The software is good now – No.18
A short update on my work, Heyday, and new tools on my mind.
In the spirit of sticking to commitments, hi.
This month’s note comes in a different format. I’m heavy into my work and the AI world right now, so these are bits, not wholes.
What’s up?
Work is up.
After a year living in the startup operator maze, I'm spending 90% of my time on product again. That’s comfortably challenging – I love the work, I’m used to solving these problems, and my brain aligns well with how can I make this really useful for you?
Heyday itself has evolved, too. I joined the 4-person startup when we were a memory assistant for knowledge workers. Today, we’re an 8-person startup building a thinking partner for executive coaches. That’s a right now thing. Coaches are our wedge into a wider market, and it’s fun to figure out how to give them superpowers.
To explain this in a structured design critique framework, here’s what we’re doing:
Context – There are not enough coaches...and coaches have an outsized positive impact on the world. Executive coaches work with some of the most impactful people on earth on strategic business decisions and their psychology.
Intent – Our goal is to amplify the impact coaches have, help them reach more people, and give them tools to be even better at their work.
Concept – In the short-term, what if we can help coaches by sharing latent insights from their coaching calls? In the long-term, what if we can help them hone their big idea? Maybe they’ll even write about it!
Instantiation – Today, this looks like:
1) tailored meeting recaps coaches share with their clients
2) that summarize key themes routinely coming up across their calls
3) with highlights and quotes that resonated in real-time
4) framed in a way that helps them showcase their insights in writing.
That last part looks a little like this.
Amazingly to me, it means I’m creating another production-grade authoring platform. Even as this has a long way to go, I’m developing clear thoughts on what makes these tools work. Feeling like you get it is exciting.
Much of the design comes down to helping people understand what they do uniquely well and why they do it. I’m reminded of this from last year.
Designing Recommender Systems - 8.2
So, how do great recommendations come about? By becoming an expert.
And this is where I think through the lens of synthesis.
By the way, Substack tells me <100 people have read this, so we’re re-plugging today. That’s what I get for burying a piece in footnotes. It’s better than that!
More on all of this soon. I’m due for an explainer on how to build authoring tools.
What’s out?
Cool software is out.
One perk of living in the Bay Area amidst the AI boom is the constant amount of woah.
Not all of the work is happening here. It doesn’t have to. The place is tuned in, though.
In the spirit of sharing cool stuff, here are three things that have made me stop and think lately. As a bonus, you can play around with all of them.
For the AI interested…
Steve Ruiz recently added the make real function to his tldraw tool. We’re here for it. The gist is – draw something, hook up your OpenAI key, get working code of your drawing. Your imagination is the limitation.
If only I could embed the tweet that first captivated me, but Twitter and Substack don’t like each other anymore. You’ll have to visit yourself and let it sink in.
For the tools for thought interested….
Fantastic designer/engineer/Oakland neighbor of mine, Amelia Wattenberger explored how we can make the infinite canvas more human useful. Her explorations are always great, thought-provoking, and interactive.
Here she explores how we can pretty simply evolve this tool type. I’m here for it. I hope folks at Figma are reading.
For the social network interested…
I so rarely share on social media. The one place where I didn’t feel people around me were being performative turned weird so I deleted it off my phone. Poof there goes my sharing.
So this voice-only, feedless blank webpage clicked for me. Record yourself, receive other recordings. Designs that are this simple as the front for something immensely complex usually work.
Here was my entry point. Hard to stop there. Listen in. Record something.
Lastly, an ask as we enter the holiday season.
I’m sitting on an essay covering the metaphors of our AI tools, and I could use some feedback.
If you:
feel like I’m talking to you with that sentence,
think you can help me,
and want to give me critical feedback on future computing ideas,
leave me a note. I would greatly appreciate it. :)
Happy final month of this year.
Yr friend,
Bren
Plexus is so cool!