A core feature that we needed for our website builder was a great text editor: one that would allow users to write, edit, and format their texts easily and efficiently. However, I learned from our engineering team that text editors are incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to build from an engineering standpoint. 

 

Through user surveys, I knew that the majority of our users first created their blog posts on Google Docs. They were familiar with the layout, knew Google Docs collaboration tools, and manipulated text formatting with ease. 

 

Rather than wasting development resources on creating a text editor that would ultimately mimic Google Docs, I worked with our engineering team to construct a simple text editor that was optimized for copying and pasting from a Google Docs document. As we tested our text editor, I made sure that all formatting choices a user made in Google Docs were copied over, so that users did not have to spend time reformatting their website text. 

 

I was able to save months of development time by taking advantage of existing software. At the same time, we provided ease of use and saved time for our users by leveraging something they were already familiar with.