A question that’s changing how I think about Unjam
Instead of asking:
“What should people do?”
I’ve started asking:
“What would people say if they weren’t afraid of being judged?”
The answers are much more interesting.
Instead of asking:
“What should people do?”
I’ve started asking:
“What would people say if they weren’t afraid of being judged?”
The answers are much more interesting.
Recognition over advice is the right instinct. Advice assumes the person needs information they do not have. Recognition tells them they are not broken for feeling what they feel. One positions you above them, the other positions you beside them. If you can build something that makes recognition the default experience rather than a side effect, you will have something people come back to not because it helps them optimize but because it helps them feel less alone. That is a much harder line to walk but the retention is deeper when you get it right.
I really like the distinction between recognition and advice. The more conversations I have, the more I realize most people already know what they should do. What’s often missing is the feeling that their experience makes sense and isn’t uniquely theirs.
That’s actually what I’m trying to explore with Unjam. If someone shares a thought and immediately sees that hundreds of other people have felt something similar, that’s a very different experience from getting a list of recommendations.
Whether I can make recognition the default experience is still an open question, but that’s definitely the direction I’m thinking about.
Recognition as default is the harder engineering problem but the right one. Most products optimize for utility. The ones that last optimize for how they make people feel. The question worth sitting with is whether recognition needs a digital container at all, or whether the container is just scaffolding while people build real ones for themselves.
I really like that perspective. My instinct is that the digital container isn’t the destination—it’s the catalyst.
If someone leaves Unjam feeling less alone and more able to open up to someone in their real life, I’d consider that a success. In that sense, the product isn’t replacing human connection; it’s hopefully making it a little easier to find.
That question changes everything about product research. Most people optimize for sounding reasonable rather than saying what they actually want. The gap between those two things is where the real product lives.
What kind of responses have you been getting when you ask it that way?
Honestly, the most common response has been people talking about things that aren’t really productivity problems at all.
A lot of what comes up is fear of disappointing people, feeling behind compared to everyone else, family issues, loneliness, and pressure from school.
It’s actually one of the reasons I’m rethinking Unjam. I started out focused on helping people get unstuck, but the more conversations I have, the more it seems like the real problem isn’t knowing what to do—it’s carrying things people don’t usually talk about.
That shift from productivity to the stuff people carry silently is a meaningful one. Most tools assume the problem is external like not getting enough done when it is often internal like not feeling safe or settled enough to start. Are you thinking Unjam should pivot toward that emotional layer or stay adjacent to productivity but address the resistance underneath?
That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with recently. I started with productivity because it felt like the visible problem, but I’m increasingly convinced it’s often a symptom rather than the root cause.
The more I talk to people, the more I hear things like fear of failure, pressure from family, loneliness, or feeling behind. So I’m experimenting with moving Unjam closer to that emotional layer and seeing whether that’s where the real value is.
That shift from productivity to the emotional layer is where most founders never go because it is harder to productize. The metrics are fuzzier and the revenue model is less obvious. But the people who need what you are exploring now will pay attention in a way they never would for another todo list. Are you thinking about this as a product or more of a space or a practice?
That’s a great question. Right now I think I’m moving away from thinking of Unjam as a tool and more toward thinking of it as a space.
The more conversations I have, the less interested I become in helping people optimize themselves and the more interested I become in helping them feel understood. A lot of people already know what they should do. They just don’t have many places where they can be honest about what they’re carrying.
I’m still experimenting, but the Teen Forecast and anonymous wall ideas feel closer to that vision than another productivity feature ever did.
Your users telling you the real problem isn't knowing what to do but carrying stuff they don't talk about - that's an honest signal most founders never get because they're too attached to their original framing. The gap between what you set out to build and what people actually reveal is where interesting products come from. How are you thinking about the next iteration? Feels like the answer might not be a tool at all.
I think that’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out right now.
I started by building a tool because I assumed the problem was “how do I help people get unstuck?” But the more people I talk to, the more it seems like a lot of them don’t need another tool—they need a place where they can be honest about what they’re carrying.
That’s what led me toward the idea of anonymous thoughts, a live Teen Forecast, and helping people realize they’re not the only ones feeling certain things.
Still early, but I’m becoming less interested in giving advice and more interested in helping people feel understood.
That last line about being less interested in giving advice and more interested in helping people feel understood is the kind of clarity most founders never reach. It takes a lot of conversations to get there. The anonymous thoughts and live Teen Forecast ideas feel like the right direction for that because they create space for connection without the pressure of solving anything. Have you tested any of those concepts yet or are you still in the listening phase?
I’m still in the listening phase, but I’m starting to turn some of those observations into experiments. The Teen Forecast and anonymous wall are my first attempts at that.
What’s interesting is that the strongest reactions so far haven’t come from advice or solutions. They come from recognition—people seeing a thought they relate to and realizing they’re not alone.
I’m not sure exactly what that becomes yet, but it feels like a more interesting direction than trying to optimize people for productivity.