At SlideHub we aim to build a product that is both simple to use for end-users and yet powerful for content managers. As a result, we aim to optimize the user experience for simplicity and avoid any non-value-adding components and features, while still allowing users to solve their main pain points.

While our product started really simple when we first launched, we have been busy adding new functionality each month. We have tried to make our product decisions based on client input and our own experience working as consultants and PowerPoint designers. However, sometimes the resulting ideas turn out to add more complexity than value.  

In order to stay true to our aim we have decided to implement a number of simplifications to the SlideHub asset platform: 1) Transition personal vaults to teams, 2) Remove the concept of “shared subcategories”, and 3) Remove the like/dislike functionality for slides.  

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Transition personal vaults to teams

Why are we doing this?

The personal vault feature has been live for more than 1 year and in general, we have seen very limited adoption across our user base e.g. last month only 0,3% of all slides downloaded were from a personal vault. Additionally, to many of our clients the idea of a personal vault does not align with the ambition of having a shared set of best practice assets. Thus, the majority of clients prefer to encourage the use of the contribution/suggestion feature instead of using personal vaults.  

What are the implications?

To avoid the loss of data and to protect the experience of the users who use their personal vaults, we will transition existing personal vaults into dedicated teams. The new teams will have just one member and that member will be the manager of that team. Unless an account manager removes the team or gives themselves access to the team this change has almost no impact on the relevant users.  

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After:

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Remove the concept of “shared subcategories”

Why are we doing this?

For most of our new clients, we conduct handheld onboarding sessions with potential content managers. One question/doubt that comes up in many of these meetings is – “What are the shared subcategories and how are they different?”. After evaluating our own answers to these questions, we have decided that maintaining the concept of shared subcategories adds more complexity than value.  

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Now:

What are the implications?

No shared subcategories will be deleted. Instead, we will use the fact that search subcategories can be associated with multiple parent categories and automatically transition shared subcategories to normal subcategories. As a result, we hope that the asset management experience will become a bit simpler for new managers.  

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Remove the like/dislike functionality for slides

Why are we doing this?

We have studied the company-wide data and concluded the likes and dislikes feature is very rarely used. Despite the feature taking up a central place in the user interface only 0,4% of all slides in SlideHub have ever received a like or dislike indication. As a result, the value of this signal to content managers is almost completely useless.  

What are the implications?

Instead of sharing the like/dislike information with managers, we will instead share the number of times a slide has been indicated as a personal favorite. As these favorite indications are 10x more commonly used we believe it adds more value.  At the same time, we will use the freed-up space in the user interface to make room for other often-overlooked features:

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Now:

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Join our webinar to hear more about SlideHub's product philosophy and roadmap: https://slidehub.io/webinar-sign-up/quarterly-product-webinar