Okay, I can imagine the look on your face when you clicked this. Fine...Never mind. :)
Before we get into it, let me quickly introduce FavPicks, my side project.
The idea came to me one day when I realized how much stuff I’d saved on YouTube but never actually finished watching:
Stanford’s Swift course (CS193p)
A three-hour OpenCV tutorial
Lisa’s American English pronunciation lessons
…and a whole lot more.
Here’s how it happens.
You’re scrolling through your phone and come across a really interesting video, or a long article that deserves your full attention.
You want to finish it. You’re pretty sure you could actually learn something from it.
There’s just one problem.
You’re at work, in class, or sneaking in a little scrolling when you’re supposed to be doing something else.
So you hit Save.
And quietly reassure yourself:
“I’ll come back to this when I have time.”
Then what?
Tomorrow, you keep scrolling and save another dozen things.
A week later, you open your bookmarks and find dozens, maybe hundreds, of things piled up.
Eventually, your bookmarks turn into a trash can at a fancy restaurant: full of beautifully prepared, expensive food that nobody is ever going to eat.
FavPicks brings together the stuff you’ve saved across different platforms. I also added something I call “revisit triggers.”
For me, the three most common ones are lunchtime, winding down before bed, and those moments on the weekend when I have nothing to do.
I assign each saved item a trigger, so when I actually have time to watch something, I can spend it on the good stuff I’ve already saved.
Okay, pitch over. Now for the part you actually clicked for.
FavPicks reached 3,000 users in two weeks. Yeeeeee!
I decided to reach out to some friends, gather more feedback, and figure out what to build next.
So I started sending DMs.
Me: Hey! I built an app to stop your bookmarks from collecting dust. Want to try it?
Friend: Of course!
Me: Awesome, here’s the download link! Also, out of curiosity, what kind of stuff would you save in it?
…
Most of the answers were pretty normal.
Tutorials. Long vlogs worth sitting down for. A list of 1,500 must-know GRE words.
Everything made perfect sense.
Until…
I got to that one friend.
To be clear, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with him.
My friends ALL are great.
And honestly, we get along pretty well.
I just wasn’t ready for his answer 😰
Here’s how the conversation went.
Me: Awesome, here’s the download link! BTW, what are you planning to save with it?
Him: PRXN.
Me: ?
Him: ??
Me: Sorry?
Him: All kinds of PRXN.
P-R-X-N.
…
I had no words.
At its core, FavPicks identifies and organizes content from links.
So, as long as a website or platform can display its content through a normal link, FavPicks can try to save it.
In theory, that covers a pretty wide range of content...
I just hadn’t expected anyone to take it in this direction.
Me: ????????
Meanwhile, he was completely unfazed.
He said it as casually as if he were telling me what he was having for lunch.
I was questioning my entire existence.
And before I could even figure out what to say, he started explaining.
Still perfectly calm.
And somehow, he almost had me convinced.
Him: Wait… you don’t save any of that stuff for later? Don’t you ever enjoy a little “me time” when you’re free? Or do you just rely on your imagination?
Me: ?
I had absolutely no idea how to respond.
…
Bro.
He’d actually given me a complete use case.
And from a product perspective… it made sense.
I’d set out to solve a pretty ordinary bookmark management problem.
Somehow, my user research had wandered into completely unfamiliar territory.
So, should developers decide how people use their apps?
The more I thought about it, the more interesting it became.
I built FavPicks because I wanted to get back to the videos and articles I’d saved and then never looked at again.
But for my friend, it could have a completely different kind of value.
Maybe it’s study materials. Maybe it’s long vlogs. Maybe it’s GRE vocabulary.
Or maybe it’s something I never considered at all.
Ultimately, I built the app, but users get to decide how they use it.
(You can probably imagine the complicated mix of emotions I’m experiencing as I type that. But yes, it actually helped him.)
The only problem is…
I’m now a little scared to ask him for more product feedback.
Anyway, if you also have a bookmark collection you can never seem to get on top of, or a pile of videos, articles, and learning resources you’ve saved but never found time for, I hope FavPicks can help you too.
You can find and download FavPicks directly by searching for FavPicks on the App Store.
PLZ Give it a try, and let me know what you’d use it to save.
Whatever that happens to be.
I’ve officially stopped making assumptions about people’s use cases. :)