Feature Redesign:
Zoho Notebook
April 2019
What is Zoho Notebook?
Zoho Notebook is a multimedia note-taking application available across desktop, browser and mobile platforms that allows users to create and organise various types of notes into virtual 'notebooks'.
One feature I love about Notebook is the Customisable Notebook Covers. The ability to import custom images as covers for notebooks adds a greater sense of personalisation, and leveraging user co-creation to improve product aesthetic differentiates the product in a competitive note-taking app market.
A sample of the customised notebook covers I've selected
The Problem
Notebook offers 5 distinct types of notes:
Text, Audio, Photo, Checklist and Attachment.
Creating a text note allows the user to combine other media, but any other type of note restricts the user from integrating other note types.
Example: If a user creates an audio note to record a song they're making, they cannot write the lyrics as a text component in the same note. This presents the inconvenience of having to split connected ideas across notes.
Currently, the only way to incorporate several note types in one note is if you select the Text type first.
Note how the text note on the left contains an editing toolbar to add other note types, but the audio note on the right does not.
Proposed Solution
I propose incorporating alternative note types into the editing toolbar for each note, as detailed below:
Proposed solution mockups of the creator toolbar, modular note additions and multimedia preview symbols on notes.
Measuring Solution Impact
Metric
If I had to choose one key metric to track the impact of this feature, I would select: % of monthly active users utilising multimedia functionality of non-text notes.
This would capture the answer to the following question: out of all active Notebook users, what proportion of them are creating notes involving two or more media types that start from a non-text note format?
This would capture the answer to the following question: out of all active Notebook users, what proportion of them are creating notes involving two or more media types that start from a non-text note format?
Measurement
Demographics
Power users (~10+ notes created in past month) and casual users (<10).
Methodology
Track when a new medium is clicked within a non-text note and log this as an event tied to user ID. Conduct monthly database query of all such events, and calculate number of unique user IDs. Express as % of MAU by tracking the number of unique logins in the past 30 days. Calculate distinct metrics for user demographics by logging note creations and linking user ID with ’power user’ tag if associated with 10+ note creation events.
Justification
This metric allows us to assess both initial adoption and continued usage of the new functionality, in order to frame the value-add of this feature.
Alternative Metrics to Consider
• Average number of multimedia notes from non-text format created per MAU
• % of multimedia notes started from non-text format
• Monthly % of users utilising any multimedia notes
• % of non-text notes with more than one medium
Product Roadmap
Below is a 6-month general product roadmap I have envisioned for Notebook that incorporates my proposed product changes. I have focused on what should be done, who should be involved, and the questions that each stage should seek to answer:
High-level product roadmap
Step-by-step roadmap breakdown
Prioritisation Criteria
These are the 3 key criteria I would use to prioritise my product backlog:
1. Impact
How major a need will this feature solve? How significantly is the user experience improved? How will our KPIs be affected? To what degree will it attract new users?
2. Feasibility
How much time will it take to build this feature? Will additional resources or outside expertise be required, and if so, how difficult is it to source these things? What upkeep is required?
3. Urgency
How soon does this issue need to be addressed? Is it currently inhibiting users from expected interaction with existing functionality? Will neglect of the issue increase churn rate?
