What’s Your Substack Roadmap for 2026? Mine Comes Straight From 315 Readers.
Understanding Substack User Behavior
After a while on Substack, it’s dangerously easy to assume readers use it the same way we do.
They don’t.
Not everyone opens their app and navigates to Home. Not everyone starts by reading messages from paid members. Not everyone opens the app at all.
The only universal truth is this: they subscribed. They trusted us with their email because something we do is worth it to them.
And it’s our job to know exactly what that ‘‘something’’ is.
Hey, I’m Karo - AI Product Manager, builder of stackshelf.app and a firm believer that the real value of any product comes from the people who choose to use it.
If you’re new here, welcome! Here’s what you might have missed:
- Claude Skills Are Taking the AI Community by Storm
- Vibecoding Tips: The Ultimate Collection
- Vibecoding x Cybersecurity: Survival Guide
Last week, I sent out a survey.
Today, I’m taking you inside my process: why I asked what I asked, what you told me, and who won.
Surveying My Own Survey
Before analyzing the results, I needed a baseline for what “good” survey response rate even looks like on Substack. That number alone shows how engaged a community really is.
Based on the data I could find, few writers share their numbers, but the typical range seems to land around 2–6%. The top publicly documented example I’ve seen is Internet Princess at 6.88% (8,950 out of 130,000 in June 2025).
So I kept my expectations humble. And then the data did something unexpected.
When the survey went out on November 9th, PwA had 4,555 subscribers.
315 of you responded - putting us at a remarkably high 6.91%. You showed up in a big way, and I appreciate it more than you know.
Survey Results
Note: I picked the most useful highlights, otherwise this post would be way too long.
Your Value Expectations
Question: Which post you’d click on and expect to deliver the most value?
Why I asked it: I wanted to know which post feels like the most useful investment of your time and attention.
Result:
46% - Vibecoding Tips (with
)37% - Claude Skills
17% - Indie Builders
What this means:
This genuinely surprised me. Claude Skills is the most popular post I’ve ever written, but it wasn’t the top choice here.
Which proves something I’ve heard more experienced writers say again and again: your most popular post isn’t always the one that’s perceived as the most valuable.
And that insight is gold for me. Understanding what feels most valuable helps me shape what I write next, and what to double down on.
It also makes choosing the right title even more terrifying.
Your Substack Usage
Question: Which section do you usually visit first on Substack? (Home, Activity, Dashboard, etc.)
Why I asked it: Because the first screen you see is where attention really begins.
What I learned: 53% of you head straight to Activity, not Home.
What This Means:
That means the long-form piece I spent hours crafting is not the first thing you see; the tiny one-minute comment I posted between meetings is.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it: Substack is a social-first platform, not a writing-first platform.
This single insight reframes the entire distribution strategy:
attention doesn’t trickle down from the article to the comments - it’s the other way around.
Readers enter through the social layer first, not the editorial one. Which means every comment, every reply, every micro-interaction matters.
I broke this down in more detail here (if you’re curious):
I Analyzed Every Interaction From My First 6 Months on Substack - Here’s What Drove My Rapid Growth
Your Community Needs (Or: When Data Tells Three Different Stories)
Now, this section of the survey turned out to be the most puzzling and hardest to interpret.
I could pretend I fully understood it, but instead, I’ll show you the maze I found myself in, and how I’m thinking about it.
Here we go:
Question: How often do you visit our Community Chat?
Result: 69% answered: Rarely or never.
What this means: If I only looked at this question, I’d conclude that Community Chat adds very little value for my readers.
BUT!
I also asked this:
Question: Do you feel you’re getting enough support from our community chat?
Result: 63% answered: I get significantly more support from the PwA community than I get from other places.
What this means: With only these two questions, I’d assume community isn’t for everyone, but it delivers real value to the people who use it.
BUT!
I also asked for additional insights:
I feel overwhelmed by all community chats.
There are too many community chats on Substack.
I wasn’t aware that you run a community chat.
What’s the name of your community?
I get lost in all the communities.
What this means: Most people don’t know where anything is.
BUT!
I also got these comments:
I pin my fav chats, so they’re easier to find.
You post so often, your chat is always on my list.
I saved your chat.
What this means: Many people know where things are.
In other words: Community chat is both not valuable and valuable, both invisible and visible, both overwhelming and essential.
And the kicker: 31% of you answered: I’m new and/or shy, I’d prefer an introduction.
That number haunts me because it reveals something bigger than PwA’s community chat. It exposes the fundamental flaw in how chats work on platforms like Substack.
The power users will always find a way. They’ll pin threads, save chats, build their own systems. But the moment you optimize for them, you’ve already lost everyone else.
And if 31% of my highly-engaged respondents need an introduction, how many of my non-respondents have already given up?
What This Means For My Roadmap: I’m not convinced I know how to navigate this maze without making it worse.
My current theory is that it’s not a community engagement problem, but a discovery and onboarding problem.
What I’m testing next:
A “Start Here” thread - I wish I could pin it inside of our chat, but since this feature is not available, I’ll have to get creative.
Will it work? I don’t know yet. But doing nothing while 31% of readers are asking for help finding the door feels wrong.
Your Product-Building Needs
37% of respondents need help launching their next product. Not building it. Not designing it. Not testing it.
Launching it.
Members are sitting on vibecoded apps they’re too shy to test, Notion templates that were never sold, and “almost ready” courses that never see daylight.
The number one pain point isn’t technical skills, it’s not even product quality. It’s audience.
Example Comments:
We need product selling in Substack, like an integrated Gumroad.
Having a way to distribute and monetize products directly from Substack.
I add my product links to posts, but after a while even I forget where they are.
What This Means: That insight is a reminder that I still have a lot more to do with StackShelf. If audience is the pain, then distribution is the product. And until Substack launches a native marketplace, StackShelf has to do more than it does today.
Luckily, Substack is full of people we can learn from. One of them is
, who I’ve partnered with to help solve that pain. More on that in December.👉 If you’ve launched products as a solopreneur, let me know. I’d love to collaborate on a post next quarter.
Winners
And now, the fun part:
🎁 4 members won a $25 Amazon gift card:
🎁 4 members won a digital coffee (Ko-Fi or Buy Me a Coffee).
🎁 4 free members got upgraded to Premium
All winners will receive DM’s from me by EOB tomorrow with details.
Conclusion
So that’s my roadmap for 2026: data-powered and hilariously different from what I expected when I hit “publish” on that survey.
Here’s where we’re heading next:
Most of you enter Substack through Activity. That single behavior flips the priorities toward discovery-first.
Better support for launching your products (with StackShelf and beyond).
A more thoughtful onboarding path for people who are new, shy, or feel overwhelmed.
Stronger community routes for the builders who want more momentum.
To everyone who shared their time and honesty - thank you. Your answers revealed what’s missing, and that’s exactly what a roadmap is supposed to do.
Thank you!
Additional Resources
You Might Also Enjoy
How To Plan Your 2026 Product Roadmap by
How to Cited by LLMs by
How To Product-think When AI Builds At Lightning Speed by
A Field Guide To Notes Posters by
3-Step System to Build a Technical Roadmap in 2 Weeks by
What is Product Strategy by
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How is this free? The depth of these insights is invaluable. Thanks, Karo, for sharing.
Wow! So many useful patterns on how we use and what we prefer on Substack. I don't know how I completely missed this survey questionnaire last week!
Thank you, Karon,for mentioning our LLM citation article with Aisha! :)