Best New Product

To enter, a product must:

• Have reached general availability or a paid beta within the 24 months preceding the current season's entry deadline.
• Be a live product with real users, not a waiting list, prototype, or unreleased concept.
• Be commercially offered — free, paid, or a paid beta — and actively supported as a product.

Products serving consumers or businesses may both enter. A product that also fits another category may be entered here on the basis of its recency, but each product should be entered where its strongest case lies.

Because the product is new, evidence is weighed in the context of its age; early but credible signals count. Provide what is relevant and available:

• Early adoption — user or customer numbers since launch, sign-up and activation trends, and growth rate.
• Retention and engagement — how well early users stick with the product and how actively they use it.
• Revenue or efficiency signals — early revenue, conversion from free to paid, or quantified value delivered to first customers.
• Case studies — accounts from early adopters describing the problem, the product, and the outcome.
• Validated qualitative evidence — substantiated user feedback, structured interviews, or credible third-party reviews.

Momentum matters as much as absolute scale here. A clear growth trajectory and strong early retention can outweigh a large but flat user base.

Entries are scored against the standard weighted framework. For this category, the jury pays particular attention to:

• Product quality and UX (20) — the craft and usability that a strong new product should already demonstrate.
• Innovation and differentiation (20) — a fresh, well-considered approach to the problem it addresses.
• Evidence of impact and traction (25) — early but credible signals of adoption, retention, and value, judged in proportion to the product's age.

Problem significance and market relevance (15), execution and scalability (15), and submission clarity and integrity (5) complete the score. The jury applies the same thresholds as every category; recency is context for interpreting evidence, not a lowered bar.

Products of the following types would fit this category (described by shape, not by brand):

• A recently launched collaboration tool that small teams have adopted for planning and communication.
• A new personal-finance application that consumers use to track spending and savings.
• A newly released developer platform that early engineering teams use to ship and monitor services.
• A new marketplace connecting a specific set of buyers and sellers who could not easily transact before.
• A recently introduced creative tool that designers or content makers use in their daily work.

The following are out of scope for this category:

• Products that reached general availability or paid beta more than 24 months before the entry deadline.
• Announcements, waiting lists, prototypes, or products not yet available to real users.
• Major versions or rebrands of long-established products where the underlying product is not genuinely new.
• Products with no real users or no evidence of early traction.

A complete entry includes:

• Product name, company, category, and a concise summary of what the product does and for whom.
• The general-availability or paid-beta launch date, to confirm eligibility within the 24-month window.
• A working product link and access for the jury — a live demo, sandbox, guided walkthrough, or credentialed trial account.
• Evidence of early impact: adoption and growth figures, retention or engagement data, any revenue signals, and at least one early-adopter case study or validated user reference.
• A short account of what makes the product distinct and why it matters now.
• Declarations confirming the launch date, that the product is live with real users, that the entry is authorised, and that all figures and claims are accurate and can be substantiated on request.

Submissions for the current JIMSO season are open. If you have brought a genuinely new product to market and it is already earning real use, enter it for Best New Product.