Mathilde Collin, CEO of Front, discusses feature prioritization and employee retention. Front uses a Trello roadmap and analyzes user feedback to prioritize features. Collin believes a new product needs to be significantly better than existing ones to change user habits. She emphasizes the importance of a clear company mission, hiring high-quality co-workers, and being mindful of the type of people hired for employee retention. Collin also discusses the importance of transparency in certain areas, such as compensation and performance evaluations. Front's office in France focuses on employee retention and cultural exchange. Collin shares insights gained after launching Front, including the need for fresh eyes and understanding customer needs. She sees email evolving alongside messaging apps and envisions a future where people spend 90% of their time in their inbox. Collin would remove structural features in email but believes workflows are still necessary. It took Front three years to achieve product-market fit, and Collin emphasizes the importance of being honest and talking to customers. She also recommends daily meditation for mental clarity and problem-solving.
Tuomas Grannas asks - What's your favorite LEGO theme?
- Mathilde Collin's favorite LEGO theme is "Ideas"
- "Ideas" allows people to submit their ideas for new LEGO sets
- Sets are voted on and if they receive enough votes, LEGO produces them
- Mathilde recently got a set called "Three Birds" from someone's idea submission
- Mathilde finds the bird sets to be super beautiful
What is Front?
Front is a collaborative inbox platform that improves team workflow by allowing teams to efficiently manage both shared and individual inboxes. It integrates with various tools and is a comprehensive alternative to Gmail or Outlook.
- Front started as a shared inbox platform but later added features for individual inboxes as well.
- 40% of daily active users currently utilize both shared and individual inboxes.
- Front is releasing a new version to enhance the user experience of individual inboxes and enable collaboration within them.
- The platform integrates with popular tools like GitHub, Salesforce, and Trello.
Google Inbox shutting down
Google Inbox shutting down was not surprising to Mathilde Collin, as she did not find it significantly better than Gmail. She believes a new product needs to bring high innovation and be 10 times better than the existing one for people to change their email habits. Collin also mentions that if two products serve the same purpose, they should be distinct from each other, which she felt was not the case with Inbox and Gmail. When integrating individual emails into Front, Collin found that users still wanted certain features from Gmail, even though she personally did not see them as beneficial.
- Mathilde Collin was not surprised by Google Inbox shutting down as she did not find it significantly better than Gmail.
- A new product needs to bring high innovation and be 10 times better than the existing one for people to change their email habits.
- Collin believes that if two products serve the same purpose, they should be distinct from each other, which she felt was not the case with Inbox and Gmail.
- When integrating individual emails into Front, Collin found that users still wanted certain features from Gmail, even though she personally did not see them as beneficial.
Prioritizing features
Prioritizing features is crucial for companies, and Front CEO Mathilde Collin shares her company's approach. Here are the key points:
- Front uses a Trello roadmap to make their plans public and gather user feedback.
- They analyze incoming inquiries to identify the most requested features.
- Complexity of building the feature and potential impact on users and the market are considered when prioritizing.
- Features are rated on a scale of 1 to 3 for importance and complexity.
- Features that align with their vision and goals are prioritized.
Features that have increased Front usage
The ability to comment on messages in Front has been expanded to allow conversations to flow freely, increasing the number of comments made per daily active user. Front will release a new version in October that is expected to disrupt workflows but also generate excitement.
What Front looked like at launch
Front, a communication and collaboration platform, launched with a basic version lacking attachments and tags. They focused on building an MVP in the email space and used content marketing to attract customers. The founder manually onboarded users and gathered feedback to prioritize feature development. Despite struggling to convert attention from Hacker News into users, they dedicated their first year to writing content, onboarding users, and building features.
Key points:
- Front launched with a basic version lacking attachments and tags
- They focused on building an MVP in the email space and used content marketing to attract customers
- The founder manually onboarded users and gathered feedback to prioritize feature development
- They struggled to convert attention from Hacker News into actual users
- Despite this, they dedicated their first year to writing content, onboarding users, and building features.
Early user acquisition
Early user acquisition is a crucial aspect of company growth. Here are the key points discussed in the summaries:
- Outbound methods were initially used for user acquisition, but they were ineffective due to the lack of a specific target audience.
- Despite a low conversion rate, the speaker found value in learning from each interaction with potential users.
- An auto-reply system was implemented to gather information from potential users.
- Paid acquisition became the main source of users, but in the early days, it was the primary method.
- The speaker believes that although not scalable, paid acquisition was still a viable strategy.
- PR and content played a significant role in acquiring customers.
- The company reached around 1 million in annual revenue and approximately 1,000 customers.
- User feedback should be prioritized to improve features and retain employees.
Starting Front and meeting her cofounder
Mathilde Collin and her co-founder, Loïc, met at a startup studio and decided to start their own company, Front. They received initial funding and later sought additional funding. The idea for Front came about before Collin joined the startup studio.
The idea for Front
- Front started as a lightweight support tool and evolved into a shared inbox and email client.
- The founders aimed to address the pain points of existing helpdesk solutions and create a simple yet powerful email tool.
- Starting from scratch and convincing people to pay for an email product were the hardest moments for Front.
When her cofounder was diagnosed with cancer
The most profound aspect of the text is Mathilde Collin's emphasis on the importance of realizing that a company is just a company and that there is a life outside of work that should be enjoyed.
