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Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

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Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#31

Post by julee04 »

renat_z wrote: post #13
pixel_tracing wrote: post #11

Also in the analytics space but not related to IoT apps, curious do you do use batch or stream processing or combination of both in lambda architecture? Just on a high level what components are you using behind the scenes? I ask because I love this work!

Renat from Engineering at Kraftful. The MVP has a different architecture, but we’re in the process of switching to using batch processing. For now the main components are Segment and BigQuery.

I’m curious how are you using Segment? I used to work at Segment and we didn’t have any IoT customers due to the price being too high

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#32

Post by yana »

idoricko wrote: post #30

Wow this looks like a great and much needed product! The demo shows a really simple and clean UI. Love the charts too.

Really appreciate you picking up on the simplicity of the dashboard. Usability is core to our product (both to help connected products to be usable and to do it with a usable analytics product). We definitely have lots of work ahead before we get there. But it's an exciting challenge :)

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#33

Post by yana »

royiby wrote: post #29

This has been the promise for so many years and yet have not been solved. Rooting for you to solve it. You definately look like you're on the right track!!

Thank you! Appreciate the support. The longer this goes unsolved, the greater the impact as more and more things are becoming connected.

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#34

Post by cheskar »

Congrats on the launch! Really great beta and access to analytics for better UI is definitely a need. Many IoT companies seem to focus on iterating the hardware side and lag on the app UI updates. It's easy to spot since these smart companies keep building and launching new products and connect it to their brand's existing app (which is usually looks the same as the time they launched the previous product).

As for the video, the demo is really straight forward and imo easy to follow. Looking forward to watching Kraftul's progress and hopefully adopting the dashboard on our end when we grow.

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#35

Post by yana »

cheskar wrote: post #34

Congrats on the launch! Really great beta and access to analytics for better UI is definitely a need. Many IoT companies seem to focus on iterating the hardware side and lag on the app UI updates. It's easy to spot since these smart companies keep building and launching new products and connect it to their brand's existing app (which is usually looks the same as the time they launched the previous product). As for th…

Glad you found the demo helpful! Would love for you to try out the dashboard and get your thoughts on the experience.

You bring up an excellent point about multi-device apps. When companies launch additional devices, the app is usually an afterthought at best. If there's any new features that go with the new hardware, those features get the most prominent location in the app (usually on the home screen). It doesn't matter whether they're actually things that users frequently want to use. There's so much room for usability optimization in these apps.

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#36

Post by troygoode »

kareemm wrote: post #24
troygoode wrote: post #4

This is really clever. There are definitely huge gaps with existing product analytics tools once you veer away from their primary ICP – just ask any B2B PLG company about account-level analytics... Looks like a great solution for IoT companies!

> just ask any B2B PLG company about account-level analytics Are you saying account-level analytics are hard to come by in Amplitude, Mixpanel, etc?

Yes, especially if you have account-level usage that isn't just a rollup of user usage, e.g. API usage that isn't tied to a user, but to an account that multiple users are members of.

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#37

Post by leratomatsio »

Congrats on the launch! Looking forward to seeing innovation in this space! We just yesterday decided to disconnect our home water boiler from the central programming. Just can’t seem to figure out how to optimize to reduce consumption whilst still having hot water when we need it!

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#39

Post by rachsoon »

The best form of data is usage and third party data, since self-reported, first-hand data can be dirty, chocked full of biases and subjected to opinions. Connected devices are only just beginning to take over and we will see more of them in our spaces - from owned and rented properties to co-living and co-working properties. Excited to see where Kraftful will go!

Re: Launch HN: Kraftful (YC S19) – UX Analytics for IoT Products

#40

Post by mangoman »

heidig wrote: post #25
mangoman wrote: post #23

I'm confused, how would this be different than an IOT app developer adding mixpanel, amplitude, etc and tagging the various events in their app? does the sdk somehow automatically figure out when the device that the user is trying to connect actually connects properly?

Heidi from Kraftful here again. You’re right, it is possible to track all the right events and then send data to Amplitude and configure charts there. The way this is different is that we’ve already done most of that work for hardware companies. So they don’t need to figure out how to track IoT specific events. The SDK doesn’t do that automatically, but our documentation saves them time figuring out how to do it. And…

Thanks for responding! I'm not quite sure I follow what the value proposition (over a generic analytics solution) would be then if the SDK doesn't know how to automatically detect the 'interesting' events and I'd have to add them manually, unless I'm missing something? Why is 'figuring out how to' track IoT specific events tricky? And why would 'your documentation' be enough of a differentiator? It seems like the important events would largely be based on various APIs provided Android/iOS, no?

I guess, I'm not really understanding how kraftful would save users time. And those other product analytic services have tons of integrations, AND they could also use those solutions for their landing pages / logged in web experience too. Imagine creating a 'funnel' like

Home screen (referrer=HN) -> product purchased -> app installed -> device connected

where the funnel tracks the funnel of users from HN all the way down to device connection. Does that make sense?

I realize that my concerns are a little pessimistic, sorry about that! I do think that there's something there, but I'm not quite sure I understand the overall value prop. I also noticed your site has something like a no-code 'white label' mobile app product for IOT device manufacturers, that seems really interesting! how does that tie in with the analytics piece?

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