Launching our very first product: Uniqrate

Introduction

About three months ago, two of my colleagues and I joined forces with a common goal: to build and launch products. We enjoy working with each other daily, so we decided to test our collaboration by building something together.

With two developers and one designer, we feel like our skill sets complement each other well, along with our personalities. Although we have big plans and aspirations, we decided to give this partnership a "test run" by creating what we thought would be a relatively small project.

Uniqrate

The result of this collaboration is Uniqrate.

Uniqrate is an analytics and reader feedback tool for blogs and documentation. We wanted to create an easy way for readers to give their feedback and comment on the content they are reading.

The concept is relatively straightforward: we provide you with a piece of code that displays a visually appealing widget on your website. The widget allows readers to vote and comment on the page's content. Additionally, you can choose to ask for their email addresses to engage with your readers later on.

We aimed to create a lightweight widget that seamlessly integrates with a webpage's content. Using Preact, we were able to develop a compact, efficient solution that doesn’t affect website performance. We also believe the design is visually appealing without distracting from the rest of the content.

Our goal was to develop a feedback tool specifically tailored for blogs and documentation. In the age of AI, we believe it's crucial for bloggers and documentation writers to collect reader data to enhance content accuracy. With Uniqrate, we hope to help achieve that.

You also have access to a dashboard that displays all the ratings and comments left by your users. We provide some analytics, such as time spent on pages, which pages get the best ratings, and more.

Feel free to explore and give us your feedback! :)

The experience of building and launching of project

On a personal level, I've always wanted to build cool things. That's why I started programming in the first place! But working alone, I always felt something was missing: motivation, vision, time, skills, ideas... It felt like I could never finish anything.

Being part of a team

That has been a game changer for me. A team of three, each with specific skill sets. I no longer have to take on the role of a designer and risk producing something subpar—we have a skilled designer for that. It's a real relief!

Being part of a team also helps with motivation. We have our daily jobs, which take up a good chunk of time, and we all have lives outside of work too. So, finding the time and motivation to work on the project can be tricky at times. We've had our ups and downs, but being part of a team means we can help each other during tough times. Seeing my teammates diligently producing great code and designs motivated me to do the same and contribute my best work.

Ship it

When do you ship? When do you actually launch your product? We decided on a roadmap, what we thought were the minimum features needed for the product to be put out there. We sticked to it, ran into some troubles, fixed some of them, compromised on others, and decided on a deadline to let the project fly.

The last few days were a bit hectic. We oscillated between the excitement of seeing our work pay off, the disappointment of it not being perfect, and the anxiety of potentially creating something ineffective. It was a whirlwind of emotions, but an incredible experience nonetheless.

Let's Do It Again!

It feels amazing to be part of a project like this. Being able to actually create something, see it come to life, and not just store it away in a dark corner feels great. Perhaps it won’t succeed, and maybe we didn’t create something that resonates with users. If that’s the case, it will certainly be a tough lesson, but I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished.

No matter what happens, we’ve built the foundation of our partnership to keep creating, keep having fun, and keep shipping new projects.

For our first attempt, we created Uniqrate. I hope you’ll take a peek, and I’ll see you at the next launch!

Have fun ❤️

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