- Mathilde Collin discusses the difficult moment when her co-founder was diagnosed with cancer.
- She emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
- Mathilde practices meditation, logs out of work apps during weekends and PTO, exercises regularly, and prioritizes sleep.
- She promotes a healthy work environment at Front by organizing activities related to health and wellness.
- Mathilde highlights the significance of open communication and leading by example in maintaining a supportive company culture during difficult times.
Hardest moments running Front
- Running a company is consistently hard and filled with challenges
- Every day, there are unanswered questions and difficult situations to navigate
- It is important to remember that this is normal and not indicative of the company's health
Employee retention
Employee retention is a complex issue, but there are three key factors that can help ensure high retention rates.
- Having a clear and mission-driven company that employees can relate to and find purpose in.
- Hiring high-quality co-workers who align with the company's values and have the potential to be co-founders.
- Being mindful of the type of people hired, as they will likely hire others like themselves, so it's important to consider if their presence is desired in the company.
By focusing on these factors, companies can improve employee retention and create a strong and talented team.
Transparency
Transparency in the workplace is crucial, but not all information should be shared. Mathilde Collin emphasizes the importance of transparency in areas like compensation and performance evaluations, but also highlights the need for privacy. She provides examples of situations where transparency may not be beneficial, such as disclosing individual salaries or reasons for employee departures. Front, the company she works for, has employees in both the United States and France.
Key points:
- Transparency is important in certain areas like compensation and performance evaluations
- Privacy is also necessary and not all information should be shared
- Examples of situations where transparency may not be beneficial
- Front has employees in both the United States and France.
Front's office in France
- Front's office in France focuses on employee retention and fostering a strong connection between teams in San Francisco and Paris.
- Regular company-wide off sites and all hands meetings are held to share insights and maintain balance between the two locations.
- Having a founder in each team and facilitating cultural exchange between the offices is crucial for their success.
KP asks - What is the one unique insight about the problem you didn’t have at the start but only discovered later after your launch?
- The unique insight gained after launching the email product was that not having prior knowledge or insights about the email industry worked in their favor.
- Approaching the problem with fresh eyes allowed them to discover new use cases and understand customer needs.
- 99% of what Mathilde Collin knows today about the industry, she didn't know when she started.
- The main focus for Front was to make people more efficient at work by improving email, as it was believed to be the most used work tool.
- Other options were not considered before building Front.
Did she consider other ideas Front?
- Mathilde Collin, co-founder of Front, shares her thoughts on whether she considered other ideas for the company
- She sought advice from a partner at Y Combinator who created Gmail, but ultimately realized the importance of following their own growth path
- Collin emphasizes the need to avoid being too prescriptive and negative pattern matching
Jordan Jackson asks - Email at least for me - has taken on a different meaning in a life of messaging apps and chat platforms. It is more serious in a way. How do you see email evolving and the ecosystem that encompasses in peoples lives?
Email has evolved in the age of messaging apps and chat platforms, with some arguing that it is dead while others believe it will remain in the work environment. Mathilde Collin suggests that tools like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can be used effectively in a work setting, while email will continue to be the primary means of communication outside of the company. Collin acknowledges the need for an improved email interface and draws inspiration from successful apps like Slack. She envisions a future where people could spend 90% of their time in their inbox. If given the opportunity, Collin would create a new system and delete email from everyone's mind.
If she could remove any email feature
Mathilde Collin would remove most of the structural features in email, such as subject, signature, carbon copy, and blind carbon copy. She believes that these features are unnecessary and that email should be more similar to SMS. However, she acknowledges that email still needs workflows, such as the ability to assign messages, share messages, collaborate on drafts, comment internally, and create automation. She believes that features like CC and BCC are currently being used as workflows, but they are not designed for that purpose, leading to inefficiencies.
- Mathilde Collin wants to remove structural features in email like subject, signature, carbon copy, and blind carbon copy
- She believes email should be more like SMS
- Email still needs workflows like assigning messages, sharing messages, collaborating on drafts, commenting internally, and creating automation
- Features like CC and BCC are currently being used as workflows, but they are not designed for that purpose, causing inefficiencies.
When did they hit product market fit?
The most profound aspect of the text is that determining product-market fit requires being brutally honest and transparent about what is working and not working, and talking to customers and users to gauge true product-market fit.
- It took the speaker's company three years to achieve product-market fit.
- Raising series A funding and having more customers helped them realize that their product was a better solution for those customers.
- Founders should be honest with themselves and their team about what is working and not working, and not ignore negative feedback.
- Talking to customers and users is crucial in determining if there is true product-market fit.
- Metrics such as revenue and user growth should be used to gauge progress.
- Having a clear focus on building a product that customers are willing to pay for is important.
- The speaker briefly mentions their meditation practice in relation to these concepts.
Meditation
Meditation is a powerful practice that can benefit founders by creating mental space and improving problem-solving and decision-making abilities. The speaker recommends daily meditation and shares her routine of 10 minutes of meditation using the Headspace app. Consistent practice is key to experiencing the benefits of meditation, which include gaining clarity and perspective. Additionally, meditation is discussed as a strategy for context switching and achieving a different state of mind, emphasizing the importance of discipline and motivation.