[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":198},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-new-vs-existing":3,"related-building-capacities-how-we-developed-tables":63},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorKey":6,"body":7,"category":42,"date":43,"dateFormatted":44,"description":45,"extension":46,"icon":47,"iconColor":47,"imagePath":48,"keywords":49,"meta":53,"navigation":54,"path":55,"readingTime":56,"relatedArticles":57,"seo":60,"stem":61,"__hash__":62},"blog/blog/new-vs-existing.md","New vs. existing features","michael",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":38},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,26,29,32,35],[11,12,13],"p",{},"This is one of the most difficult questions in product development. Here's how we think about it at Capacities, plus one super important lesson at the end. 👇",[11,15,16],{},"Generally speaking, it's a decision between attracting new users vs. respecting existing users. In other words: short-term attractiveness vs. long-term usage.\nThe longer users have been using your product the more they will appreciate the improvement of existing features. If they are still using it, it means that these features are valuable to them and improvements will be very welcome.",[11,18,19],{},"New users, however, will first look at the feature set in the big picture. They are not sold on your product yet and will go from big to small: They look at the high-level functionality and features first before paying too much attention to the smaller details. Of course, the overall impression of the quality and snappiness will play a role as well, but in a subtler way.",[11,21,22],{},[23,24,25],"strong",{},"We try to strike a 50/50-balance between the two",[11,27,28],{},"We think about what features to add very carefully. We only add things that solve real problems and bring value to our users. Nevertheless, we have a long list of new features that will make our app much better and more powerful.",[11,30,31],{},"These new features create excitement and can make your product part of the conversation. It will attract new users who are curious to try out this new feature. Attracting new users and growth is important to running a profitable business and getting more resources to build an even better product.",[11,33,34],{},"But we also want to respect all our existing users and want our tool to be a long-term companion. We have a very strong commitment to continuous product improvements and always include them on our product roadmap. This will make our users satisfied in the long run and in turn, make the business and the growth more sustainable.",[11,36,37],{},"At the end, you should always keep this in mind: Whenever you are adding new features, it is extremely important to integrate them with all existing features deeply. That's what will make your app stand out and bring additional value to the users – a unique combination of features that work together seamlessly. Because for just the feature itself, they could find another app. I will talk about this in more detail in another post.",{"title":39,"searchDepth":40,"depth":40,"links":41},"",2,[],"team-product","2024-05-10","May 10, 2024","How do you balance adding new features vs improving existing ones?","md",null,"/blog/new-vs-existing.jpg",[50,51,52],"product","features","tradeoff",{},true,"/blog/new-vs-existing","5 min",[58,59],"building-capacities","how-we-developed-tables",{"title":5,"description":45},"blog/new-vs-existing","r3xokgfB5EB9XWV25nMGzdG8N58PoAo-cpmCxoh-K3k",[64,115],{"id":65,"title":66,"authorKey":67,"body":68,"category":42,"date":99,"dateFormatted":100,"description":101,"extension":46,"icon":47,"iconColor":47,"imagePath":102,"keywords":103,"meta":106,"navigation":54,"path":107,"readingTime":108,"relatedArticles":109,"seo":112,"stem":113,"__hash__":114},"blog/blog/building-capacities.md","How we decide which new features to add","steffen",{"type":8,"value":69,"toc":97},[70,73,76,79,82,85,88,91,94],[11,71,72],{},"We often get asked how we decide which features we add to @CapacitiesHQ. 🗺️",[11,74,75],{},"Here’s the answer. 