Hi friends,

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to grow awareness for Kinopio, and I keep coming back to the same problem. People start using Kinopio primarily because they enjoy the design and the interactions, and secondly because of the problems it solves for them – but to draw new people in, this also needs to happen the other way around. Something like,

Kinopio solves problem X that you have, by doing Y

Leading with the reason to use something makes it easier for people to invite themselves in. One of my favorite examples of this is “Readwise helps you remember what you read, by periodically surfacing your highlights”.

I like how tight and focused this is. But I struggle here because people use Kinopio to take notes, plan, mood-board, journal, and even make webpages in. Does choosing to highlight one of these as the primary use turn the others into second class citizens?

Another way to go is aligning with an established productivity category, like white-boarding or mind-mapping. People already know if they need these and what problems they solve. But again, there’s not one category that completely fits.

But also I’m not really interested in productivity as the end-goal. I didn’t create Kinopio to be a better whiteboard, or a better Miro/Mural/etc. This all started because I noticed that I felt mentally and creatively free when I wrote and moved my thoughts around using the text tool in design software. I thought that other people might enjoy this too, in a streamlined and more approachable form.

It’s not a grand vision, there’s no market disruption, there’s not even any AI, I must be a loser.

So back to the original question, what’s the problem to be solved? If Readwise helps you remember, then I think Kinopio helps you express yourself and make sense of your ideas.

Express yourself how? Here’s what I’ve seen,

• Some people share their spaces with their teams or classes, to present an idea more engagingly or to jam towards new insight together.
• Others share their spaces with the world, in the form of personal websites, portfolios, and even storefronts.
• But most people share their spaces with themselves. Self-expression is a thing we do for ourselves most of all.

So after all that, here’s what I’ve got:

Kinopio helps you express yourself and turn ideas into understanding

What's New

• Connections to Comments, To make it easier for your eye to follow connected ideas in busy spaces, connection lines appear transparent when connected to a comment card.
• Search backgrounds, to find the perfect background for your space
• Refer a friend, and earn a month of free credits for everyone you refer who signs up
• Also, we've started holding office hours in the Community Discord, every Tuesday at 12pm EST. Everyone's invited and I hope you can join us