide which features we add to @CapacitiesHQ. 🗺️",[11,89,90],{},"Here’s the answer. 👇",[11,92,93],{},"Very important: Every feature starts with a need or problem. There should never be a feature if it’s not solving a real problem. This cannot be stressed enough. Otherwise, you’re building a product with no real value and a lot of clutter.",[11,95,96],{},"We draw most feature inspiration from our community's feedback and by using the product ourselves. This helps us identify problems and friction points that stop users from getting their work done. We sometimes joke that our community is our first employee: a rigorous tester, opinion consolidator, and key source of inspiration.",[11,98,99],{},"Feature requests and explicit product improvements can be added to our feedback board, voted and commented on by other users. We review and cluster all requests and analyze their importance. This helps us to get a better understanding of the different needs and problems of our users.",[11,101,102],{},"In long and intense discussions, we combine all requests, comments, and ideas with our intuition and vision for what Capacities should become. We always radically aim for usefulness and simplicity – Capacities should just work and help, nothing else.",[11,104,105],{},"When features are big and fundamental, we share proposals or plans in our community for feedback. This ensures that we constantly have our users at the table with us. We fine-tune and iterate until we find a draft that fits into the greater picture.",[11,107,108],{},"Then we start creating. After a first draft, we introduce an early version to a small, selected group of alpha testers. In intense and incredibly helpful discussions, we optimize the last 20% in a combined effort. We refine the feature by addressing issues, polishing details, and enhancing interactions.",[11,110,111],{},"After a feature is released to all users, it’s not done. We constantly improve, iterate, and measure how it fits into users' workflows. Every feature is part of a continuous evolution of the overall product. We constantly strive to build a unified and consistent product – a beautiful environment to think and work in: a Studio for your Mind.",{"title":55,"searchDepth":56,"depth":56,"links":113},[],"2024-03-04","Mar 6, 2024","What's our decision making process? Here's the answer.","/blog/building-capacities.jpg",[119,120],"Feature development","Build in public",{},"/blog/building-capacities","2 min",[125,126],"why-the-name-capacities","how-it-started",{"title":82,"description":116},"blog/building-capacities","yUEsybivkdEpilRjL0YjnGhgRSjIYeDYSFuYsPOVPcQ",{"id":131,"title":132,"authorKey":6,"body":133,"category":58,"date":176,"dateFormatted":177,"description":178,"extension":62,"icon":63,"iconColor":63,"imagePath":179,"keywords":180,"meta":183,"navigation":70,"path":184,"readingTime":185,"relatedArticles":186,"seo":189,"stem":190,"__hash__":191},"blog/blog/transparency.md","Why we are as transparent as possible",{"type":8,"value":134,"toc":174},[135,138,141,144,147,150,153,156],[11,136,137],{},"Just last week, we published our latest \"What's next\" article and received a lot of positive feedback on our general transparency. Here's why we try to be as transparent as possible.",[11,139,140],{},"For us, there are four big reasons.",[11,142,143],{},"First, it's fair. If I were a Capacities user, I'd want to know it, too. Capacities is a tool you work with every day. You trust us with your content and rely on it to get work done. You have all the right to know which direction this tool is going, why we focus on some things and not others, who we collaborate with, who's working on Capacities, and so on. By being transparent, we try to answer these questions as best we can.",[11,145,146],{},"Second, it helps you to make the best decision possible. Capacities is not the tool for everyone, and we don't want to persuade you to believe that. There might be some short-term gains for us as a company by making users believe stuff that might not come true. We are 100% convinced that this will backfire in the long run. Sharing how we think about topics and being honest about evolving our thoughts will make sure that there's no mismatch between what's going to happen and what you think what's going to happen. And it helps you find out if Capacities works for you.",[11,148,149],{},"Third, it's by far the best way to create the best Capacities possible. Our \"What's next\" articles are based on hundreds if not thousands of user comments and ideas mixed with our ideas and vision. If our perception is wrong, users in our community will let us know. So even before committing to a topic or idea, we already got the feedback, and we can adjust without losing much time and resources.",[11,151,152],{},"Forth, we can do it. Nothing, and nobody is preventing us from sharing it. There's no secret plan or hidden incentives we have to follow. Capacities is 100% owned by us. There's no outside influence that requires us to trade long-term goals and our vision for short-term interests.",[11,154,155],{},"And if you're curious, here's how we try to be as transparent as possible:",[157,158,159,162,165,168,171],"ul",{},[24,160,161],{},"We regularly share our \"What's next\" articles outlining our short- to long-term roadmap, including the reasoning behind it.",[24,163,164],{},"We share roadmaps and planned features in the docs so you can better understand what to expect.",[24,166,167],{},"A lot of ideas and feature requests get shared on our feedback board. With pinned comments, we try to be precise about our plans and thoughts regarding these feature requests. We also communicate when features are not planned for the near-term future.",[24,169,170],{},"Many questions about features and the future of Capacities get asked in our community. We try to be as responsive as possible or share overall thoughts in articles and our roadmap.",[24,172,173],{},"We write about it on our blog. We create blog posts on many topics, including articles on how we operate, how our company is structured, and how we develop Capacities.",{"title":55,"searchDepth":56,"depth":56,"links":175},[],"2024-10-02","October 2, 2024","We're very public about our roadmap, ideas, and plans. Here's why.","/blog/transparency.jpg",[181,182,75],"startups","product development",{},"/blog/transparency","4 min",[187,188,74],"what-if-capacities-was-gone-tomorrow","why-offline-first",{"title":132,"description":178},"blog/transparency","lC4f9OaPkKfBNxMljOmPVDsfhzjn0U2uUHt8lwaQ76k",1775572834729]