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I have to echo everyone else here that the homepage could be much more effective. My first impressions without scrolling: * Calendso has something to do with

I have to echo everyone else here that the homepage could be much more effective. My first impressions without scrolling: * Calendso has something to do with calendars, based on the name. * It has a popular paid competitor called Calendly. * It's open source, and there is a hosted version as well. I do not yet know what problem it is solving for me or its existing customers. Scrolling down slightly further, I see the testimonials, and see people find it when looking for a "scheduling & booking platform". I assume that's what it is, but I don't know why I need a "scheduling & booking platform". When I scroll further or click "Features", I am jumped down the page, and I find out it is easily customizable, and has a bunch of integrations. I don't entirely understand what I can do with it or how I can interact with it as a user. I have never heard of Calendly, and thus head over to their website. The first thing I see is "Calendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails". Clicking their "Features" link, I find claims they are "The best automated scheduling software" and without scrolling I learn it "automatically check[s] availability and help[s] you connect with your best contacts, prospects and clients". Based on my glance at Calendly, I'm not a potential customer or user, but I only learned that from your competitor, and I only learned about your competitor from you.

j4yav 5y ago
This is a tangent, but is there somewhere you can get this sort of feedback for your own apps/landing pages?
- an_ko 5y ago
  Clearly you can get it here. :) Post a "Show HN"?
- r_singh 5y ago
  Indiehackers community is sometimes helpful IMO
- ckwalsh 5y ago
  Find friends, the less familiar with the space the better. Ask them to write down facts about the product, in the order that they learn them. After each navigation, ask them to summarize what the product is and what problems it solves. That’s basically the approach I took when writing that up. I think the unfamiliarity is the most important part. It’s incredibly easy to be blind to what you know and others don’t. It also simulates a non interactive cold sell for the product, as opposed to trying to convince your competitor’s customers to jump ship.
- shivenigma 5y ago
  You can post and seek feedback at IndieHackers site.
- HatchedLake721 5y ago
  Have a look at https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ and https://www.usertesting.com/ https://www.usertesting.com/
  - Taurenking 5y ago
    >https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ 150 pounds for a 20 minute roast seems a tiny bit much
pferde 5y ago
This describes also my "journey" within the homepage, to the letter. I see this often on similar small product homepages. Many of them describe the product for someone already familiar with it, and could do with taking a step back and trying to describe it for someone who, figuratively speaking, accidentally stumbled onto it and has no idea what's going on.
- divan 5y ago
  Came here to write the same.
- Radim 5y ago
  Have you considered that in some cases (though probably not Calendso's), that may be on purpose? The VC crowd would have you believe that every product must disrupt the whole world – for the casual visitor, their gradma and their dog. But niche products have to ward off tyre-kickers and what-if time-wasters, as much as entice their target audience. Using industry-specific jargon kills both flies at once. If you "don't get it", you may not be the target audience.
  - ivan_gammel 5y ago
    Exactly. Home page belongs to the marketing team, not to engineering, and those wizards of target audiences quite often find counter-intuitive ways to reach their goals. If message „we are like X, but better“ gets visits and reaches the expected conversion rates, then who we are to challenge that work?
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    This is our strategy exactly. We get a lot of outsiders or investors critiquing that we have industry jargon on our landing page that only insiders understand. That is 100% by design. Not only does it signal to insiders that we know what we are talking about and that our software was built with them in mind, but it also scares away people that it is not built for. Which helps us avoid answering countless inquiries as to whether this software can work for this or that.
