Joschi

This would be soo cool, if Affinity Photo would support Cryptomatte. I think for that to happen, Affinity would somehow have to work together with the guys who developed the EXR-IO Plugin.
By the way: Why does Affnity not have tutorials on how to develop add-ons /Plug-ins specific for the Affinity Apps? They could make a profit from that + they don't have to develop all those Add-ons/Plug-ins themselves. 🤔

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

It seems to me that some people here have the idea, that professional studios or freelancers basically only use programs that have all the features they need.
But that's not how it works in reality.
Fact is: There is no program that can handle all the tasks you need to complete your jobs.
Then you go with the strategy of buying as many programs (or services) that cover the necessary needs that are needed for the job. So several programs, but only as many as you really need (the cost-benefit factors must be taken into account, too).
Now, if you have several options to choose from: Let's assume option A on the one hand, with a program that is available for a one-time purchase and covers 80% of all functions that you need for work. And on the other side, option B, with a program that has to be subscribed monthly for a high price, but covers 90% of all functions.
Now you have to calculate how to compensate for the remaining needs. Let's assume again that for both options there is a provider on the market that offers the remaining functions via a plug-in or standalone software and is compatible with both options.
Which option do you choose? Of course, the option that can offer the best cost-benefit factor in the long run.
If people here now claim: "I only buy a program that covers all my features that I need",
then I wonder if they use any programs at all on a professional basis.
There is no software that can do everything.
But that's what my post was about:
The question of Affinity's long-term planning and direction.

If someone asks: "Why make a fuss about it? If a program has what you need, then buy it, if not don't buy it!", then it shows that this person has never heard of long-term planning and calculation.
This is not how the business world works.
If someone rejects a program because it doesn't have a certain feature, but meets all the other requirements, he is not thinking economically and logically. Because there is no such thing as a program that covers everything. But that is exactly why the question of enterprise customers to software companies regarding long-term planning and development phase is important. Do you seriously believe that companies can change their entire pipeline from one month to the next (just because a cheaper alternative suddenly has a feature that could be useful for work)? There are always long-term contracts and licenses negotiated.
Not everyone uses Affinity as a hobby or for occasional jobs. Others would like to use it as a long-term professional tool in the future. And there's a lot more to it than just asking: Does it have all the features I need, or not?
For some people it might work, who only act on the principle of only buying something, that can meet all their requirements.
However, there are many others here who think the same way I do, and don't consider that a realistic and healthy attitude. If you invest a lot of time and money in programs and processes, you also want to know whether it is economically worthwhile to rely on them in the long term. And communication is important because it can give customers security when companies communicate their long-term plans to their customers.
It's not about arguing about which features need to be done first or are more important. It's about showing the customers that you have a plan and that the customers can understand those plans and feel like they are being guided through the process.

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

Erased.

Erased.

It seems to me that some people here have the idea, that professional studios or freelancers basically only use programs that have all the features they need.
But that's not how it works in reality.
Fact is: There is no program that can handle all the tasks you need to complete your jobs.
Then you go with the strategy of buying as many programs (or services) that cover the necessary needs that are needed for the job. So several programs, but only as many as you really need (the cost-benefit factors must be taken into account, too).
Now, if you have several options to choose from: Let's assume option A on the one hand, with a program that is available for a one-time purchase and covers 80% of all functions that you need for work. And on the other side, option B, with a program that has to be subscribed monthly for a high price, but covers 90% of all functions.
Now you have to calculate how to compensate for the remaining needs. Let's assume again that for both options there is a provider on the market that offers the remaining functions via a plug-in or standalone software and is compatible with both options.
Which option do you choose? Of course, the option that can offer the best cost-benefit factor in the long run.
If people here now claim: "I only buy a program that covers all my features that I need",
then I wonder if they use any programs at all on a professional basis.
There is no software that can do everything.
But that's what my post was about:
The question of Affinity's long-term planning and direction.

