2024 Recap - Changelog
Updates and improvements to NextWork from 2024
As the year winds down, we’re taking a moment to reflect on some of the key things we’ve built, improved, and shipped together in 2024. It’s been a big year - from no product to having a product, zero signups to more than 50,000, just an idea to a validated and loved product. This year has been all about building a learning experience that our students love.
To celebrate, I’m excited to share a NextWork Recap of 2024—a look back of what we’ve accomplished as a team and community. This changelog isn’t just a list of updates; it’s a tribute to the team’s growth, feedback, and the challenges they’ve tackled head-on. It’s also a thank-you to our students who have learnt on NextWork this year. Whether you’ve been here since day one or just joined, thank-you for all the love and support.
Overarching 2024 Goals
✅ Signups
Goal: 10,000
Results: 50,000+ (exceeded by +370%)
✅ Loved product
Goal: 50+ testimonials
Results: 300+ testimonials (exceeded by +500%)
✅ Retention
Goal: 36%+ retention after first project
Results: 47% retention after first project (exceeded by +30%)
Product Fixes & Improvements
Polishing Season (Dec ‘24)
Update Highlight feature so that it’s on click rather than every time click + drag.
Remember the last used Highlight colour of a student
If you’re not logged in, Highlighting prompts you to login/create an account.
Add loading state for download documentation button
Ability to refresh student’s projects with latest updates from the master copy.
Upload modal has a on-hover border indicator.
Added a checklist component for projects to check all resources are deleted.
Ability to hyperlink anywhere in the project - no more scrolling!
Added text as a code-block type for copying descriptions, titles, etc.
Ability to create url’s to nextwork.org that prefill search box.
Remove orange colour from in-review state.
Update Mission Accomplished success state to new graphics.
New Features
Build Season (June - November ‘24)
Project Portfolio
Advanced Secret Missions and projects
Ability to search all NextWork projects
Create your own saved list of projects
View saved projects in a daily/weekly schedule
Improved onboarding experience
Ability to highlight your own copy of a project
Simplify feature to help understand difficult concepts
Ability to edit task answers
Add tasks for text and images into projects
Add contents menu for project steps
Make contents menu responsive
Add progress bar for project progress
Automatically generate documentation for projects
Ability to zoom in on images
Automatically apply background to photos for projects
LinkedIn post copy ready to copy + paste for each project
Content writing + publishing workflow
Content generator to make first drafts of projects easier
Community Wins
Build Season (Jan - Dec ‘24)
Over 136 counties represented at NextWork
14,000+ community members
NextWork community members creating branded swag for events
Launching City Meetups
Instagram, Tiktok, Substack, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube channels have all gone from near zero presence to combined, over 100k followers. Entirely organic content, zero paid.
Thank you to everyone for all the incredible hard work that has gone into building NextWork this year. For such a small team, we have achieved a lot in six months. Let’s get the world learning.