  - pferde 5y ago
stefandesu 5y ago
This happens to me with so many new services. I guess a lot of people will just leave because they don't understand what it's about even if it's something they might actually want to use.
scottfr 5y ago
I think you and others on this thread are being much too harsh on their messaging. Most people who have the need this product is meeting will have already encountered Calendly as it is ubiquitous in the space. It's basically a generic term like "Zoom" at this point. "I'll send you my Calendly link" is something people will understand to mean send you a meeting scheduling link. So "An open source Calendly alternative" is quite clear for most people who want to make use of this. Their messaging is focused on reaching people who might use it, not the people who won't. As you note, after going through the site, the product is not something relevant to you.
- notahacker 5y ago
  yeah, it's pretty much how "Twitter clone" tells you as much about the expected feature set as half a page on microblogging, follow and share protocols, tagging and push notifications. I think they could improve the below-the-fold description quite a bit, but the two words "Calendly alternative" convey the important bit about it being a customer-facing time-slot picker that connects to all your calendars, CRMs and webconferencing tools more precisely than "appointment scheduler" which might miss these features and lock you into various others, and probably gets more relevant search traffic too.
- okamiueru 5y ago
  A strange take to say that was too harsh, when, the whole point was that it could be clearer? That's rather mild and constructive. The counter argument that clear communication isn't all that necessary, because the people looking to receive this knowledge already should know this?
  - edoceo 5y ago
    the message is clear, if you're in the target group. that's good communication. filters out non-prospects early.
    - okamiueru 5y ago
      Maybe I missed a sarcasm tag, but I found your statement to be puzzling, for a lack of less kind words. What I'm saying, and others are saying, is that even for someone looking for exactly this, it would be easier for that person to know they found exactly this, with a more clear message about what this is. And what you seem to be saying, unless I misunderstood, is that this is a good thing? Surely the non-prospects as you put it, would also more easily find themselves being non-prospects if they knew what this was? Just in case this is perceived as stemming from annoyance, I can assure you that I'm not at all invested. However, I do find your take, puzzling. I hope this isn't a trend in IT-solution marketing I'm not aware of.
nednar 5y ago
Wow. Maybe take a break, walk or smoke. The only thing I can really take from this long post is that you didn't know the category of product before. So, you don't work as coach, consultant, recruiter or similar. That's fine. If you are not a customer and the page makes you not want to engage further, then it is a good page, isn't it?
leokennis 5y ago
Also, what's up with this stock photo suddenly appearing halfway down the page? https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7 https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7 It's some picture of employees of "proof" (juding by the "proof.quip.com" URL in the guy's browser) watching a presentation by a guy in shorts holding a small statue of a whale with legs? What does that have to do with a calendar?
indymike 5y ago
I think their home page is just fine given Calendly's market position and level of stagnation. Will be trying Calendoso today as it will not only save my company money, but will enable some very powerful new workflows.
pvitz 5y ago
I agree with everything you have written and I would also suggest that they improve the video. It has the same shortcomings as the rest of the website and the charts presented are totally meaningless without proper axes and axes titles.
mchusma 5y ago
As a counterpoint, I instantly knew 90% what this was by using the term.

