Meeako Needs Guardrails.

Meeako needs some guiding principles. It's becoming hard to channel and prioritize all the ideas I'm getting.

Without some structure I keep chasing down a thought or feature to no end. Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning.

Meeako, unlike other products I have worked on, doesn't feel like building towards a clear end state. I am approaching it from an angle of discovery and improvement. Things are vague and fuzzy. But vague and fuzzy still needs direction. So I came up with four rubrics. They may change. I'll write an updated post if they do.

Useful

Meeako should be something that's incredibly useful. Practical, simple enough to apply, understandable, and true.

Trust

Every claim Meeako makes should be grounded. Honest even when data is thin.

Ideally, I'd like Meeako to say something like: "We don't have enough data on this app's monetization to make a confident classification. Here's what we know, and here's what you'd need to fill in."

Admitting limits is a strength not a weakness. The hallucination from post 11 — the made up "5.1-screen average" — is exactly what happens when a product skips this.

Collaborative

I want Meeako to feel like working with a mentor, not querying a chatbot. Not just "give me answers" but "teach me to think about this problem correctly."

A mentor doesn't just answer. They ask back. They reframe. They help you see what you were actually trying to understand.

That's a hard design problem. But it's the right one to chase.

Different

This is the hardest one.

James Dyson, in Against The Odds, wrote:

"Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because it must be better.”

He made 5,127 prototypes in five years, constantly asking how he could make it better. Different.

Highlighted quote from James Dyson's Against The Odds autobiography about difference and making things better. — Photo of a highlighted quote from James Dyson's autobiography Against The Odds.