Substack's Roadmap And Why 'No, Substack, We Don’t Want Reels' Went Viral

Compiled by a Product Manager for the Substack Team

Hi, I’m Karo 🤗.
Each week, I share awesome insights from the world of AI product management and building in public. If you’re new here - welcome! Here’s a peek at what you might have missed:
- My First 6 Months on Substack - Here’s What Drove My Rapid Growth

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Why ‘We Don’t Want Reels’ Went Viral

JC might’ve kicked off a mini-revolution:

That note blew up: restacked, shared on Reddit, quoted everywhere. Even got a Spanish translation from Salvador.

20.1K likes in 3 days.

Since I’m a Product Manager - and bringing community needs to life is literally my day job - I figured I’d amplify the message.

So here I am, awkwardly standing in Substack’s metaphorical hallway, going: “Heeey, I brought community notes.”

So here I am, awkwardly standing in Substack’s metaphorical hallway, going: “Heeey, I brought community notes.” Illustration by Karo Z.

How Substack Became the Internet’s Most Emotionally Intelligent Platform

First things first: I love Substack.

Like many other creators, I came for the tools but stayed for the community.

There’s a kind of soft magic to it:

• Writers supporting writers

• Creators and subscribers meeting for digital coffees

• Readers actually reading (imagine!)

• And best of all: no one’s yelling. No spam, rage-tweets, no CryptoJimmy DMing my Grandma trying to trade dogecoin.

Substack is the most emotionally intelligent, sunlit corner of the internet. We come here and let both our inner child and inner entrepreneur feel seen.

So yes, I love Substack. And it feels like Substack loves me back.

And I’m one of the many who feel that way - that’s why we care so much.

We want to help Substack grow, and we’d also really like to keep wearing cosy sweaters around here.

How Substack’s Product Design Fuels Community-Driven Growth

Substack has mastered features that strengthen writer–reader connections and amplify network effects:

• Tools that spark meaningful dialogue: Post Comments

• Direct messaging between writers and readers: Subscriber Chat

• Smart network effects through Notes and Recommendations

• Engagement moments via Live

Together, these features enable:

• Organic discovery

• Cross-pollination across communities

• Benefiting both established voices and emerging writers (like myself!)

Most importantly, what gets rewarded on Substack today isn’t virality for its own sake, but authenticity and genuine connection. Depth. And I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s found a better platform for that.

Substack’s Public Roadmap

Before we dive in, a tiny ask from me: a public roadmap.

It’s always surprising when community-platforms don’t have community-influenced roadmaps.

I assume there’s a valid strategy behind this, like keeping the roadmap private to maintain a competitive edge - and that’s fair.

But there is a middle ground: a public roadmap doesn’t have to be a full-blown GPS with real-time updates.

Companies like Monday and Capacities manage this balance beautifully:

On the left: Monday’s Community Roadmap. On the right: Capacities’ Community Roadmap.

A shared roadmap:

• Builds trust (it says: We’re listening. You matter. )

• Enables ownership - and ownership fuels engagement

What the Community Is Asking For

Let’s face it: reels are already here. We may not like them, but they’ve launched, and they’re being used. And I do understand how they fit into Substack’s growth strategy. Now it’s time to focus on features that drive user retention.

So, I reviewed JC’s note and ALL the replies, added PM commentary, and pulled together this consensus blueprint:

👉 Accessibility Improvements

• Offline mode - people want to engage with Substack in transit, on holidays and in low-bandwidth or low-device-access environments.

• A way to access drafts from mobile (suggested by Jaden DiPaolo)

• Multi-language support (suggested by Florentin Jaeger)

👉 Discoverability Improvements

• “New in [Topic]” feed – for discovering fresh voices (by Chris)

• Better category filters - honestly, finding fellow PMs (other than my guru Lenny Rachitsky) hasn’t been easy. Carlos Jackal Poetry is asking for a poetry section too.

• Smart discoverability personalization - suggested by The Mighty Humanzee

• Stream of latest platform-wide posts - suggested by Mic Johnson

👉 Reader UX Fixes

• Remove read posts from the feed – suggested by JC

👉 Writer UX Fixes

ECH made some excellent points here:

• Center alignment

• Indents

• Text formatting & Line Spacing

• Drafts for notes

These are foundational capabilities for anyone working with any kind of text.

👉 Organization & Productivity Features

• Save/highlight & organize notes - suggested by BOSS

• Save/highlight & organize quotes - this one is from me (think Pinterest-like boards for quotes)

• Folders for managing saved posts - suggested by Chris

• In-app subscription management

• Ability to schedule notes - added by Value Don't Lie.

👉 Micro-community Features

• Small group chats – perfect for post collaboration

👉 Flexible Pricing Features

• Flexible subscription tiers

• One-time purchases for select content - from Joshua Lavender

• Platform-wide payment options - from conor king

• Subscription bundles - from Vswish

• Pay-per-view - from Tom Morris

👉 VIP Features

• A direct line to Substack for top creators – suggested by Valentin Bunea. I’m not sure it’s the right call, but I get the business logic.

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Conclusion

Substack Team, you’ve built something rare. And you’re sitting on a goldmine of people who can help you ideate, sketch UX, write onboarding flows, and test prototypes for free.

Hand us a sandbox, and we’ll make magic.

Thank you!

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Creators Who Helped Share JC’s Original Note

Yogesh (Marketing with Vibes) , The Slow Music Movement, Israel, Judy Huynh, Ms. Maine, Simone Hall, The Unsettled Mind, Joe Boyd, Manlio De Domenico, Francesca Bossert, Dru's Muse, Way Too Wabisabi, Allie Lazar, Ruthie Witmer, Alan Haley, Owen Stone, The Everyday Jeffrey, Themba Lewis, Honey And Glass, Jax in Maine, Bianca B Fauro • Ficção cristã, David Kern, Ossiana Tepfenhart, StockOpine, Jeff Rich, Fibro Vision, FRED GRAVER, Mal, Malcolm Garnette, Marc Ó Cathasaigh, David Loney, Renato Vargas, Shawn Brown, Amy Macpherson, Roriedo, Patrick Senti, SGCDB, KM, Samuel J. Howard, Jennifer Sarah Blakeslee, Nancy Warren, ER, EFPROPERTY NG, 🌈🌈 Anna Imagination, Marjorie, Jezz Lundkvist, Haneen Saeed, Lisa Tea, Jenna Nicole Stevens, Lior Flint, Written Six, Taschi, Raychel Yearsley, Tom Barrie Simmons Author, Dijana Novak Kresic, Dave Bender, Ben Clement, The Reason We Learn, Josie James, Derek Lakin, Andy K, Tania Finch, Deniz, Caroline, Fistbump the Sky, Elle Bogle, Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, Nana Kasimu, Abigail K, Kingsway Mission, Jeffrey Merrihue, Dan Odin, Andrea, Vicki, vanna, Jason Jonker, Cynthia Vaughn, Sarah Morgan, Robert Noel Clarkson

P.S. I wanted to tag all of contributors, but I reached email length limit :/
I’d love to give credit where it’s due! Just add your name in the comments! 👇

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