j4yav 5y ago

This is a tangent, but is there somewhere you can get this sort of feedback for your own apps/landing pages?

an_ko 5y ago
Clearly you can get it here. :) Post a "Show HN"?
r_singh 5y ago
Indiehackers community is sometimes helpful IMO
ckwalsh 5y ago
Find friends, the less familiar with the space the better. Ask them to write down facts about the product, in the order that they learn them. After each navigation, ask them to summarize what the product is and what problems it solves. That’s basically the approach I took when writing that up. I think the unfamiliarity is the most important part. It’s incredibly easy to be blind to what you know and others don’t. It also simulates a non interactive cold sell for the product, as opposed to trying to convince your competitor’s customers to jump ship.
shivenigma 5y ago
You can post and seek feedback at IndieHackers site.
HatchedLake721 5y ago
Have a look at https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ and https://www.usertesting.com/ https://www.usertesting.com/
- Taurenking 5y ago
  >https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/ 150 pounds for a 20 minute roast seems a tiny bit much

pferde 5y ago

This describes also my "journey" within the homepage, to the letter. I see this often on similar small product homepages. Many of them describe the product for someone already familiar with it, and could do with taking a step back and trying to describe it for someone who, figuratively speaking, accidentally stumbled onto it and has no idea what's going on.

divan 5y ago
Came here to write the same.
Radim 5y ago
Have you considered that in some cases (though probably not Calendso's), that may be on purpose? The VC crowd would have you believe that every product must disrupt the whole world – for the casual visitor, their gradma and their dog. But niche products have to ward off tyre-kickers and what-if time-wasters, as much as entice their target audience. Using industry-specific jargon kills both flies at once. If you "don't get it", you may not be the target audience.
- ivan_gammel 5y ago
  Exactly. Home page belongs to the marketing team, not to engineering, and those wizards of target audiences quite often find counter-intuitive ways to reach their goals. If message „we are like X, but better“ gets visits and reaches the expected conversion rates, then who we are to challenge that work?
- jjeaff 5y ago
  This is our strategy exactly. We get a lot of outsiders or investors critiquing that we have industry jargon on our landing page that only insiders understand. That is 100% by design. Not only does it signal to insiders that we know what we are talking about and that our software was built with them in mind, but it also scares away people that it is not built for. Which helps us avoid answering countless inquiries as to whether this software can work for this or that.
- pferde 5y ago

stefandesu 5y ago

This happens to me with so many new services. I guess a lot of people will just leave because they don't understand what it's about even if it's something they might actually want to use.

scottfr 5y ago

I think you and others on this thread are being much too harsh on their messaging. Most people who have the need this product is meeting will have already encountered Calendly as it is ubiquitous in the space. It's basically a generic term like "Zoom" at this point. "I'll send you my Calendly link" is something people will understand to mean send you a meeting scheduling link. So "An open source Calendly alternative" is quite clear for most people who want to make use of this. Their messaging is focused on reaching people who might use it, not the people who won't. As you note, after going through the site, the product is not something relevant to you.

notahacker 5y ago
yeah, it's pretty much how "Twitter clone" tells you as much about the expected feature set as half a page on microblogging, follow and share protocols, tagging and push notifications. I think they could improve the below-the-fold description quite a bit, but the two words "Calendly alternative" convey the important bit about it being a customer-facing time-slot picker that connects to all your calendars, CRMs and webconferencing tools more precisely than "appointment scheduler" which might miss these features and lock you into various others, and probably gets more relevant search traffic too.
okamiueru 5y ago
A strange take to say that was too harsh, when, the whole point was that it could be clearer? That's rather mild and constructive. The counter argument that clear communication isn't all that necessary, because the people looking to receive this knowledge already should know this?
- edoceo 5y ago
  the message is clear, if you're in the target group. that's good communication. filters out non-prospects early.
  - okamiueru 5y ago
    Maybe I missed a sarcasm tag, but I found your statement to be puzzling, for a lack of less kind words. What I'm saying, and others are saying, is that even for someone looking for exactly this, it would be easier for that person to know they found exactly this, with a more clear message about what this is. And what you seem to be saying, unless I misunderstood, is that this is a good thing? Surely the non-prospects as you put it, would also more easily find themselves being non-prospects if they knew what this was? Just in case this is perceived as stemming from annoyance, I can assure you that I'm not at all invested. However, I do find your take, puzzling. I hope this isn't a trend in IT-solution marketing I'm not aware of.

nednar 5y ago

Wow. Maybe take a break, walk or smoke. The only thing I can really take from this long post is that you didn't know the category of product before. So, you don't work as coach, consultant, recruiter or similar. That's fine. If you are not a customer and the page makes you not want to engage further, then it is a good page, isn't it?

leokennis 5y ago

Also, what's up with this stock photo suddenly appearing halfway down the page? https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7 https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7 It's some picture of employees of "proof" (juding by the "proof.quip.com" URL in the guy's browser) watching a presentation by a guy in shorts holding a small statue of a whale with legs? What does that have to do with a calendar?

indymike 5y ago

I think their home page is just fine given Calendly's market position and level of stagnation. Will be trying Calendoso today as it will not only save my company money, but will enable some very powerful new workflows.

pvitz 5y ago

I agree with everything you have written and I would also suggest that they improve the video. It has the same shortcomings as the rest of the website and the charts presented are totally meaningless without proper axes and axes titles.

mchusma 5y ago

As a counterpoint, I instantly knew 90% what this was by using the term.