Hi IH, looking for feedback on this product idea
New here, so please excuse any lapse in cadence.
Elevator Pitch: Product to automate word document formatting and template management.
Problem: In an increasingly collaborative and decentralized workplace, maintaining format control on word files is challenging. Usually repetitive tasks like update line spacing, margins, font types to meet company standards are a pain.
Solution: Docudesign, a platform to build template, and apply to a document retroactively, and autoformat documents to always meet the formatting guidelines.
In order to verify your concept, you must first test it with real people by putting it out into the world in the form of commercials and seeing how people respond to it. People like lengthy conversations, but as soon as they have to go into their wallets for cash, all that chatter will be forgotten and they'll forget you ever said anything. Drop us a message at www.unicamel.io if you need some assistance with concept validation.
Thanks @edviiinaas appreciate your input!
Like the sound of it and it could be a real time saver!
I would think about being specific with the niche though (at least at first) to limit variables and make it easier to deliver a really slick product. Just avoid places where docs get filed away under "never to be read again" once they're written 😂
Hi @remoz Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!
I agree, starting up in a niche would be the best approach here to work out any wrinkles.
Would you find it cumbersome to have to upload files on to a webapp ? I am debating if this should be a webapp or a web extension.
Just tagging on! I think this could be a real time saver. At work, we're always writing documents (specs, product descriptions, design documents, etc) that always have the same template. Usually, I'll copy and paste but it takes me a whole lot of time to delete the old content.
I would definitely find it cumbersome to upload files on to a webapp. All my work is done on google drive so taking me out of google drive is an additional step. Your pitch made me think of how google slides has a theme you can import. I always find it much easier to format my google slides b/c our company imported a template that we can choose from.
You're welcome, @Sonic333!
Yeah, probably would be too cumbersome to have to upload and go "off-doc".
Like @allison_m I work mainly with Google docs so maybe an extension for that? At the moment I set up templates in Google drive (so I can select a template when I start a new doc) but if I need to change them and propagate changes it is a bit of a hassle (at least for me); also dealing with templates in Google docs is not as nice as it could be IMO. It feels like it could/should be a lot easier. Hope that helps!
Back when I was doing my masters I definitely needed a similar tool. I am not sure whether I would have been a paying customer.
Besides this post, how do you plan to validate the problem? Are the users of HN your target audience? Many people here, when it comes to documents, I could safely assume that aren't exactly MS Word users, therefore the feedback you receive here might not reflect the reality of your actual potential users.
Hi @ropesneer Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!
Glad to hear you think this would've been beneficial during your masters. The larger the files the more value this product would provide, so people pursing masters and PHD, could certainly benefit with this.
I am reaching out to my network (I work at an engineering consultancy firm with most people i know in similar companies) and to document control professionals through linkedin to discuss the need for this and likelyhood of someone paying for a service like this. We have an MVP built that does this baseline formatting, so really showing it around to folks and getting their feedback.
Let me know if you know any other channels to garner feedback, very open to learning better ways :)