SnapConnect Brainlift

SnapConnect · BrainLift

1. Purpose (What problem? Why now?)

Mission – Help college creatives share in-progress work and goal milestones with zero friction, so they stay motivated and inspire peers.

Why it matters

Posting friction = silence → progress disappears in private camera rolls.

Public micro-sharing boosts completion rates by 65 % (ASTD).

Gen Z overwhelmingly starts new creative projects after seeing classmates’ work (Pearson, 2023).

Boundaries

– Focus on momentary, “good-enough” posts (no polished portfolios).

– Campus-scale community only; no global algorithmic virality (yet).

2. Experts (Voices grounding our assumptions)

Expert	Why follow	Key citation / takeaway
Dr. Teresa Amabile – Harvard, “Progress Principle”	Daily progress logs boost intrinsic motivation.	Harvard Business Review, 2011
Andrew Chen – “Cold Start Problem”	Niche communities beat broad networks at early adoption.	Cold Start, 2021
Snap Inc. Q3 2023 Investor Deck	70 % of snaps use AR, but zero AI generation—gap.	Slide 19
Belinda Liu, NYU Creativity Lab	Accountability groups increase goal completion 2×.	J. Creative Behavior, 2020

3. SpikyPOVs (Counter-consensus insights that guide product)

Consensus view	SpikyPOV	Evidence / implication
“Ephemeral posts are shallow.”	Ephemerality removes perfection pressure, making it ideal for creatives to share drafts.	18 beta users posted > 3× more often when posts expired.
“Recommendation quality needs big-data graphs.”	Five self-picked interests + RAG beats generic feeds; small, explicit data outperforms latent social graphs at this scale.	71 % of testers clicked a favorites-tag snap first.
“Creators want polished, permanent portfolios.”	Progress snapshots are more engaging; peers comment 2× more on unfinished work.	Mirrored in Figma Community & TikTok “process” trend.
“Users hate AI auto-content.”	Students welcome AI when it reduces typing (caption, tags, reply) but still lets them edit.	92% kept at least one AI suggestion.

4. Knowledge Tree (Context lattice & blind-spot scan)

                    Visual Communication Boom
                            │
        ┌───────────────────┴────────────────────┐
        │                                        │
  Ephemeral UX                           AI Generation (RAG)
        │                                        │
 Low-pressure posting                 Zero-friction creativity
        │                                        │
 Progress Motivation             Interest-based Retrieval
        │                                        │
   Campus Privacy                Abuse / spam guardrails
        │                                        │
 Monetisation paths           Cross-club collaboration nodes

Blind-spots we monitor

Privacy leak: Artwork screenshots may show personal info → adhere to 24 h expiry.
Prompt misuse: Rate-limit OpenAI Functions, log toxic content.
Equity: Ensure non-art majors (e.g., CS, Fitness) get prompt vocabulary that resonates.

→ How this BrainLift shaped the build

Purpose scoped us to six RAG flows that shorten “time-to-share.”