We’ve been working for months on all the new things we released with our “Got Your Back”-Release on Sept. 8th.

I want to start with a quick overview:

And then, of course, all the other stuff we’re also doing at the same time.

😮‍💨

I always start from the back when I have to plan something big. Start at the finish line/release date and work your way backwards until today, to get an overview of everything that needs to be done.

Producing the launch video was probably the most challenging part for the team. Manuscript, storyboard, coordinating with film crew, location, guests, editors, hell, even buying sandwiches and soda for when we were on set.

But even though it was a tight deadline (not everyone on the team were super impressed by my time optimistic planning 🙈), we made it! Of course, I mean, we really didn’t have much of a choice. We’ve been hyping this release and the release date for weeks leading up to it. But we did it!

Doing that required an extraordinary effort! I often pride myself on how we’re building Herodesk, with the constraints we’ve set in place for ourselves:

Since coming back from the summer holidays in August, I’ve probably been closer to 65 hours per week.

In some ways, I like it… Okay, love it! The pace, the energy, the progress, all the things we’re getting done!

In other ways, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so tired after a sprint.

But boy, was it worth it!

The idea for this campaign started months back as a combination of many big things we could see coming.

Everything that we did (and still do) was based on our customers’ feedback. That’s how we work, and I take pride in that. That’s why we only plan 4 weeks at the time, and reset our plans after every cycle (sprint) so we can stay lean and flexible.

So when we had to name this campaign, we thought: 1) I don’t want to make this a “summer” or “winter” release, because that sets the expectation that we’re gonna do this every half year. And we’re not. We’ll do it when it makes sense and when we have something to show.

At the same time, all the things we’re doing lead back to the fact that “Herodesk’s got your back”. We’re here to help our customers make great customer service easy.

In Denmark, we have a saying: "Ananas i egen juice", which translates literally to "pineapple in its own juice".
It is a humorous or slightly ironic way to describe someone who is self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, or bragging about their own success.

So, brace yourself!

The launch video is amazing! I was honestly afraid that it’d turn out with “2009 powerpoint vibes”, but the editors did an amazing job. Multiple people have even said that they had “Apple Keynote vibes” after watching it (okay, maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but I’m so happy with the result and really happy that others see it, too).

I wanted this to help lift Herodesk to another level. A more professional level. Where I feel we belong. And it did, along with all the other changes.

The new features and all the product updates are working great. Honestly, after releaseing the updated design, I feel a whole new level of joy working in Herodesk. I do that myself a lot, because (obviously) our own support is run in Herodesk, too. It just feels so much nicer, easier, smoother to work with. What a joy!

And of course, the feedback from the customers.

We released 15 new features at the same time. One of them being the new design. You know how it is when changing the design of a tool people use all the time. Facebook literaly blows up everyt time they change the color of a button. Don’t mess with peoples habits! And, of course, all the new featuers. Because this was a big bang-release with everything going live at once, we really didn’t have much chance to battle-test it before going live. Of course, we have done extensive internal testing, both automated programmatic testing and us clicking around, but real customers with real data in real-life scenarios? Not so much.

Still, this is the feedback we’ve received:

I mean… 😍

All 15 “Got Your Back”-Release features are live.

On top of that:

And of course a lot of small fixes and improvements after going live.

As usual: See it all here: https://herodesk.com/product-updates/

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