InnovaBuzz Episode #69 – Diony and Dean McPherson, Paperform
Dean and Diony McPherson – Paperform
In this episode, my guests are Diony and Dean McPherson of Paperform. Paperform is a web platform that enables anyone to create beautiful and functional online forms or product pages quickly, intuitively, and to brand them as they like, all without writing code.
We talked about really understanding your customer needs, addressing that need with a product that serves your customers and providing an awesome user experience.
Listen to the full podcast to find out more about Paperform and the great work that Diony and Dean are doing.
Listen to the Podcast
Really understand what your customers want and need - listen to the users. @paperform #InnovaBuzz Podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes
Key points and take-aways from this episode with Diony and Dean McPherson from Paperform:
- Paperform is a web platform that enables anyone to create beautiful and functional online forms or product pages quickly, intuitively, and to brand them as they like, all without writing code.
- We found a gap in the market, because our friends were coming to them to put together custom online forms, so we decided to build a product to serve that need.
- We believe our solution really benefits a lot of people and a lot of businesses, saves them time and money and makes their lives better as a result.
- As a result of a partnership with AppSumo, they set a deadline for Paperform, perhaps sooner than we anticipated, and then drove the commercial launch. This forced us to deliver a minimum viable product based on what users wanted.
- Our main focus is making sure that our customers are genuinely happy, our users are happy, and that automatically translate into a good product and sales. A lot of the ideology behind the design and building Paperform is to really focus on making that form creation experience fun and quick at the same time.
- Paperform currently integrates with both Stripe and Paypal as payment systems. We also have Zapier integration and are working on more native integrations.
- Paperform currently have about 4000 users, which is quite amazing for a company that has been operating for only a few months. Community is very important for the Paperform team.
- Setting expectations for us is really important. We like to share our product roadmap with our clients – we do that via a Trello board. Showing our cusotmers our plans, starts a conversation and we can learn what is more important to our users and what needs improvement.
- Our marketing focus is shifting now, as we build the company, to Content Marketing – watch out for our regular blog posts.
- Diony personally handles all the support for Paperform, it’s so important to us to have this done well in the early stages. Obviously, as we grow, we’ll need to outsource this, although we’ve also setup our own automation processes.
- It’s important that you focus on what you do well and then outsource the other items – begin with your accountant and your lawyer.
Give yourself permission to just have a go and to fail. Take action! @paperform on #InnovaBuzz Podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Dean and Diony’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Give yourself permission to just have a go and to fail. Take action! Acknowledge the fear, but do it anyway.
- Best thing for new ideas – Really understanding what your customers want and need – listen to the users. And provide exceptionally good service!
- Favourite tool for innovation – Our everyday tools are Trello, Zapier. We also like Xero and Mailshake.
- Keep project / client on track – Know the outcome and commit to a timeline. Well documented processes is important too.
- Differentiate – Be yourself and embrace your uniqueness.
To Be a Leader
Don’t wait for permission – give it to yourself! Believe in yourself and your ability.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank both Diony and Dean via Twitter (@paperform) or Twitter (@dean_mcpherson) and Email. Mention this podcast.
Suggested Guest
Diony suggested Colin Mathews, one of the founders of Mailshake, for me to interview on a future InnovaBuzz podcast.
So Colin keep an eye on your inbox, for an invitation from me to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Diony and Dean McPherson of Paperform.
Links
- Paperform’s Website
- Diony on LinkedIn
- Dean on LinkedIn
- Dean on Twitter
- Paperform on Twitter
- Trello
- Zapier
- Xero
- Mailshake
Be clear about your identity, then you don’t need to compare yourself to others. @paperform #InnovaBuzz Podcast Click To Tweet