The Full Recap of 2025
Metrics, best posts & my plan for 2026
A year ago, I wrote a 2024 recap post. Reading back, it’s so funny to see how far this newsletter has come. Here’s what my first landing page looked like:
Then, I iterated to this:
And now, we’re on Substack:
Seeing these side by side is a good reminder that a year is a long time. I’m much further along than I was this time last year. New brand, double the audience, new job, new routine.
Which is why retros are so important to work out what to carry into the next year.
So, let’s continue the tradition with a 2025 look-back, starting with metrics.
By the Numbers
This year, we’ve hit 2,000 subscribers 🎉
I saw wild growth in the first three months of this newsletter, getting to 1000 subscribers in 100 days since launch. 2025 has grown steadily after that (with one big bump in Jan).
In 2025, on the newsletter:
2X subscriber growth
50 newsletters published
First sponsor 🎉
217 unsubscribes (all-time) which is ~8.9% overall, and around 0.3% per issue
And on LinkedIn:
15,028 followers, up 89% year-on-year (up from 55% growth last year)
815,811 impressions (down 22% compared to last year’s 1 million)
My top post of all time this year with 250k impressions
327,816 people reached
You often see people say “we grew to 10k subscribers in 90 days!!” and while that’s tempting to chase, the real win for me is consistency and enjoying the process.
Across those bullet points, 50 newsletters published is the real winner for me as it shows consistency. The sheer volume of work is visible on my Figma board.
And the final metric: Hikes done 🥾
I’m at 238 kilometers hiked this year, up 45% year on year.
Now that’s a win.
Best posts:
Despite not hitting 1 million impressions, 2025 delivered my best-performing post ever. Here are the top three LinkedIn posts this year:
I ignored Duolingo for 3 months. Here’s how they got me back - and why I (neeeeearly) stayed. (254k impressions, 1149 likes, 131 comments, 42 reposts)
When someone lands on your site, every extra word, button, or menu is a cognitive tax. (56k impressions, 170 likes, 41 comments, 4 reposts)
I turned off my WiFi to try and break Slack. Instead, I found one of the best bits of copy I’ve seen. (47k impressions, 215 likes, 28 comments, 0 reposts)
My biggest learning here is you never know what’s going to work, so try out a lot of things and repeat what catches on. Last year, my top posts were all Duolingo, so it’s nice to see more of a spread this year 😅
On the newsletter side, the move to Substack means the data isn’t directly comparable. Still, if I had to guess, the top five newsletters this year were:
Is this the new UX? A look into natural language UX (NLX), the user experience of language-based AI products (66.5% open rate, 7.9% click rate)
The complete guide to test methods A macro look at discovery and demand testing methods (66.6% open rate, 8.2% click rate)
What typeform gets right (and Mailchimp misses) Why the end of a PLG flow is one of the most important parts (66.9% open rate, 3.7% click rate)
3 excellent B2B SaaS paywalls from Slack, Notion & Canva Copy, UI and personalisation tactics on paywalls (70.4% open rate, 6.7% click rate)
Time to Magic moment: Claude, ChatGPT & Perplexity How to activate AI products (67.2% open rate, 6.4% click rate)
Three learnings from 2025
Writing every week, sometimes into what feels like the abyss, is not always easy. So instead of pretending it’s been smooth sailing, here are the three lessons I’m carrying into 2026.
Lesson 1: I should have moved platforms earlier
It’s a classic case of shoulda, woulda, coulda.
If I’m honest, I’d probably be slightly further along if I’d picked the right platform three years ago when I started writing, or even one year ago when I launched the newsletter.
That said, the most important thing is starting. Pick something and begin. That’s what I did, and I’d still recommend it.
So far, I’m really liking Substack. It feels like a mix of social network and writing platform, which kills two birds with one stone.
The downside is my open rate dropped from around 60% to about 40%. That’s likely because Substack uses a different sending domain that email providers don’t recognize yet.
So, I’m going to do a big cull of non-openers like I did on Kit last year:
I’d rather keep the list smaller and highly engaged than inflated with inactive readers. That probably means saying goodbye to the 2,000 subscriber mark for now, but hello to healthier open rates.
If you want to help, replying to this email or adding me to your contacts tells Gmail, Apple Mail, and others that I’m not a bot.
Lesson 2: LinkedIn slowed this year, mainly due to… life
In growth, we expect everything to go up and to the right.
This year, my LinkedIn activity went the other way. The main reason is simple: I started a job.
Posting on LinkedIn already feels a bit toe-curling. I got over that earlier on, but it turns out it feels more daunting when you’re working in-house. There’s a new fear unlocked that colleagues see your posts and disagree, or see you differently. Which is irrational, but it’s there.
That liiiittle bit of extra friction has got me second guessing what to write, not having time to post and just generally going more ‘safe’ with posts.
As a result, I’ve fallen off the LinkedIn bandwagon. But that’s ok, something tells me as soon as I work it into my routine, I’ll get back to it.
Lesson 3: I love presenting!
In Q4, I spoke three times:
The three rungs of retention at Now, Next, Product hosted by Trainline in London
Retention webinar with the CMO circle and Customer.io
Presented at Fyxer on product direction & user research
What these reminded me is that I love presenting.
I kinda forgot this in 2025: I optimized for time at home writing vs being on stage.
I think both go hand in hand, as I’ve realized that when you present, you have to really make what you’re presenting make sense. There’s an extra need to communicate well, get your thoughts in order and bring people on the journey with you.
So, in 2026 I’d like to do more 🥂
So, the plan for 2026
More of the same. Woo!
By that, I mean continuing to focus on what’s worked best:
Actionable, annotated deep dives
On cool and interesting products
Shared here in my newsletter
So you can learn with me, get inspired and take ideas back to your team.
Specifically, that looks like:
Continuing to publish weekly-to-fortnightly
Using Substack more intentionally as both a writing home and a place to connect
Getting back into a regular LinkedIn rhythm that feels sustainable
Saying yes to more talks, workshops, and presentations when they align with my writing
If you’ve been reading, replying, or sharing posts with friends, thank you! The feedback you share is what drives me and energizes me.
To the long-time readers, thanks for sticking around. To the newer subscribers, welcome. There are plenty more growth dives to come.
Here’s to another year of learning, writing and product-ing. Happy Christmas to those who celebrate, and Happy New Year!