If someone asks: "Why make a fuss about it? If a program has what you need, then buy it, if not don't buy it!", then it shows that this person has never heard of long-term planning and calculation.
This is not how the business world works.
If someone rejects a program because it doesn't have a certain feature, but meets all the other requirements, he is not thinking economically and logically. Because there is no such thing as a program that covers everything. But that is exactly why the question of enterprise customers to software companies regarding long-term planning and development phase is important. Do you seriously believe that companies can change their entire pipeline from one month to the next (just because a cheaper alternative suddenly has a feature that could be useful for work)? There are always long-term contracts and licenses negotiated.
Not everyone uses Affinity as a hobby or for occasional jobs. Others would like to use it as a long-term professional tool in the future. And there's a lot more to it than just asking: Does it have all the features I need, or not?
For some people it might work, who only act on the principle of only buying something, that can meet all their requirements.
However, there are many others here who think the same way I do, and don't consider that a realistic and healthy attitude. If you invest a lot of time and money in programs and processes, you also want to know whether it is economically worthwhile to rely on them in the long term. And communication is important because it can give customers security when companies communicate their long-term plans to their customers.
It's not about arguing about which features need to be done first or are more important. It's about showing the customers that you have a plan and that the customers can understand those plans and feel like they are being guided through the process.

What is so hard to understand the concept of a "public roadmap"? It's not something you post it daily in a Forum.
Of course people will cry and moan, if you do that!
I think Affinity should study, how other companies handle public roadmaps. It's not just a simple list of "Feature Requests" which are currently under development. It's way more than that. A Timeline, shedule, all kinds of tasks (divided in 'done, in progress, pending'), technical situations (e.g. problems that a feature request cannot be completed because certain components from the industry have not yet been communicated and therefore cannot be completed or have to be waited for)!
 
If you as a company take this approach, you not only create transparent politics, but also build up the trust of customers in your company. Even if not every customer request is fulfilled, that's still better and provides relaxation, because the status of the development phase can be understood.
There's a reason the public roadmaps work well for other companies. Because it creates transparency and trust between customers and companies. There is no reason for rational customers to get upset, because then they have no (good) reason to be allowed to get upset.

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

@Joschi Huge thumbs up for such a well described thoughts and ideas, as well as the way you're talking. I quite don't understand why some people just right away start to "bite" those who just politely expressed their concerns and thoughts. 
I just wanted to say, that I agree with the main topic of your post - Communication. 
It would be nice to see at least a bit more communication between Serif and their Customer base.
As an example, I would point our Elementor.com. I am one of the early adopters of their software, which pioneered in their category (visual web design and development tool for Wordpress websites). Their level of communication on social platforms, their forums, customer service etc. is just spectacular. Very friendly, opened and encouraging. Makes creators feel like part of one big team/family   . But I have to admit, it's something I pay almost 100$ every year for, so I don't know if that's the essence. Maybe we can't get both. I'm not an expert in this field .
I guess that's what you wanted to express here. 
Have a nice day.
#peace
 

Of course not! Bitching is a waste of time (this I agree with you on this!) 
Here is what I would do instead:
If a feature I want is not on a roadmap, then I would look for an alternative on the market that can offer me exactly this feature that I need for my work in order to be able to do my job (be it as a complimentary tool to affinity or other apps)!
That's how I've always done it, precisely because such a roadmap helped me save time and calculate what I can use in the meantime to counteract these bottlenecks.
Yes, there will always be people who complain, but there are many sensible people who think ahead of time and take this as an opportunity to look for solutions until the problem is solved. If you only look at people who complain, then I understand why you might not like a public roadmap. Or, you can look instead at people who will not complain, find solutions and will compliment the team as soon as a new feature has been added to the software

I don't look at people who complain. I look for transparency, communication and solutions that help me.
As soon as Affinity introduces new features that I don't need, but that other people think are great (and need), then I'm happy for those people, too
 

Don't be sorry  A lot of what you say is true I did not know about the story behind vectornator. That is interesting to know.
As I said in the beginning: I love all the Affinity Apps.
And you are right. The Team behind Serif is small, compared to companies like Adobe or Corel. And so far it has worked out very well for them.
I just think Affinity should start opening themselves up as a company. As soon as a company has reached a certain number of customers, it's time to set new ambitions and goals so that the company can continue to exist in the long term.

