Building a no-code mvp to test your community idea

What is it:

Nick built a community that is invite only for Slack invites to join.

What did I learn:

1. No-code tool feature: Semi-Automating slack invites:

When building a community you always want to make sure that you start off with value. However, when the community starts scaling you might need a way to automate it. I thought it was interesting to learn this internal workflow by Nick here.

After talking with Nick he shared the process that he uses:
1. Nick checks a boolean field in Airtable (probably a check box which is very easy to setup)
2. Once that gets checked it triggers Integromat to send an invite with Mailgun
3. These invites go out at a set time 1x/day

2. Product Strategy: Test something quickly and validate not by sending a tweet out and asking if this is a good idea. Just build it. "You cannot validate an idea"

All too often I see folks tweeting out asking about an idea. And I really like the way Jason Fried thinks about that and says an idea is a concept. You cannot validate a concept because it is not real. You have to make the thing.

And with the advent of no-code there is no better time than now to quickly make a v1 of the thing that you want to do and get real feedback. Validated feedback would be do people activate or do they pay you money for that thing you built?

More here: https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1337095209620946944?s=20

3. Product Strategy: Keep the value prop concise and as short as you can. I think that this is a really good landing page by Nick. Here are some components that I broke down that you should use as a checklist for yours. Shorter is always better.

1. Subtitle - just say exactly what it is. try not to put a marketing spin on it. If you can say some type of outcome, that would be a great choice too. "The invite-only Slack community for founders to navigate the undiscussed, sticky topics."

2. Supporting text that talks gives more details about what you'll e discussing: "Let's dig into:
Co-Founder Relationships • Work/Life Balance • Mental Health • Failure • and much more"

3. email box

4. the enter box to submit. I really like how he designed this using the slack logo and action. This made it feel more exclusive.

It does not have to be complex. But simplicity is hard.