The Groove Roadmap (scratchpad)
The Groove Roadmap (scratchpad)

The Groove Roadmap (scratchpad)

“Map out your future – but do it in pencil.” – Bon Jovi

LAST UPDATED: END OF MAY 2023

NEXT UPDATE: END OF AUGUST 2023

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Roadmap Description

Hey there! 👋 Welcome. This is the Groove Product Roadmap where you can learn what new features and updates are in the pipeline. It’s a way to zoom out and see the big picture.

Community is at the heart of Groove ❤️ We believe in co-creating the future of Groove with Groovers. It’s important to us to shine a light on what the future holds as we grow and to share a clear feedback process for those excited to contribute along the way.

*Disclaimer*

We are a small team and make thoughtful decisions quickly. This roadmap isn’t set in stone. This is being shared for information purposes only and not as a binding commitment. We will adjust our plans as we learn more through seeing how people interact with the platform, as we hear new feedback from the community and team, and as we come up with new ideas.

Have feedback or ideas about where we’re heading?

Submitting feedback

If you have a feature you would love to see in Groove or feedback on the roadmap, we’d love to hear it! Please send us an email at hello@groove.ooo 📬 Details are much appreciated.

Please know that not all feature ideas will or can be implemented and some may take on new shapes as we bring them to life.

🧗‍♀️ Working on now:

📌
Bulletin board: reply to a goal

Has someone posted a really interesting goal? Now you’ll be able to reply to someone’s post in the bulletin board when you want to cheer them on or give kudos.

🎯 Working on next:

📌
Bulletin board: wins, announcements, tech support

In addition to sharing a goal, we’re adding in a bulletin for sharing wins from the week. After that, our slack channels for announcements and tech support & ideas will be moving to over to bulletin boards as well. This way there’s no need to hop between two apps. The design will still say simple and clean though, without taking up a lot of space.

💌
Share a magic link to a scheduled Groove

When you join or create a scheduled Groove, we’ll show a button to enable you to invite someone into that Groove using a special referral link. This means that not only can you invite other Groovers (by sharing the link in a chat, for example) - you can also invite people from off-platform to join you in that scheduled Groove. This can make it a lot easier to give friends a smoother landing when you want to invite them into the app or help them start Grooving.

E.g.: “Want to join me in a writing Groove on Thursday at 3PM? Here’s the link…”

🔗
Pretty previews for links

When you share a link inside of a chat, instead of it showing up as plain text, it’ll show up more appealingly as a preview image with bolded headline and some preview text.

🎯
Showing weekly goal on your profile

See what friends and community members are working on this week, and be able to high five them - right from their profile.

💭 Exploring:

📈
Visualizing progress

Have you wondered where your time is going in Grooves? Want to track how much time you’re spending towards a bigger goal? Who you’re Grooving with the most, or who you’ve referred? We’re exploring a groovy dashboard for that.

🥇
Groove badges on your profile

Highlighting Groove milestones or contributions on your profile as a way to celebrate them 🎊

👣
Small onboarding improvements Tweaks to make sure new people have a smoother landing. (No concrete plans yet.)
More opportunities to high five High fiving others on the platform (perhaps in scheduled Grooves, Grooves in progress, or completed tasks) just to give a bit of encouragement asynchronously.
📲
Contacts and/or social media integration Making it easy for Groovers to see who they know already inside the Groove app and invite friends in.
👀
Blocking/reporting features

A way to report a Groover and also restrict another Groover from seeing your profile beyond the current ‘don’t Groove together’ feature.

💟
Profile page improvements

Pronouns and prompts for fun things you can share about yourself to connect with others

🚀 Launched:

📌
Bulletin board: share weekly goals

Share weekly goals like we do inside of Slack - but now it’s all inside Groove on our brand new bulletin board that you can see on the home screen. You can also tap to high five people’s goals to cheer them on. Can’t wait to see your goal for the week - High five!

