Act I [Act II]

I was about to launch Prism publicly. But I'd only had a few consistent beta users, and a generic audience of "anyone with a lot of thoughts they want to return to". I wanted to avoid the default reaction of "just another notes app", so I searched for a niche. A week or two later, I found myself holding up an odd sign on my old college campus.

I had some LLMs do some deep research on potential niches, and ADHD kept coming up. I was skeptical, but r/ADHD convinced me. Some people with ADHD take a lot of notes and others make a lot of lists. They text themselves and love Google Keep. But the existing systems don't work for them.

I did six interviews and had a few informal chats. People showed me their systems, from scheduling reminder messages in iMessage to hair dye formulas buried deep in apple notes. When I described the problem of not having a home for daily scraps, people neutrally agreed. When they tried AI categorization and swiping to review, I heard "brilliant", "I really dig this", and "feels like social media" in a good way. But they were also wary of the effort of categorizing and reviewing. Still, I redesigned the app with more directness and went back to Berkeley for round 2.

When people with ADHD used Prism on their own, they either never made a new note or stopped after a few days. They added todo tasks and reminders, not book recs and project ideas. Prism can handle lightweight reminders, but these users needed calendars and task managers and voice reminders, not Prism.

For a notetaking app, maybe I don't need a demographic niche. I'm not sure if Obsidian and Bear started with users who "desperately needed" their product. Often, successful notes apps are opinionated about how notes should work and the right people show up. I just need at least ten people who really like Prism who are not my Mom.

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I met some wonderful people along the way. Thanks to K, my very first interviewee, who was an extremely articulate user and helped me understand the need for directness in design. To a different K, who did the interview just to help and didn't want me to pay him. To David, a very kind guy who has a PhD in clinical psychology. He brainstormed with me and offered to help however he could, from finding users to marketing.

I think Prism supports the associative + creative thinking of some people with ADHD, and I hope they use it! I will keep Prism ADHD-friendly. I'd love to build more directly for this group in the future.