Don't be sorry  A lot of what you say is true I did not know about the story behind vectornator. That is interesting to know.
As I said in the beginning: I love all the Affinity Apps.
And you are right. The Team behind Serif is small, compared to companies like Adobe or Corel. And so far it has worked out very well for them.
I just think Affinity should start opening themselves up as a company. As soon as a company has reached a certain number of customers, it's time to set new ambitions and goals so that the company can continue to exist in the long term.

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

As an iPad-only user, I think that so far there’s very few vector apps coming close to Affinity Designer, hence there’s little competition to Serif on mobile (yet).
Paradoxically maybe (because it’s completely free), the only app that’s keeping up with Serif development on iPad is Vectornator, which has already improved auto-trace features, an auto-closed curve function, artboards and many new functions that are taking shape through numerous updates. They have stability through rich backers and they claim they want to make the definitive vector software for free. (The project was started by a teenager student who didn’t have enough money to afford a vector software for studies, or so the story goes).
For me personally Affinity Designer is irreplaceable because of its interface, which I absolutely love. Vectornator as a “pure” graphic software has everything a professional designer needs and then some, I think, but doesn’t have a user-friendly interface, and that alone is enough to keep me away from it. Also they could any time go subscription-based, despite their pledge to the contrary, something I know it will ‘never’ happen with Affinity software.
So I don’t know what the essence of Affinity is, but vector-graphic wise I almost have everything I need at my disposal with Affinity Designer. I wish the app would not go to 200GB over night for no reason, sure. I’d love to just import swatches, which Affinity for iPad lacks. Or to have better saving functions, and other things. But none of them are essential to me. 
Serif is a small team and has its own philosophy and marketing model, which I believe it works. They already have tons of original features, which alone justify a purchase. Their forums are filled (mostly) with kind people (many of them professionals) and chances are that you’re going to get help, work arounds and even your working projects fixed, quicker than you would ever expect.
OK, sorry for my rambling. All the best.

In a democratic society the normal way would be the "one man person one vote system" where every registered user of the software could state their top 3 requirements for the next version and once all the votes are in, a priority list would become evident
But Serif is not a democracy, it is a business. Only they know what talent pool/resources they have, how difficult a particular function would be to implement, how long it would take, how much money they have coming in and going out each month, their ROI for a particular new feature, where all the various coffee machines are located in the building etc etc etc
I am also a business and aware what some of my customers would like me to do/implement but realistically I can only so much for them so I have to pick and choose which ones and when. Fortunately, I only have one coffee machine and I know exactly where it is.

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

I couldn't agree more.
Great post. 😊

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

First of all, there's no question that working with Affinity Apps follows a different philosophy and approach compared to the apps from Adobe, Skylum, Capture One, Corel & Co. There are many functional similarities - which is important and makes sense - as well as special features that other apps do not have.👍
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the Affinity apps exist! I bought all the apps and books from Affinity - even the Affinity T-Shirt :D. So it's safe to say that I'm very fond of your apps. Great compliments and praise must also be given to you for the way you presented yourselves as a company in the midst of the Corona crisis, giving freelancers and companies the opportunity to use your products free of charge for a long period of time - and providing financial resources on top of that. Not to forget, the regular fair discount offers during the holidays or special promotional periods. On a human level, you seem to be doing a lot right in my eyes. 👏
 