🎥
Video updates in pre and post Groove chats

Little info indicators to make things clearer:

  • Prompts to suggest who shares first in regroup when there are 3-4 people.
  • An icon that shows when your camera is off
  • A little message that shows when you’re having a slow time connecting to video or your connection is rocky
📝
No more disappearing tasks A universal Groove task list that you can fill in anytime and from which you can pull tasks into your current Groove. When you don’t get to complete your tasks in a Groove, they’ll be auto-saved here instead of disappearing forever.
👨‍👨‍👧‍👦
Spaces

A way to Groove with people who share things in common with you. A space might be named after an interest or type of work like “coaches” “musicians” “writing” “podcasting” or we may use spaces to onboard communities that exist outside of Groove into the platform (like alumni of an online workshop). When you join, you can create Grooves that are just for space members.

📸
Picture, please!

A nudge for new users to add a profile picture every time they try to Groove without one.

🕺🏽
For new Groovers: no waiting to be let in Instead of waiting for their application to be processed, people can join Groove via the form on our website and download the app immediately. This means that when you share Groove.ooo with friends, they’ll be able to get right in.
👏
More likelihood of finding matches Grooves that are open for everyone to join are more likely to find matches, so we made it easier to create one: 1. By default, Grooves started by new Groovers will be open for everyone to join, and everyone will be notified - so hop on in! We did this so that new Groovers will be more likely to find a match, meet new people, and can grow their orbit. 2. For experienced Groovers, we’ve simplified the way that ‘social settings’ work: Instead of via the settings page, now when you start a Groove you’ll be able to toggle if you want it to be for everyone to join, friends-of-friends, or just your orbit. This is also useful if you’re in a time zone with fewer Groovers around and want to increase the chances of finding a match.
🪐
Unlocking orbits later Now, orbits unlock after new Groovers have met 25 people (through Grooving with them or accepting orbit requests). Before, you had to Groove 5x or meet 5 people before unlocking orbits.
🔔
Letting others know you’re Grooving

Before, you only got notified when people in your orbit were Grooving which meant new members weren't getting any notifications and if you had a small orbit you weren't getting many either. Now, you’ll be notified when “everyone” Grooves are started. You can adjust this by tapping your picture, then 'settings'.

If no one from your previous Groove joins you to “Groove again”, your orbit will be notified after 30 seconds and you’ll have the chance to open your Groove up for anyone to join.

🕑
Text changes for clarity To let you know that upcoming Groove times reflect your local time zone
📆
Create scheduled Grooves for all Meet new friends by creating a scheduled Groove everyone can join! Create a scheduled Groove by tapping the calendar in the top right corner of the app and make it available to anyone on the Groove app by adding one of the listed emojis. (Once someone RSVPs, the Groove will then become available just for people in your orbit and theirs aka friends-of-friends style.)
💪
Referred by” added to profiles When you refer a friend, it will say your name on their profile. If you were referred by someone to Groove directly through a Groover’s share link, we’ve gone back and noted that on your profile. Reason behind this: to help create trust (seeing who knows who).
📽️
Poof to video/audio issues on Groove! Our new video server is live.
🤳
Turn that picture right side up! If your profile picture showed up the wrong way recently, upload it again now and you’ll be good to go.
📅
Bump up “Grooves starting soon” When a scheduled Groove is starting in the next 15 minutes it’ll now bump up to the top of the home screen.
🥳
Milestone celebration graphics After you complete a Groove milestone, like hitting your 50th Groove, you’ll see a nifty graphic to celebrate (and can download to share!) ✨
🔔
If no one’s around, sign up for a notification

If you start a Groove and no one joins you, you can now get notified when the next one starts (whether that person is in your orbit or not) so you can get into flow asap.