👇",[11,77,78],{},"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.",[11,80,81],{},"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.",[11,83,84],{},"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.",[11,86,87],{},"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.",[11,89,90],{},"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.",[11,92,93],{},"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.",[11,95,96],{},"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":39,"searchDepth":40,"depth":40,"links":98},[],"2024-03-04","Mar 6, 2024","What's our decision making process? Here's the answer.","/blog/building-capacities.jpg",[104,105],"Feature development","Build in public",{},"/blog/building-capacities","2 min",[110,111],"why-the-name-capacities","how-it-started",{"title":66,"description":101},"blog/building-capacities","yUEsybivkdEpilRjL0YjnGhgRSjIYeDYSFuYsPOVPcQ",{"id":116,"title":117,"authorKey":6,"body":118,"category":185,"date":186,"dateFormatted":187,"description":188,"extension":46,"icon":47,"iconColor":47,"imagePath":189,"keywords":190,"meta":192,"navigation":54,"path":193,"readingTime":108,"relatedArticles":194,"seo":195,"stem":196,"__hash__":197},"blog/blog/how-we-developed-tables.md","How we developed tables in Capacities",{"type":8,"value":119,"toc":181},[120,123,128,131,159,162,166,169,172],[11,121,122],{},"Recently, we launched tables in Capacities. It's a major addition to our app, and we developed the whole feature in just a couple of weeks. I wanted to share a little bit about the process and why we think it's one of the best table implementations in any note-taking app.",[124,125,127],"h2",{"id":126},"figuring-out-what-to-build","Figuring out what to build",[11,129,130],{},"From the beginning, we wanted it to stand out from table implementations in other note-taking apps while making no compromise on the UI/UX side of things. So these were our requirements:",[132,133,134,141,147,153],"ul",{},[135,136,137,140],"li",{},[23,138,139],{},"A super nice UI/UX:"," keyboard accessibility, many shortcuts, using patterns already familiar to our users.\nMaking them pretty and well-formatted: Supporting a variety of formatting options and styles that allow users to make beautiful and useful",[135,142,143,146],{},[23,144,145],{},"Deep integration into the app:"," part of PDF export, rich-text in table cells, seamless copy and paste, linking to any content from within table cells, saving tables as objects, interaction with the AI assistant, familiar formatting options, export to CSV, reusing UI patterns our users already know, saving important tables as objects. For example, the table in this screenshot was generated by our AI assistant in the app.",[135,148,149,152],{},[23,150,151],{},"A powerful extra feature:"," We added formulas like in Excel to make it stand out from other note-taking apps. It allows for a whole range of new use cases. While this will never replace a tool like excel, it is very useful for doing some calculations and the fly and have them right inside your note-taking app. This also works great as a \"Pro\" feature.",[135,154,155,158],{},[23,156,157],{},"Being versatile:"," Having a flexible data model that is not too rigid and structured. Supporting simple inline tables for layout purposes all the way to tables-as-objects that users can open in full-page and revisit frequently.",[11,160,161],{},"We found that this is a combination that is not present in any other note-taking app and really makes @CapacitiesHQ\nstand out.",[124,163,165],{"id":164},"how-we-built-it","How we built it",[11,167,168],{},"We made the table feature the main project of a new employee. While this sounds risky, it allowed us to go the extra mile because he could spend all his time and effort on this one feature. We could then completely polish it with the input from the rest of the team. This focus gave us an enormous speed.",[11,170,171],{},"Another thing that made us super fast on the development side was reusing as much code and as many concepts as possible that already existed in the code base. This also allowed our new dev to get to know the codebase, use powerful abstractions, and learn by imitating what was already there.",[11,173,174,175,180],{},"Feel free to check out our new ",[176,177,179],"a",{"href":178},"/whats-new/release-35","table implementation"," and let us know what you think!",{"title":39,"searchDepth":40,"depth":40,"links":182},[183,184],{"id":126,"depth":40,"text":127},{"id":164,"depth":40,"text":165},"dev","2024-03-11","Mar 11, 2024","Explaining our process and why we think it's one of the best table implementations in any note-taking app.","/blog/how-we-developed-tables/tables-cover.jpg",[104,191],"tables",{},"/blog/how-we-developed-tables",[58],{"title":117,"description":188},"blog/how-we-developed-tables","7fMYgPlcRfO9nXtEwOP-Tan_98apOd_KgV8I6kjoa_8",1775120797449]