Back in July we announced that behind-the-scenes work for byDesign Workspace 2.0 was underway. Today, it's with much excitement that we share an official release date: October 28, 2021.
We launched the original byDesign Workspace back in February — it was a welcome departure from an out-of-house system that bogged down our output. Eight months since the original launch, we're ready to bring things to a new level with the introduction of a new Workspace. One that's been built (and designed) completely from the ground up. Thanks in large part to the fantastic feedback our customers have provided us since the initial release.
In addition, there are many changes coming to not only byDesign Workspace, but byDesign as a whole. So let's cover those first.
byDesign is proud to be adding a new Specialist to the lineup. Welcome the Marketing Strategist. Much like you use Specialized Hours today, this new specialist will be available on-demand to help you formulate your strategy, be it micro or macro, giving you fresh ideas, strategic advice, and ways to maximize byDesign within your organization.
The Marketing Strategist will be rolling out through October 28, with a full rollout after the launch of Workspace 2.0.
We're doubling down on quality for both design and marketing-related deliverables. We're working with our Designers and Specialists internally to establish a first-touch checklist to run through before submitting deliverables. We're then introducing a new internal status state (invisible to you) titled Ready for Review, where your Success Manager will then run through a similar checklist to ensure accuracy and quality.
This double-take improvement will help us deliver better, quality results the first time around on your requests.
Specialized Hours were confusing. So we've simplified it. They're just now called Marketing Hours.
We've heard lots of great feedback around our plan structure and are excited to introduce a revised plan and pricing structure that will be rolling out on October 28, 2021. All current clients will be grandfathered into their current plan for six months after October 28, 2021. Meaning new pricing will apply for subscribers who subscribed on or before October 27, 2021, through April 28, 2022.
The pricing will be streamlined into two core plans, Premium and Ultra. Premium offering a fixed number of hours, similar to how it is today, and Ultra shifting to unlimited hours (instead of being capped at twenty as it is today). These two plans also will allow you to purchase additional request slots (perfect for our agencies). Ultimately, giving you more output!
More details on pricing and plan updates will come closer to the rollout.
In byDesign Workspace 2.0, you'll now have access to "Messages". This combines the experience of working with byDesign into one, singular application. Eliminating the need to learn Slack and check both applications for updates. Almost identical to your experience in using Slack today, you'll be able to message the entire byDesign team, get notifications when items are complete or we need more info, and more.
We'll have videos detailing and highlighting this feature in the coming weeks.
In some cases, you may have had a request (like content) that needed to have multiple requests to complete. Think the copy for the content, the design, the actual calendar. But these seemed to get lost and it was hard to follow the progress of the full picture.
Each request now has the opportunity to create sub-requests. So when you're on a main request, you'll see all the associated sub-requests on it. Click into it to see a request pop-up, just like for the parent request.
We'll have videos detailing and highlighting this feature in the coming weeks.
Success Managers can now set requests as recurring for either weekly or monthly instances. So you want a weekly SEO report, or a monthly content calendar. No longer will that have to be manually inputted as a request each time. It will just be created at the set interval!
Internally, we'll now have a much, much more robust client profile module. Each Success Manager, Designer, and Specialist will all be able to access information like your brand archetype, value propositions, website, past requests, brand assets, notes from previous calls, and even all the various different tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar that you might have shared with us in the past. This will allow us to ask once and never again, plus ensure all the work we do is consistent and in-line with your goals and strategy.
The dashboard in 1.0 did the job, but didn't pack a punch. In 2.0, you'll be able to see a list view of the requests in a specific category and toggle between the tabs to see the list of requests in different statuses. This allows you to see it all versus just two requests a status.
In addition, on the right sidebar, you can see your plan details, you can now share your top three marketing goals for the month, and you'll also be able to see request suggestions based on previous requests you've made.
We'll have videos detailing and highlighting this feature in the coming weeks.
We're eliminating Google Drive as we rebuild our AWS database to handle source files and larger file types. With this, you'll now have access to a "current" and "archived" folder within each request. Meaning you don't have to decipher which files are the most recent or most updated, and you can just focused on the final design file versus the source file.
We'll have videos detailing and highlighting this feature in the coming weeks.
There are literally hundreds of improvements and new features in Workspace 2.0, and we can't wait for you to get to experience them. Workspace 2.0 doesn't only mark the launch of a new application, but it marks the launch of an overhaul of our company as a whole. We're building to be better, provide more value, and be a long-term partner for all of your marketing needs.
Below, you'll find some snippets of each expected features that will launch in byDesign Workspace 2.0 on release as well as throughout Q4.
Stay tuned as we release more info leading up to launch! The product team is excited to see how byDesign Workspace 2.0 can enhance the relationship and value we provide our customers.