6 ms·

Show HN: I'm building a system that automates onboarding

9 points by andreigaspar 7y ago

andreigaspar 7y ago
I've been building stuff for quite some time now, and it was always a headache to set up onboarding for my apps. I feel like building the core features of a product is enough hard labor in itself, I really don't need the overhead of developing and maintaining an onboarding system. So this idea stemmed from my frustration, and I've been coding for about 8 months now. The good news is that once I'm finished with the core features I can use it to onboard itself lol. Do you feel like my project would benefit you in some way? Thoughts are welcome. Thanks!
- codegladiator 7y ago
  > Also, you’ll get notified when boardme launches so you can activate your early access user benefits. Show a mailing list subscription page ? Why not Show when its ready ? and 8 months MVP and not ready ?
  - codegladiator 7y ago
    > We will send you an email to confirm your subscription. Said email ended up in spam box as it should have IMO since its from "support@planeeet.com" ?
    - andreigaspar 7y ago
      Yeh, I should definitely change that, I've been abusing that email for all my automation setups - thanks for the heads up!
    - andreigaspar 7y ago
      Hey btw, I see you're open to discuss and provide feedback - can I get in touch with you personally from time to time to offer perspective and critiques?
  - andreigaspar 7y ago
    I feel like there your first message doesn't show up, because you started with > Also, but I'll answer the questions in this subsequent message. I hesitate to tell you that it's going to be ready next Saturday, or in 2 months from now, because it would be embarrassing if the time comes and it's not ready. I think a mailing list is the optimal way to go about it, it's not intrusive and I can drop an email when I want to show a feature - would you agree? 8 months seems like a long time, but the complexity of the product is not trivial at all! I also built Scrumbs (https://www.scrumbs.app https://www.scrumbs.app) which got released a few weeks ago, that's a much simpler app.
- codingdave 7y ago
  It is hard to answer whether or not this will be helpful, because it is unclear what it does. Does it automate setting up recurring billing? Creating new customer records? Or is it just web widgets that we can wire up to processes we would still need to write. At the moment, this is just someone collecting emails to let us know when they really have something to show. I 100% see why getting our emails is helpful to you. I'm unclear at the moment what I would get out of it.
  - andreigaspar 7y ago
    Hey thanks that's actually super duper helpful, so that basically means the landing page fails to convey the message. So a couple words on what it does: It is an onboarding layer over your application! You import it via a script (just like google analytics), and the visual editor allows you to set up your user onboarding process, without writing any code. Think modal windows, tooltips, hotspots etc. Can I reach out to you to get your feedback when I revised the landing page?
joyceaa 7y ago
Have you thought about how your solution differs to Appcues and Intercom Tours? Just curious, as my team tried to build a solution like this but struggled to differentiate in the noisy space that is visual onboarding tools
- andreigaspar 7y ago
  Hey thanks for your message! Honestly I don't think those tools are accessible for the common folk. They're building complex and expensive onboarding solutions that onboard your users, make you a meal, massage your feet, and do the dry cleaning for you. We just focus on launching a fun to use and intuitive app, that does one thing and it does it right. I'd say just because there's Jira on the market, doesn't mean Trello has no room. Quite the contrary, I think more people use Trello on a day-to-day basis - and probably an average of about 5 features lol.
johnmarcus 7y ago
Whew, I'm building an app for employee onboarding and your site gave me a heart attack because it's so beautiful. I signed up for early access.
- andreigaspar 7y ago
  Your comment just made my day man. I really appreciate your support and kind words, it's not easy for an indie out here lol.
dstik 7y ago
Great work - this looks very cool. We'd be very interested in exploring it. We started looking into https://www.appcues.com/ https://www.appcues.com/ but their pricing seems prohibitively expensive. They have a nice Chrome extension that allows nontechnical folks to easily create/customize the onboarding/tooltips for your app -- curious how your snippet will guide users through creation. Really excited for you!
- andreigaspar 7y ago
  Oh that's great news! It's definitely going to be more accessible in terms of pricing, not even in the same ballpark as appcues. One additional thing is that we're allowing users to "cheat" our MAU system, by only including the script in pages that will make use of the script. This can cut down cost by more than 90%. The onboarding setup should be super duper intuitive for non technical people as well! We're planning to release a video demo of the alpha version shortly, I'll be in touch!

