My summary of Coda before using it? A document sharing product, plain and simple. Probably similar to Google Docs, making it easy for people to share information and collaborate.
How does Coda explain itself in the first minute? “Enough of this sheet” reads the strap-line above the fold on Coda’s homepage, followed by “It’s time for a new doc that brings words, data, and teams together.” There’s a clear call to action encouraging me to “Make a doc”.
How does Coda work? After clicking on “Make a doc” I land on Coda’s signup page.
Signing up with my Google account is simple and I don’t need to provide any further information. The ‘docs’ section of Coda feels similar to the home sections of products like Dropbox and Notion.
Clicking on on the “+ New Doc” call to action introduces a pop up with a number of a set templates to choose from.
I select “Big Rock brainstorm” and what follows is a useful explanation about what a big rock brainstorm is as well as the actual template to get started with the activity, enabling me to capture the output from the brainstorming session.
Another standard template that I like the look of is Coda’s “Simple OKR tracker”, providing a nice way to track objectives, key results, responsible person and status.
Did Coda deliver on my expectations? Yes. Coda feels like an easy to use platform for different document types, creating them and storing them in a single place. I can imagine that Coda’s business model is largely based on the depth of customer engagement, and I can see how the range of templates available will help achieving this goal.
Main learning point: Coda is a good example of a product that does what it says on the tin; easy document creation and collaboration. I can see how evolving templates available through the platform help in drive active usage.
