After months of planning, the big day is almost here: the new and improved Nook Calendar is launching on Product Hunt on Monday, May 9th. 🚀
But before we do, we wanted to share a bit of information about what Product Hunt is, why we’re launching on it, and what that means for the future of Nook Calendar.
What is Product Hunt?
For the uninitiated, Product Hunt is an online community where hard-working creators like ourselves share their products, all with the goal of finding new users, gaining feedback, and landing the coveted #1 Product of the Day spot. 🏆
Companies and startups like Slack, Canva, Robinhood, Notion, and Trello have all launched on Product Hunt to expand their reach and test out new features. But every day, great products are shared within the community by passionate creators and product builders like us. (If you like supporting young entrepreneurs and being at the forefront of technology, you should really check it out.)
Why is Product Hunt Important?
A successful launch on Product Hunt can increase brand awareness, grow adoption, and propel products to scale faster than traditional channels. 📈
Over the past few months, the entire Nook Calendar team has been working hard to amp up our foundational layer of functionality, and now we think it’s in a great place to build and improve upon it.
To do that, we need more feedback. Increasing our product awareness through a platform like Product Hunt will not only allow us to add new users but hear from other makers, business professionals, and everyday app users about what they like about our product and where we could make some changes.
Doing so will allow us to move into the next phase of our evolution and continue to innovate the calendar, meeting scheduling, and productivity app space.
How Can You Support Nook Calendar on Launch Day?
If you like what we do, show up on launch day and consider sharing a comment about your experience using the app or giving us an upvote. 👍
Every bit of support helps!
What’s In It for You?
Well, aside from building good karma, we have a very special announcement we’ll be sharing day of launch over on Product Hunt. 🤫
You definitely don’t want to miss it.
Also, for every new user that signs up on launch day, we plan to donate $5 CAD to support the Red Cross’s relief efforts in Ukraine. 🇺🇦
To learn more about Product Hunt, visit producthunt.com. If you’d like to be notified about our upcoming launch, sign up here.
See you then!
Whether you’re a sales superstar, in-demand consultant, busy recruiter, or someone who simply needs to schedule a lot of meetings, one thing’s for sure—you’ve probably booked a lot of them over the past two years.
Hybrid work has forced the majority of our meetings online, and while we appreciate being able to wear sweatpants during normal work hours, the time-consuming ballet that is sharing your availability, finding a time to meet, and adding it to your calendar isn’t quite as enjoyable.
Speaking with everyone from solopreneurs to seasoned professionals, it seems like a lot of people find meeting scheduling software either costly, impersonal, or just plain boring. And Calendly and other alternatives don’t always cut it.
We hear you.
Everyone is different, and so is how they work. Making good first impressions is important, and you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for them or basic customizations and integrations with your meeting booking system.
Nook Calendar’s meeting proposal feature is already used by tons of high-performing teams for selecting and proposing meeting times outside of their organization.
Now, we’re making things even easier by letting you build personal pages with shareable calendar-booking links, right in Nook Calendar. Add them to your LinkedIn profile, email signature, website, or messages when finding a time to meet.
We think it’s the best meeting scheduling software out there, and we’re excited for you to give it a try, so let’s get started.
Here’s How to Set Up a Personal Booking Page in Nook Calendar
First off, if you’re new to Nook Calendar—hello! (If you’re already a Nook user, you can skip ahead.)
You’re going to start by syncing your calendar—either from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook—and entering your work email address.
Once you approve any necessary permissions, you’ll set up your People Bar. Search for any connections and add the people you interact with the most when scheduling meetings.
From there, you can add any additional calendars you want to see (add your personal one, if you like, to further prevent any overlaps when scheduling meetings), integrate with Zoom (so you can launch calls straight from your calendar), and choose your preferred display setting—select Match OS, Light Mode, or Dark Mode.
Launch Nook Calendar, and you’re ready to set up your online meeting scheduler.
Now, the fun begins
You’re going to start by claiming your unique URL for sharing your meeting availability page.
Your first name appears by default, but really, it can be anything. We recommend using your full name (e.g., /john-smith).
(You can always change your URL in the future, as long as it’s still available.)
From there, you want to complete your profile.
Your profile pic is automatically pulled in from your Microsoft or GCal account.
But you can add your name, job title, welcome message, and links to social media profiles or professional website, so guests know a bit more about you when booking a meeting.
Then, you can start setting your weekly availability.
Nook Calendar defaults to traditional time blocks—9–12 a.m. and 1–5 p.m. These are the hours someone can book a meeting from your personal page. Adjust them based on your availability.
Your timezone is automatically set to your local time, but you can change it if you primarily work with people in a different timezone and it’s better to visualize that when setting your availability.
Choose which calendar you want to accept meetings in—it can only be booked in one, but Nook Calendar will automatically reference your availability in other calendars you’ve synced to prevent double-bookings when someone schedules a meeting.
Now, it’s time to set up some paramaters.
You can set up your preferred meeting duration in either 15, 30, 45-minute or one-hour increments (or a custom time).
You can also add buffer time to give yourself a break between meetings, or set a lead time of up to 24 hours, so no one can book any last-minute meetings.
And you’re all set! You can preview what the page will look like, then share it with contacts or add it to your LinkedIn profile (we suggest adding it as a secondary URL), email signature, and anywhere else you do business.
Once someone books time in your calendar, you’ll receive an email and get a notification in the Pulse.
If you ever need to make any changes, you can access your personal meeting page in the bottom of the Magic Panel and make any adjustments—either to your weekly availability or personal information.
You can also remove your availability by simply creating events in Nook Calendar and marking them as Busy to block off time and prevent any bookings.
Nook Calendar’s new personal pages for sharing meeting availability are available on Web, iOS, and Android.
If you have any questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. Hit us up in our Slack Community or contact us through Support.