9 points by andreigaspar 7y ago

I've been building stuff for quite some time now, and it was always a headache to set up onboarding for my apps. I feel like building the core features of a product is enough hard labor in itself, I really don't need the overhead of developing and maintaining an onboarding system. So this idea stemmed from my frustration, and I've been coding for about 8 months now. The good news is that once I'm finished with the core features I can use it to onboard itself lol. Do you feel like my project would benefit you in some way? Thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

codegladiator 7y ago
> Also, you’ll get notified when boardme launches so you can activate your early access user benefits. Show a mailing list subscription page ? Why not Show when its ready ? and 8 months MVP and not ready ?
- codegladiator 7y ago
  > We will send you an email to confirm your subscription. Said email ended up in spam box as it should have IMO since its from "support@planeeet.com" ?
  - andreigaspar 7y ago
    Yeh, I should definitely change that, I've been abusing that email for all my automation setups - thanks for the heads up!
  - andreigaspar 7y ago
    Hey btw, I see you're open to discuss and provide feedback - can I get in touch with you personally from time to time to offer perspective and critiques?
- andreigaspar 7y ago
  I feel like there your first message doesn't show up, because you started with > Also, but I'll answer the questions in this subsequent message. I hesitate to tell you that it's going to be ready next Saturday, or in 2 months from now, because it would be embarrassing if the time comes and it's not ready. I think a mailing list is the optimal way to go about it, it's not intrusive and I can drop an email when I want to show a feature - would you agree? 8 months seems like a long time, but the complexity of the product is not trivial at all! I also built Scrumbs (https://www.scrumbs.app https://www.scrumbs.app) which got released a few weeks ago, that's a much simpler app.
codingdave 7y ago
It is hard to answer whether or not this will be helpful, because it is unclear what it does. Does it automate setting up recurring billing? Creating new customer records? Or is it just web widgets that we can wire up to processes we would still need to write. At the moment, this is just someone collecting emails to let us know when they really have something to show. I 100% see why getting our emails is helpful to you. I'm unclear at the moment what I would get out of it.
- andreigaspar 7y ago
  Hey thanks that's actually super duper helpful, so that basically means the landing page fails to convey the message. So a couple words on what it does: It is an onboarding layer over your application! You import it via a script (just like google analytics), and the visual editor allows you to set up your user onboarding process, without writing any code. Think modal windows, tooltips, hotspots etc. Can I reach out to you to get your feedback when I revised the landing page?

joyceaa 7y ago

Have you thought about how your solution differs to Appcues and Intercom Tours? Just curious, as my team tried to build a solution like this but struggled to differentiate in the noisy space that is visual onboarding tools

andreigaspar 7y ago
Hey thanks for your message! Honestly I don't think those tools are accessible for the common folk. They're building complex and expensive onboarding solutions that onboard your users, make you a meal, massage your feet, and do the dry cleaning for you. We just focus on launching a fun to use and intuitive app, that does one thing and it does it right. I'd say just because there's Jira on the market, doesn't mean Trello has no room. Quite the contrary, I think more people use Trello on a day-to-day basis - and probably an average of about 5 features lol.

johnmarcus 7y ago

Whew, I'm building an app for employee onboarding and your site gave me a heart attack because it's so beautiful. I signed up for early access.

andreigaspar 7y ago
Your comment just made my day man. I really appreciate your support and kind words, it's not easy for an indie out here lol.

dstik 7y ago

Great work - this looks very cool. We'd be very interested in exploring it. We started looking into https://www.appcues.com/ https://www.appcues.com/ but their pricing seems prohibitively expensive. They have a nice Chrome extension that allows nontechnical folks to easily create/customize the onboarding/tooltips for your app -- curious how your snippet will guide users through creation. Really excited for you!

andreigaspar 7y ago
Oh that's great news! It's definitely going to be more accessible in terms of pricing, not even in the same ballpark as appcues. One additional thing is that we're allowing users to "cheat" our MAU system, by only including the script in pages that will make use of the script. This can cut down cost by more than 90%. The onboarding setup should be super duper intuitive for non technical people as well! We're planning to release a video demo of the alpha version shortly, I'll be in touch!