I’ve always been a big admirer of companies that believe in transparency. Of course, Buffer comes to mind, but there are plenty of others. It’s a really difficult concept to embrace. It can be tremendously positive but it can also backfire. I’m very happy that we’ve taken our first (small) step towards becoming more transparent at Mapme. Here’s the story:
Too lazy to read? Dashboard link.
A few weeks ago we released a new version of Mapme. To outsiders it might not look so different, but it’s a drastic change from what we started with around a year ago.
Just a brief overview, Mapme is a platform for building beautiful and “smart” maps with no coding. Our users are primarily governments, publishers, organizations and businesses who want to leverage maps.
In case you’re asking yourself, “what about Google Maps API and Mapbox?” We’re not targeting companies with development resources, we’re going for the other 99% who don’t have the resources or know how to leverage the power of maps.
When we released the new version of Mapme, we built a very basic dashboard showing the “one metric that matters.” For us, that’s the number of maps being created per day. For now we’re trying to optimize the experience for the organizations creating maps through our platform. And yes, this is a very basic number, and there’s a lot more to measure, but it’s a start. As the post above says the OMTM changes over time depending on company stage, product and other factors, so ours will certainly change.
Our Geckoboard dashboard has been up for a few weeks and I’ve found that it’s a fantastic way to push myself and the team harder. I started sharing the dashboard privately with friends and advisors to hear their thoughts. Next, I thought about taking it a step further and making it public.
Obviously this is scary. The numbers could go down. The numbers could stay still. But it’s the same story for every startup. Making this public will mean no bullshit excuses. So take a look at the dashboard for yourself. Whoever you are, thank you, you’re now motivating us to work harder.
(Some context: more maps have been created in the past two weeks through our platform than in the entire 9 months before.)
Stay tuned for more detailed dashboards in the future, this is just the start.
