WingNotes

WingNotes was hunted on ProductHunt by an unsolicited user. I didn't plan to post on PH for a while, so it came as a pleasant surprise that someone enjoyed WingNotes enough to vouch for it and share it with others.

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/wing-notes

I wrote a Medium article about the motivations behind building WingNotes and how it helps people study more effectively by providing a structured layout that's easy for writing and reviewing study notes.

https://medium.com/@brandontle/introducing-wingnotes-a-note-taking-app-designed-for-studying-9d6b674b0374

WingNotes was featured on BetaList! I submitted it for review (without paying for premium) about 2 weeks ago. The first day saw 72 page views, with 11 new user sign ups — a 15% conversion, not bad! The second day saw 45 page views, with 18 new user sign ups — a 40% conversion!

On the second day, WingNotes was also featured on the front page under 'Trending Startups'.

https://betalist.com/startups/wingnotes

After a few months of feedback and tinkering on the side, I finally posted WingNotes to HackerNews!

Based on early feedback, I actually decided to split the project into two:

1. WingNotes: private note-taking app
2. [To-be-named]: a public technical blogging platform

and I have been focusing more on the latter.

But WingNotes has been production-ready, so I thought I'd release it for people to play with!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20095817

Made some major revisions to WingNotes based on V1 feedback, such as:

• Re-implemented the editor (from Draft to Editor.js)
• Re-implemented the data structure for notes
• Created a landing page with preliminary marketing copy

More lessons learned:

1. People don't want to have to sign in to try out the product. Will have to create a public demo page.
2. Responsiveness is really important for people. Mobile support (at least for viewing) is high on the key features list.

https://alpha.wingnotes.app

I finally have a first version of WingNotes that users can sign into and use. No landing page yet (just a sign-in page), but people can create an account and start creating notes.

A few things I've noticed:

1. People are unsure how to structure notes on their own. Will have to include examples so they have inspiration.
2. People like the idea of a two-column layout, and only "get it" when they see it.