I run Saber Feedback, a feedback widget you can add to any website.
Each January I like to reflect on how our product and company has evolved in the last year. Here’s a summary of what we did in 2021.
Read the 2020 version of this review.
In 2021, we put a lot of effort into modernising our feedback widget, as well as our web console, where you configure your widget and view your feedback reports.
Modernised our web console
Our web console was built on version 3 of Bootstrap, an HTML and CSS framework. This is an old version of Bootstrap, which was replaced with a new version in 2017.
Using an old version of Bootstrap made our app look dated. It looked like it was designed several years ago. It was ready to be modernised. So we got a skilled designer to redesign our app.
There were some other technology choices that had left our web app more difficult to maintain and improve than I would like.
So as part of the redesign, we also spent some months simplifying the technology behind our web console.
Our web console now looks modern, like the work of a skilled designer, and allows us to make changes with ease.
Read the full story of redesigning and rebuilding our web console.
A steady stream of small product improvements
Once we had modernised our web console, we were finally able to do what I enjoy doing: continuously improve our product.
We made many minor improvements that most users don’t notice. But they all add up to a nicer experience for everyone.
Here are some product improvements we made in 2021:
You can turn off the “add screenshot” button
This lets you hide the feedback button, and use your own JavaScript code to cause the feedback form to appear. Actually we already had a way of doing this with runtime options, but it was somewhat obscure. We now made it possible to change this setting from our web app.
Added Finnish translation of our widget
I’m proud of how many languages our widget is in. Currently we have 14 languages, including English. So it was nice to add another translation, with the help of a Finnish-speaking customer.
Accessibility and usability improvements
I like keyboard shortcuts. They are good for power users, but they also help to make a product accessible to people who have reduced ability to use mice and other pointing devices.
So in 2021 we made sure you can fully use our widget from the keyboard.
Added an optional weekly summary email
Our weekly summary email sends you a CSV file every Monday with all the feedback you received in the last week. This can be combined with automation solutions. For example, you can use Zapier to extract the feedback from the CSV file and insert it into other systems.
Released v2 of our widget
This mostly improved things “under the hood”. The widget looks the same (well, not entirely as you’ll read below). But it now loads much faster, does better caching, and is more reliable.
Read the full story of our v2 widget’s performance improvements.
Improved our widget’s design and UI
We made small changes to the appearance of our widget. This was the work of our designer. In several subtle but important ways, we tweaked the widget’s design. It still fundamentally looks and feels the same. But it now presents better as a whole.
Read the full story of our v2 widget’s user interface improvements.
Increased the trial period
This is a business change and not a product change. But I like to note it.
A fellow software business owner took a look at Saber Feedback, and gave me some advice. Amongst other helpful things, he said he found it odd that our trial period was only 10 days. He expected a product like ours to have a 30 day trial.
So, on his advice, we extended the trial period from 10 days to 30 days. So far this has had neither positive nor negative effects on our sign-up rate though.
Challenge: finding customers
In 2020, we were struggling to find many new customers, so we put a lot of work into marketing.
In 2021, this marketing work started to pay off. By mid-2021 we started to sign up several new paying customers each month.
For Saber Feedback’s long-term sustainability we still need to increase our customer sign-up rate. Hopefully, as we continue our marketing efforts in 2022, we’ll soon get there.
What’s up for 2022?
That’s up to you and our customers.
Really!
We have a few things planned, but we are interested in hearing what our customers want. So we’re listening, ready to hear. Got ideas? Let us know!
Learn more about Saber Feedback
Saber Feedback adds a feedback button to your website, online course, or web app.
Discover urgent bugs, improve your user experience, and make your content QA smoother. All with a simple feedback button you can add to any web page. Screenshot functionality included.