👁️
Making more in-progress Grooves visible Update everyone’s home screens so you can see more in-progress Grooves, even if people aren’t in your orbit, so the energy is popping for all to see.
💡
Updates to the lightbulb on the home screen Access our FAQ and “How Groove works” video by clicking the lightbulb in the app. New Groovers will also see this when they log in for the first time.
💬
Message required when sending an orbit request Perhaps, you saw something on their profile that made you say, “Wow I’d love to bump into that person in a Groove”. Mention it! This will help contribute to the culture that orbit requests are for people you know or have something in common with and are excited to meet.
📸
Add a pic and bio ASAP New Groovers are now prompted to add their photos and bios right away, so you’ll see more of these filled out, making it more comfortable to hop into a Groove with someone you don’t know.
📅
Scheduled Grooves starting soon If a scheduled Groove is starting soon, it’s bumped up to the top of the homepage.
🎉
Celebrate accomplishments

Groovy graphics to celebrate milestones with a share button to post them on social media or send them to a friend.

💡
Making our FAQ and demo more accessible

Clicking the lightbulb in the app will help folks find our FAQ and a video about how Groove works.

📢
Share page improvements Providing Groovers with the ability to share Groove with a friend while inside a Groove.
📝
Access your task list when the keyboard is up in a Groove No more playing peek-a-boo with your task list button in the Groove chat, it’ll always be accessible.
🕺
Branding updates Subtle graphics update in the app to make it match our new website.
💌
Creating an orbit request Ask someone if they’d like to be a part of your orbit, aka Groove with you.
⚙️
Managing your orbit settings To help you control when Groove searches beyond your orbit. By default, clicking ‘Start a Groove’ will search for Groovers in your orbit for the first minute and then expand outside of that if no one has joined you.
🪐
Creating a Groove for just your orbit Orbits will help you find a balance between seeing familiar faces and meeting new friends. Learn more about orbits here. New Groovers will unlock orbit features after Grooving 5 times.
📆
New welcoming experience Groove’s Welcome Crew will host Scheduled Grooves for new Groovers.
Confirmation pop-up to start a Groove Clicking “Start a Groove” will open a pop-up to confirm you’re ready to get going. This is so that you can’t start a Groove by accident. (aka butt-Groove)
🔁
Groove again Option to hop into another public Groove with the same people, immediately after completing one.
👋
New Groover onboarding flow Updated way of making an account and entering Groove for the first time, that will cause fewer account-creation bugs and need less troubleshooting.
Searching for Groovers timer When you click “Start a Groove” the progress bar will fill up over the course of five minutes. If no one joins you, it times out and you’re encouraged to try again. (So that you won’t forget about a Groove you created and be missing when someone shows up.)
🗨️
Chat improvements Ability to message people 1:1 or in small groups, even if you haven’t all Grooved together.
💻
New website launched Visit www.groove.ooo to check it out!
👁️
Private Grooves Opportunity to create a private Groove directly inside a group chat.
🕖
Grooving hours card on the home page for new Groovers To notify new Groovers that they can set their Grooving hours.
⚙️
Grooving hours - settings interface update To make it clearer which of your hours are set to “on” vs “off”, and when you are getting notifications.
👋
New person indication Inside the pre-Groove chat, you’ll be able to see if someone is a “Groover you haven't met yet”.
💬
Chats Ability to message someone after a Groove ends.
🔦
Groover spotlights Highlighting some of the awesome people in this community.
🗣️
Pre-groove nudge Subtly help remind everyone to be considerate of one another’s time in pre-groove chat.
💡
New Onboarding Flow New Groovers now see a step-by-step ‘how to Groove’ when they sign in for the first time. Everyone can see this walk-through by clicking the light bulb — it’s great for showing friends in person how Groove works.
📆
Sync your scheduled Grooves to your Google Calendar
🔤
Add custom titles to a Groove Title your scheduled Grooves around a topic or habit. For example, you might schedule a “To-Do Planning” Groove on Mondays to set priorities for the week while others do the same.
📆
Schedule Grooves into the future Coordinate when you want to Groove with someone else or plan when you want to dedicate time to something. In the future, you will be able to schedule Grooves with specific people.
📸
Add photos inside your in-Groove chat messages To send pictures of what you accomplished while in the Groove.
🔎
Search Groovers A step to create infrastructure for chats and discovery of new people in the future.
✂️
Delete chat messages and tasks

Curious how we decide on new features? 🤔