However, my perception of how I understand Affinity is also increasingly changing.
Because there is also the other side of you - namely the economically and strategically related side of your company:
Your poor communication within the community and unclear attitude of long-term plans and visions make me doubt, if Affinity is going the right way. I know it's impossible to try to please everyone. Making good products takes time. Especially in the fast-paced and fast-changing media industry, it's not always wise to follow every new trend. All that I really understand! 
The reason I bring this up is, because sometimes I get the impression from you guys that you don't really know who your primary target audience is, and how you're going to keep them in the long run. I also understand, that you jeopardized your future with the complete restructuring of the architecture of your programs. Which totally paid off in your case, when Apple launched its new processor architecture. We all know your success story since then. Of course we must not forget that your programs are also available for Windows.
However, it cannot be overlooked that you are far too clingy towards Apple!
It's great that your programs run very well under Apple - and that should continue to be the case. In the long term however, you should have a Plan B in case Apple sherlocks you! Apple has been investing millions, if not billions, in the Apple TV+ division for the last few years and as a result, it is also investing a lot of money in its own creative native apps (Photos App, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc). Since the iPad Pros with the Apple Pencils have been on the market, Apple has not only stirred up the creative media industry, but also changed it for the long run. Now, it's also clear that Apple wants to take full advantage of its own technologies by also focusing on the software industry that targets media professionals. This can also be seen very well in how successfully Apple tries (in an aggressive manner) to enforce its proprietary file formats (such as ProRes) as industry standards. My fear is, that if you're not careful, you'll make yourself obsolete faster than you'd like.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm amazed at how fast, progressive and numerous the competition in the creative software industry market has grown.
These are definitely golden times for creative content creators!
I noticed a few things that almost all competing products have in common:
Regular and active participation in the community (forums and social media)
--> I mainly see reactionary behavior from you:
For example, you only participate if technical problems are described in the forum or questions are asked about individual functions inside Affinity. Another example would be, when your social media accounts are mostly retweeting content from artists/agencies who have used Affinity. While this may be nice and interesting to see/read, it lacks structure and order. It would be better to create a separate account for Affinity Spotlight and move the content there.
You make apps for creative content creators. Therefore, you should be just as creative and actively involved in social media.
Ask, share useful short videos that show what your apps can do. Be nerdy and share expertise (memes too, if that is what you are into), or take actions to get your apps more attention, and by that I don't just mean "fun photo contests" but things like looking for creative tutorials with good content. Or with the next major releases, the most popular content creators who work with Affinity can present these features... and lots of such promotions (similar with what you have done during the Corona crisis). It's up to you what you prefer, but do it and be active and not just reactive!
A public roadmap (schedule, to-do lists, priorities)
--> Your apps are not only aimed at hobbyists, but also at people who work with them professionally. A public roadmap is a great help, especially for agencies that have to plan for the long term: Do apps X and Y have the features we need? If not, what alternative solutions can we use? And if it is planned to give these programs these features: How long do we have to continue using the alternative options in order to be able to save costs afterwards?
Of course, as I said before, it's impossible to please everyone, but a roadmap gives customers a clear view of what you're working on, what features are ready for the new releases, and what features will be worked on next!
It's not about your customers wanting to check, whether you're even working on your feedback and taking it seriously.
It's much more about giving customers a realistic view of the direction in which your products are developing.
Even if you're not working on specific feature requests, it's still a great win for customers, because they know that specific tools needed to do the job need to be sourced elsewhere, and these can then be added to the Affinity programs.
A public roadmap helps to set priorities and makes it possible to respond flexibly to customer requests from the community.
--> If your current day's agenda is to work on Feature A and B, but a large part of the customers would rather have Feature C, because Feature A and B are already used by other programs, then you should re-prioritize your schedule and work on Feature C (Feature A and B should of course be added at a later date). Of course, it is your right to implement your own ideas and plans.
The important thing to remember is, that not only are your priorities important, but so are those of the customers who will ultimately buy your products.
Interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and projects with other companies
--> Major international corporations such as Apple, Amazon and Adobe have almost limitless resources and are developing tomorrow's applications that help companies save time and effort. Just think of applications with artificial intelligence. Especially for the media industry, sooner or later this will become an indispensable part of everyday work. That's why many other companies are working together to somehow keep up against the big corporate powers.

You can't afford to do everything on your own. Please work together with other companies (not just Apple! ...or Windows) to stay viable and relevant in the market. I can't think of any examples specifically for the 2D graphics industry, but I can think of some from the 3D graphics industry:

There they agree on standards (be it for file formats, or program functions, such as USD) and support each other by defining which program functions should follow certain standards and conventions, so that there are no problems to exchange and read files among each other. In the case of Affinity, I don't mean just opening files (e.g. vector files exported by other programs), because that has been possible for a long time. But beyond that, the "understanding and reading" of content that has been created with other programs and is then to be further processed with Affinity.

