Traditional content like tutorials and blog posts often fails to engage a technical audience. A more effective marketing strategy is to use the tool to build interesting, ambitious projects in public. This showcases the tool's power and attracts a builder audience by sharing the process, including the unresolved challenges.
While chat works for human-AI interaction, the infinite canvas is a superior paradigm for multi-agent and human-AI collaboration. It allows for simultaneous, non-distracting parallel work, asynchronous handoffs, and persistent spatial context—all of which are difficult to achieve in a linear, turn-based chat interface.
For highly commoditized interactions like text editor undo or canvas pinch-to-zoom, users have powerful, ingrained expectations. Failing to match these conventions doesn't make a tool feel "different"; it makes it feel fundamentally unusable and broken, regardless of its other features. Innovation should be focused elsewhere.
Most open-source projects solve well-defined problems. A unique approach is to tackle subjective, aesthetic problems (like drawing "perfect" arrows) where no single right answer exists. By providing an opinionated, "tasteful" solution, you create value that others lack the time or specific expertise to develop themselves.
Complex, code-based prototyping tools like Framer Classic and Origami served as a key differentiator for designers. Mastering them required an appetite for complexity, which cultivated a determined and influential cohort of designers who could bridge the gap between design and engineering, ultimately shaping modern product design.
While tools like Miro serve many use cases adequately, they are a "bad fit for all of them." The future of canvas tools lies in vertical-specific applications that go deeper on a single use case (e.g., pharmaceutical workflows, remote onboarding), offering a more powerful, tailored feature set that a generic tool cannot match.
Early AI agents are unreliable and behave in non-human ways. Framing them as "virtual collaborators" sets them up for failure. A creative metaphor, like "fairies," correctly frames them as non-human entities with unique powers and flaws. This manages expectations and unlocks a rich vein of product ideas based on the metaphor's lore.
All tools are fundamentally decision-making aids. A great tool, like a color picker, isn't just about precision; it's about providing a quick feedback loop to compare options and a safety net (like undo) to explore changes without fear. This allows users to dial in their choices effectively and without destructive consequences.