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Please help us on our grand launch on Product Hunt

Hi friends, I hope you are having a productive week. 

This week I am knees-deep in the development process, trying to finish some last-minute features before our grand launch on Product Hunt next Tuesday, April 25th, at 12:00 AM PDT (Add to Calendar).

If you have (or don’t mind creating one) a product hunt account, we would appreciate your upvote and support that day. Here is our Product Hunt teaser launch page, and you can click “Notify me” to get notified when we launch on Product Hunt. 

If your timezone works (West Coast in US, Asia, or Europe?) and you can support us for the first two hours (the first 10 minutes are the most essential) of our launch by upvoting, that would be amazing, but if not, that is ok too. I appreciate any support, upvote, or share any time of our launch day and afterward!

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Introducing Typogram Community

While I am finishing up the code, my co-founder released something major: Typogram Community.

Building a community has been on our minds since the beginning. After launching our pre-order last year, it became more apparent that something like a Slack or a Discord community can significantly help. 

How Have We Been Getting Feedback So Far? 

Currently, we get user feedback through the following: 

• Monthly product update emails

• Feedback survey form 

• Bug report form

• Chat widget inside the app

These are super helpful, and we plan to keep using these ways of getting feedback. But while those are super helpful, each has some cons. For example, the monthly product emails feel more for significant updates. It is very formal and official. The feedback survey form is excellent for getting a general feel of the feedback. However, to better understand what the responder is experiencing, I find out more by contacting that person directly and asking them to elaborate to clarify their feedback. This conversation’s current platform is email, which can be easily forgotten and difficult to keep track of sometimes. Lastly, bug reports are great (and a must) but have the same pain point as the feedback form. 

My main issues: email makes feedback asynchronous. Another thing is, compared to a chat system, emails are more formal and official - what if I want to show a mini snippet? What if I want to bounce off some ideas? These were what I was able to do in the chat widget that I enjoyed. Users could quickly share screenshots with me, and I could send a preview/gif of what I am working on or thinking of. Though it is less official than email, it makes sharing more minor announcements and sharing work in progress easy.

Meditating on these pros and cons, in the end, Hua and I liked either a forum or a more chat-like system, where it feels more casual. Ultimately, we chose Discord because it feels easier to get plugins, audio, and videos and even host events while providing a way for members to interact async.

I have a lot of ideas, but so far, we have these channels set up: 

• Landing page critique: for landing/design critique 

• Build in public: Share what you are working on

• Lounge: General life chats

• Design resources: design resources we publish

If you enjoy my newsletter and want to learn more about design, get design feedback on your project, or chat about building in public and learning from each other, feel free to join our discord server. It is free to join and will remain free. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Other Benefits of Discord Community 

I want our Discord to feel like a place you’d like to hang out and co-work, like a Typogram Cafe. Brainstorming for the future, I’m thinking about landing page design critiques and design help sessions. 

Hearing from you 

Is there an event you would like to see in our community?

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See you next week! If you have friends who are interested in founding start-ups, please consider sharing my newsletter with them!