In my eyes, you are still too closed in and isolated. Especially for the Affinity apps it would be good if there is the possibility to use real third-party plug-ins (some Photoshop plug-ins may work - even if limited - but there you make yourself too dependent on Adobe and that also has its limits). You could add value to your programs by opening up, co-developing features with other companies (e.g. Nvidia, AMD), or incentivize program developers to develop plug-ins for your suite.
I don't see any other way you can build on your success in the long term.
Crucial functions that bring real added value to users (and have been thought through to the end)!
--> No question you have integrated many useful functions: Be it studio link, the personas, snapping functions, border tools, etc. All this results in a coherent concept.

At the same time, however, it often happens that you haven't thought the introduced functions through to the end. You can see that quite well in the forums. There, most of them are very happy with the newly introduced functions, but then they quickly reach their limits. An attempt is then made to explain to the Affinity team how the corresponding functions can be improved or supplemented. This often leads to misunderstandings (Forum: "You can't do X and Y in Photo, Designer, Publisher!" Affinity Team: "But you can do that!" Forum: "No, you can't !" Affinity Team: "Yes, you can! Just do this and then that!" Forum:"No, that's not the same thing we are talking about!" Affinity Team: "Why do you really need that?" -> Functions/Tools have not been thought through to the end!).
It's also common to see that many customers complain that it lacks many basic tools that are found and taken for granted in almost all other competing products.
If you think you can be funny, and instead introduce gimmick tools - such as the Liquify tool - although the development of other features should have higher priority, then don't be surprised why this annoys many customers who earn their living with your software. (Not to say, that the Liquify Tool is useless ;).
While it's good to be able to offer unique and wacky tools that other programs don't have, it really needs to be thought through.
This brings us back to the problem of finding the right priorities. Gimmick tools should only be developed and introduced when the majority of users have been given all the features that are necessary for everyday work and have been properly developed!
Concentration on the essentials (and delegation to everything secondary)
--> You can tell, that you prefer to do everything alone. But some things should be better delegated.
The Affinity Store, for example, comes to mind. Of course, it's cool when your store sells brushes, textures, filter effects, and more. But it's starting to look really overloaded and the store isn't really varied - rather monotonous in style. I would leave that to the free market if I were you. It's best to open a separate platform and leave these things to the free market (you can even earn some from it).
This takes away some of the pressure of having to do everything and helps you to be able to concentrate on the essentials.
Of course, it must be said that today's society has become very impatient.
However, the lack of delegation would explain why no regular announcements or teasers are coming from you. In the meantime, it has not become so unusual that a new version with new functions is presented by the competition every 6-12 months. Of course, we don't expect you to have to release big new features every 6 months - that's unrealistic! But 1.5 - 2 years is almost too long - mere bug fixes and a small feature are not enough to attract customers in the long term. This puts the patience of customers at risk. As an alternative, you can compensate for this, by being more actively involved in social media in order to stay relevant. That's why it's better to focus on the essentials and delegate everything that is secondary.
 
I really love your Affinity Apps 🥰, but sometimes I don't think I understand what Affinity stands for, and how it plans to grow in the future. 🤷‍♂️

This would be soo cool, if Affinity Photo would support Cryptomatte. I think for that to happen, Affinity would somehow have to work together with the guys who developed the EXR-IO Plugin.
By the way: Why does Affnity not have tutorials on how to develop add-ons /Plug-ins specific for the Affinity Apps? They could make a profit from that + they don't have to develop all those Add-ons/Plug-ins themselves. 🤔

The Affinity Publisher Workbook is almost here
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The official companion guide to Affinity Publisher
Packed with expert tips, tricks and instructions across more than 500 stylishly illustrated pages, the Affinity Publisher Workbook combines the vast knowledge of our own in-house experts with exciting contributions from leading designers, publishers and other creatives to help you really make the most of the app.
It features an impressive variety of hands-on publishing projects for both Mac and Windows, handy keyboard shortcut cheat sheets, as well as links to downloadable resources so you can complete the projects yourself and start mastering the app’s vast tools and capabilities. Throughout the workbook, you’ll also find references to future features that will be added as part of the app’s upcoming 1.9 update.
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