Skillmap
Discover people around you by their skills and experience 🌎
I manually onboarded each user in Budapest (from my group of friends) and learnt a lot in the process. They very quickly highlighted a number of bugs and improvements that I've now moved to fix – the majority of them were technical rather than product-level.
This first 10 in a concentrated area now starts to help build local momentum. With a geographic social app, having a local critical density is especially important – this app just connects people, and without people nearby, it offers nothing... which = unhappy users.
After about 6-8 weeks of work, I shipped the first version of Skillmap. Whilst it could've been more minimal, social networks are an awkward space because the user experience expectations are quite high, and because the veolicty of social contact needs to be quite high otherwise it all grinds to a halt. (Imagine sending a message which then doesn't replied to... your own likelihood to engage also drops.
In this version:
Users can see who is nearby by their skills and meet up, or explore the map and see the talent at a city level. In this version, I've implemented bias-free and privacy maximisation features such as emojis instead of profile photos, first–names only and exact location resolution blurring.
Whilst working on developing the app, I posted in 3 main coworking spaces in Canggu, Bali with a short intro text, and managed to get to 120 waiting list signups!
Whilst the product isn't ready, this a good test of demand AND a base to launch into in a matter of weeks (when the product is more developed). Canggu is also an ideal launch base due to the sheer density of digital nomads in a small area, making it perfect for a hyper-local social app.
7 Comments
Also I recommend a tool like Fullstory or hotjar for recording website sessions. This way i've learned to improve the UX a lot.
Plus, Fullstory is logging the JavaScript errors and network requests (pro version). So many goodies.
Definitely a great tool for making data-driven UX improvements.
Great tip, will take this on board!
Congrats on getting that feedback and then acting on it. 👍
Pro tip -- build getting feedback into your processes now. It's the best way to gauge what your users and thinking, feeling and wanting.
It'll save you a lot of headache trying to guess or figure it out by inferring.
P.S. Budapest is a beautiful city.
So true and totally agree on baking feedback in ASAP.
As it's a community product, I'm keen to try to establish an open dialogue between all the new members and make them a part of its development, so going to have a mini brainstorm ⚡️
Thanks so much!
Including user interests would make this much more valuable, imo.
Love this feedback – was thinking of implementing something along these lines, as people may simply want to make new friends in a new city.