I love Medium! But I wish…
Medium is one of the most used blog writing platforms and I have been using it for almost a year now. In this article, I will talk about some of the new features I wish Medium introduces.
One of my favorite products is Medium. It is an open platform where readers find dynamic thinking, and where expert and undiscovered voices can share their writing on any topic.
In simple language, it’s a publishing platform for writers where anyone can write their blogs and publish them alone or with a publishing house, and it’s a reading platform for readers who are looking for quality content.
So how did I discover Medium?
My user journey:
Medium features for writers:
- Writers can grow their audience and also earn through their writings.
- Save the drafts and edit them whenever you want to. The changes also get autosaved.
- Published articles can be edited.
- SEO and tags help in expanding the reach.
Medium features for readers:
- Follow the writers and easily subscribe to their profiles to get email updates.
- Create your own reading list and bookmark the articles.
- ‘Listen’ to the articles (like a podcast)
- Customized suggestions based on reading history and user interest.
- Engage with the writing by commenting, highlighting, and sharing.
Because of all the amazing features mentioned above, I find Medium more useful, easy to use, and unique compared to its competitors (Sub stack, Quora, LinkedIn, etc.)
But but but…
Every good product also has some scope for improvement. Here are some of the features I wish Medium had :
Medium Staff are you listening?
1. Connection between authors and readers (Community engagement):
I love the content of the various authors, but there is no way to reach out to them on medium directly. Thus this option will open different community-level opportunities and invite attractive collaborations, and learning on the platform.
Benefit:👉 Increases app usage
2. Publish with co-authors:
As humans, the majority of us work better when working with a teammate. The same applies to writing as well. But medium does not let you publish the articles with a co-author. Currently, if you and your teammate are collaborating on an article, then you will have to publish the same articles on your profiles. Thus if this option is available, it will increase the engagement on the platform and create a better user experience.
Benefit: 👉 Improves user conversions and activity
3. Better editing experience:
Currently, the editing options on Medium are limited, which could be an advantage and a disadvantage. Limiting the editing options helps the writers focus more on writing than beautifying the article. But this also limits customization. For example: When one uploads an image, Medium has its set frame and resolution, one can’t resize it or edit it on the platform. The color of the text cannot be changed, etc.
Benefit: 👉 Improves user experience
As a user, I would have loved it if all the 3 features were made available. But as a Product Manager, I understand it’s hard to roll out 3 new features in one go. Thus this calls for prioritization.
Prioritization of features:
The first feature has more scores than the others. This is the best investment as both types of users will be benefitted from it and it will not only increase engagement on the application but also help in creating amazing experiences for the users.
Here are some of the assumptions that I made during the prioritization:
- Writers and readers want to connect to understand the thought processes and seek guidance.
- The organization is open to having cross collaborations with the authors and readers as per their vision and mission.
- The organization has or is ready to design an advanced filtration system to avoid spam messages leading to a bad user experience.
- The team has the bandwidth to complete the technical tasks at the backend and make them seamless for the user in the front.
- The organization has enough budget to complete the tasks.
Alright! Time to see what this feature would look like on the mobile and web applications.
Wireframes:
- Adding the “ 🤝message” feature to the user’s profile for anybody to connect with him/her.
2. Adding the “💬message” feature on the user’s home screen to access all the received and sent messages.
3. Details of the message feature when clicked:
Adding the new “message” feature benefits the app in various ways which are:
- Community-based learning and opportunities are the future. Everybody these days wants to connect with like-minded people to learn and grow. This new feature will help build exactly that. Since authors and readers can now connect, they can easily collaborate and build community.
- Currently, Medium allows 3 free articles for users with a regular account. The message feature can be integrated with this one where users can be allowed to message 3 new people through their free account and connect with more users if they have a membership. This will push the users towards converting to medium membership.
Phew! That was quite a task! We are close to choosing the feature.
But wait! A feature launch without defining success metrics?
Measuring success is a crucial part of a feature launch. As a PM we might get so engrossed in building the feature, that we might sometimes sideline the metrics. To avoid this, let us define the metrics beforehand and work rigorously towards them.
Success Metrics
Here are some of the primary metrics that will help in measuring the success of the feature:
Engagement:
- Number of times the message feature was clicked/ click-through rate
- Time spent on the app
- The average number of messages sent
- The average number of 2-way conversations happened
Business:
- Number of new conversions to medium membership
Here are some of the secondary metrics that will help me measure the success of the feature:
- NPS (Net promoter score)
- CSAT (Customer satisfaction) score
Did you like the feature suggestions?
Toh dekh kya rahe ho… Viral Kardo!
Medium ke office take pahucha do!
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PS: I thoroughly enjoyed designing new features for Medium and jotting them down here. I hope you enjoyed reading too.
See you!
Until next time!
