TLDR; Check out the first interactive product demo of the Bookmark app!

One of the hardest parts of being a founder is prioritizing wisely — what to start, stop, and continue working on.

Every two weeks after my newsletter goes out, I reset:

1. Brainstorm: With old-fashioned pen and paper, I jot down every idea racing through my mind that I feel compelled to work on in the short term. On top of that, I’ll list things that may not feel pressing but could be strategically important to start working on over a longer time horizon.

2. Prioritize: Next, I’ll cross out at least half the ideas on the page and circle the top three mission-critical initiatives. The remaining ideas that are neither circled nor crossed out get ranked from highest to lowest priority. And voilà, that’s my to-do list for the next two weeks.

I’m excited to share that the first interactive demo of the Bookmark app made it into the past two-week sprint!

Enticed? 👀 You can create an account for free to start using Bookmark today!

What’s New ✨

After conducting dozens of user interviews across companies of all sizes, I’ve learned that no one has solved the challenge of knowledge management.

“I like maintaining folders in Google Drive, Microsoft 365, or Dropbox,” said no one ever.

Do you relate to any of the following experiences?

• When looking for a file you’ve recently visited, you often start by typing the name of the file in your browser’s address bar. 👩🏻‍💻

• If you don’t remember the file name, it’s infinitely harder to find. Sometimes, you’ll recall who shared the link and use that info as a filter to search through Slack or email. 📧

• You’re surprised by how many SaaS products have terrible search features. 🔍

• You find folders too rigid, and getting everyone on a team to adopt a consistent folder system is a Herculean task. 🗂️

• Even if your team uses a “wiki” like Notion or Confluence, you and your teammates still share links to specific documents because it’s easier than navigating the wiki. 🔗

Bookmark is designed to help you quickly find that Google Doc, Figma file, or Notion page you’re looking for, so you can spend less time in transit and more time at your destination. Here are some exciting product updates in pursuit of that vision:

• Filter by file type: Now you can filter links specifically for Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Figma, and Confluence. In tandem with the search bar, you can quickly narrow down your search results. Please let me know what additional filters you need!

• Get smarter search results based on team-wide engagement: Links you and your teammates click on the most (in the context of Bookmark) now appear at the top of your search results in the Bookmark app.

• Include keywords to make links easier to find later: Keywords in Bookmark are terms or phrases you can use to facilitate future searches. (This is a newer and better version of Notes.)

• Add any link directly in the app: Previously, there were constraints on the type of link you could add in the web app. I removed those limitations, so the world is your oyster.

• Small but meaningful changes:

  • Favicons now appear for any new links added to Bookmark via the Slack integration, which you can read more about in my March 1 update.

  • After experimenting with Status, Owner, and Contributors, I decided to remove these fields because 1) the data showed they weren’t being used and 2) these fields weren’t aligned with Bookmark’s goal of being lightweight and low-maintenance.

  • By default, links are now sorted in chronological order with the most recently added at the top.

  • You can now remove collaborators from a project should the need arise.

  • The left-hand sidebar now has an independent vertical scroll from the rest of the page.

In addition to all these changes, I squashed several bugs, cleaned up my codebase, and started developing a more rigorous QA process to minimize bugs and ensure stable releases without compromising too much on speed.

What’s Cooking 🍳

• Expand the beta: Now that I’m working on Bookmark full-time, I can finally focus on acquiring and supporting more users! It’s time to get creative about distribution. 💡

• Create a product demo of the extension: I really enjoyed using Arcade to build an interactive demo of the Bookmark app. Next, I’m excited to use Loom to record a video walk-through of the Bookmark Chrome extension.

• Check for third-party cookies: Chrome is starting to restrict third-party cookies, which is a step in the right direction for consumer privacy! One of my top priorities is to prepare for these upcoming changes.

This Week’s Ask 🙏

I’ve been thinking about whether to invest in Bookmark’s YouTube strategy. The marketing nerd in me appreciated a point made in this podcast: YouTube content is hard to get right, but when done well, it’s a highly defensible platform with extensive reach.

Have any companies stood out to you for making great video content about their products? Is there any content in these newsletters you’d like to see brought to life in video format?

As always, please feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts!

That’s it for now. I’ll be in sunny (🤞) Southern California next week on vacation, so the next Bookmark newsletter will drop on April 19. In case you missed it, you can catch up on the March 15 update here. See you in three weeks!

Nicole

Made with 💜 from NYC. Shout-out to Alex W. and Will C. for reviewing my drafts, and special thanks to Abhinav N. for reviewing the product demo!