Dec 6, 2020

SaaS and startup guy; currently working on markuphero.com. Previously founded Amplify.la & Velocify Why is Evernote the only SaaS app that enables users to annotate attached images directly in Evernote? Well it's because they bought Skitch in 2011 and integrated the annotation tools. While I've stopped using Evernote and switched to Notion last year, I very much miss the ability to just click and annotate any attached file in my notes. Notion doesn't offer this feature and neither do any of the other popular SaaS apps I use every day. The above image shows how to annotate in Evernote File Annotation is a Daily Activity For many people, adding annotations like arrows, highlights, text boxes, callouts and comments to images and PDF's is a daily operation. And there are a ton of tools you can do this with. In fact, one could argue it's a commoditized product category. Companies like Droplr, Cloudapp, Skitch, Snagit and Markup Hero all have similar offerings for taking screenshots, uploading files and adding annotations. The problem is they work in a silo. File annotation has become an activity that happens independent of all the other things we do every day. But then we take those annotated files and share them in other SaaS tools. So why should they be separate behaviors? Why shouldn't users be able to annotate files from wherever they're already working. Whether Notion, Asana, Jira, Slack, Intercom or any other SaaS tools -- people are attaching annotated images and PDF's to every day. File Annotation Use Cases There are many reasons and opportunities for SaaS applications to offer file annotation as part of their offering. From customer support platforms to project management software, CRM to learning management, and everything in-between. Here are some examples to chew on. The Customer Support Agent Using Intercom You're a customer support rep. You write help articles. You create onboarding documents. You build walkthroughs and FAQ's. And of course you're talking to customers all day over chat an email. There are many great support platforms like Zendesk, GrooveHQ and Drift. But you've chosen Intercom as your customer support SaaS application (I chose it because I use it today and know the tool well). Intercom is a slick tool. They have two primary functions: Managing support tickets - Here you are responding to customer issues in real time either via their built in chat tools or email. Maintaining a help portal - Here you are creating support materials and publishing them on a help wiki, just like a blog. Here's how a typical day might go. A customer for your application is having an issue customizing shortcuts. They submit a ticket and you get notified. You go into Intercom, review the ticket and reply back explaining that shortcuts are set in the Settings > Options > Shortcuts section. You could just attach a help document from your Intercom portal, but that will take the user some time to read through and find their solution. This can be annoying to a user when they just want a specific answer. Instead you decide to paste an image of the settings screen into the chat, and you want to circle the shortcuts tab and where to enter the shortcut they want. You already have this image in your Intercom canned responses, but you don't have the annotations. You could copy the image to your annotation tool, make the annotations, copy it again and paste into the chat. But wouldn't it be simpler if you could just click "Annotate File", then add your annotations and instantly see them reflected? Similarly, while creating a help document, you could take a screenshot, add some annotations, and paste that into your Intercom support portal. But a month later you decide you want to update that page and specifically you want to make changes to the annotation. This is going to take some time because you'll need to re-create the image and annotations and replace it in the page. Wouldn't it be easier if you just clicked on the annotated file, re-opened it directly in Intercom, edited your annotations and clicked save. Um, yes, it would be way easier. The Product Manager Using Notion Say you are a product manager at Loom and you're a master at nailing product-market fit . You use Notion every day to create product requirements documents and organize your customer development research. You are working on a scope document for a new feature — adding tabs instead of sections to the Loom personal library. You have a detailed scope document with images and functionality descriptions. And now you need to add some annotations. One click, open the annotation tools, make the markup, update the file in the document instantly. So effective. The Teacher Using Google Classroom You're a high school english teacher using Google Classroom or one of the other dozen learning management systems like Canvas or Schoology. A student submits an essay homework assignment in PDF format. You get a notification from Google Classroom that a student assignment needs grading. You can easily use the grade feature and add comments in your LMS, but you want to give some more constructive feedback to the student. You could download the PDF, open it in Acrobat (if you have the expensive version) and try to add arrows and boxes and highlights (really really hard and confusing). Instead, wouldn't it be nice if you could just click the annotate PDF button, open the document in a modal, add your feedback and markup, and save it back to Google Classroom for the student to see. You would never even leave your LMS, fast, easy, efficient. Source