Shared Drafts
For many salespeople, drafting emails are a collaborative process. They want to make sure they're using the correct talking points or details in their pricing proposals, which requires collaboration and feedback from others.
Shared Drafts was our most requested feature, that we delivered in 2024.
The Problem
The previous workflow to collaborate on draft emails involved a lot of copy and paste, either into Slack or Google Docs.
The problem however was twofold:
1. Reduced efficiency and speed due to context switching (which is a core value prop of Superhuman) but also
2. The loss of context of all previous emails and comments that would help teammates collaborate on the draft.
Platform Context
Superhuman was already a multiplayer collaborative product when the Shared Drafts project started. Users were already able to share email threads, and make internal comments to their teammates.
One of the challenges here was to make sure that sharing a draft integrated seamlessly with our already existing collaboration features.
Early Direction
One of the early directions we explored was giving each draft their own comment section. Since an email thread could have a lot of other ongoing conversations, comments about the draft could potentially get lost in the noise otherwise.
We user tested a prototype with users who requested the feature and the UX tested very well.
Scope and Risk
Although the design direction tested very well, we were encouraged to minimize engineering scope as much as possible after a review session with our CEO. We then decided to utilize the existing functionality of comments, and planned to add drafts having their own comment section as a V2 version of the feature if users found shared email threads to be too noisy.
Detached vs. Attached
A difficult design question was should shared drafts:
1. Be detached from the message they're replying to so that they're closer to any potential comments and,
2. Should both the draft author and those the draft was shared with see the exact same UI?
After examining all potential edge cases and reviewing potential scope increases, the team decided to keep shared drafts attached for the author but detach them for those the draft was shared with. This greatly simplified the UX for the draft author and minimized engineering scope. For those the draft was shares with, detaching the shared draft also differentiated itself from any drafts they might be in the process of writing.
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CTA Variations
Given Superhuman's emphasis on UI minimalism, along with the multitude of new features and actions in the bottom tray when drafting an email, it took many iterations to find the most optimal solution here.
I experimented with different button positions, icons, button copy, visual changes to existing UI components and animations. We ultimately landed on a toggle, since we could communicate both the action and the state of the draft with a single UI component. We also decided to animate it in only on click, to save even more UI real estate.
FINAL DESIGN
Share the Draft and Email Thread
Share an email draft and its full context with a single button.
See Drafts Shared with You
Easily see when drafts have been shared with you when viewing an email thread.
Collaborate with Comments
Seamlessly leave feedback and suggestions by adding a comment.
Share on Mobile
Share drafts while you're on the go, and collaborate on your email drafts anytime, anywhere.
Metrics and Success
After launching, we saw that:
1. 10% of all users who share an email thread are sharing a draft.
2. 100% of all teams who are sharing an email thread have shared a draft.
3. 0 user-reported bugs or issues, only 2 errors found in BugSnag.
Behind the numbers we heard some great qualitative user feedback as well:
1. "This feature is 🔥! I waste lots of time reply all-ing to everyone but the customer to discuss before replying officially, this is perfect to speed that up. I love how you have your finger on the pulse."
2. "I have been waiting for this! I literally told my coworker I needed this feature."