01/ Overview
Walnut is an AI startup in its pre-seed round
Our mission is to build an AI workplace designed to boost productivity and foster creativity for professionals. Walnut is backed by angel investors, including Jian Lu (VP at LinkedIn) and Arun Balaraman (AI Product Leader at Google).
Building an AI app from scratch as a founding designer
As the founding designer, I collaborated closely with the two co-founders to define the product vision, direction, and strategy. I led the end-to-end design process, including UX/UI design, branding, and the creation of marketing materials to establish a cohesive and compelling user experience.
Team
1 PM
2 Software Engineers
2 Software Engineers
Timeline
8 Months
My Role
Design direction
UI/UX design
UI/UX design
02/ Vision
We believe creativity is the core skill of the future
As we step into the era of AI, it's becoming increasingly clear that many repetitive tasks can be automated. In the future, greater autonomy powered by AI will free people from tedious, time-consuming work, giving them more time to focus on creativity and self-expression.
We believe that creativity is the core skill. Our mission is to help people fully discover and harness their creative potential, enabling them to innovate, express their unique personalities, and shape a more imaginative and fulfilling future.
We believe that creativity is the core skill. Our mission is to help people fully discover and harness their creative potential, enabling them to innovate, express their unique personalities, and shape a more imaginative and fulfilling future.
03/ Background
Fragmented information and overwhelming platfroms are crushing creativity
Fragmented information across countless platforms overwhelms and distracts, creating mental clutter that stifles creativity instead of fostering it. AI’s natural ability to sort and organize data offers a solution, transforming scattered content into cohesive insights and reclaiming the mental space needed for focus and innovation.
Number of platforms used to consume information daily
10
Average time spent searching for information daily
2.5hrs
Steal like an artist and leverage AI as a muse
"Steal Like an Artist and leverage AI as a muse" serves as our guiding principle for fostering creativity through inspiration from the world around us. Our goal is to create a space where the ideas and insights users care about are seamlessly brought together, giving them the freedom to focus on what resonates most deeply. By harnessing AI as a creative companion, we enable users to uncover unexpected connections, meaningful references, and fresh ideas that inspire creativity and innovation
"Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic."
-Jim Jarmusch
04/ Challenge
Bridging the gaps in the creative process
I explored competitive products across three key areas: Information Discovery, Knowledge Management, and Creation. Each category plays a vital role in the creative journey. Through this research, I found that while these products excel in their individual niches, none of them streamline the creative process into a cohesive workflow. This gap creates friction for users who need to move seamlessly between these stages, often leading to inefficiency and missed creative potential.
Our opportunity lies in bridging these gaps—designing a product that unites discovery, organization, and creation into one streamlined platform, empowering users to move from inspiration to execution without interruption.
Our opportunity lies in bridging these gaps—designing a product that unites discovery, organization, and creation into one streamlined platform, empowering users to move from inspiration to execution without interruption.
05/ Highlights
Create your personlized feed by natural language
Your Algorithm, Your Goals
This feature allows users to create a fully personalized feed tailored to their unique goals and interests using natural language input. Instead of passively consuming information curated by algorithms that reflect the interests of others, this approach empowers users to take control of their information flow.
By interpreting the prompt and analyzing the user’s intent, the AI curates and recommends content that precisely fits their goals. Whether it’s staying updated on niche topics, sparking creativity, or discovering new insights, the personalized feed ensures relevance, depth, and value—putting users in complete control of their information flow.
By interpreting the prompt and analyzing the user’s intent, the AI curates and recommends content that precisely fits their goals. Whether it’s staying updated on niche topics, sparking creativity, or discovering new insights, the personalized feed ensures relevance, depth, and value—putting users in complete control of their information flow.
This flow demonstrates how an AI product manager can use prompts to stay informed and receive tailored insights
The AI interprets the prompt, analyzes the intent, and presents a feed aligned with the user’s expectations and goals
Explore curated content across platforms
Let AI curate content based on your intent, delivering a personalized mix of news, articles, videos, and deep dives tailored to your interests. Everything you see is designed to align with your goals and inspire deeper exploration.
The AI interprets the prompt, analyzes the intent, and presents a feed aligned with the user’s expectations and goals
Leverage LLM as a muse to boost human creativity
While large language models (LLMs) excel at providing accurate answers, their real power lies in their ability to generate multiple perspectives and ideas. This trait makes them an incredible muse for boosting human creativity. By offering diverse possibilities instead of just a single "right" answer, LLMs can inspire new connections, challenge assumptions, and fuel the creative process in ways that feel collaborative and dynamic.
Inspired by Gordon Brander's concept of provoking creativity on demand, Linus's vision of AI as a collaborator, and Geoffrey Litt's perspective in "ChatGPT as Muse, Not Oracle," we developed this unique prompt for LLMs.
Inspired by Gordon Brander's concept of provoking creativity on demand, Linus's vision of AI as a collaborator, and Geoffrey Litt's perspective in "ChatGPT as Muse, Not Oracle," we developed this unique prompt for LLMs.
# CharacterYou're collaborator of the user, who is a {product manager} in {AI tech startup}, you listen and participate in dialogues to help the user to deep dive in the topic and develop their creative ideas. You are an expert in {human-computer interaction}, {design}, {programming languages}, {psychology} and {AI}. You are knowledgeable on {the history of technology and its intersection with human capabilities}.Your goal is to create an unusually interesting conversation with lots of specific details. Do not speak in generalities or cliches.
I’d like you to have a conversation with the user based on the topic she/he provided. Each time the user responds, I’d like you to respond with one of the options below for continuing the dialogue, following the templates below.
Reference: Draw on an idea from previous work or academic literature in your area of expertise that my point reminds you of.
Challenge: Express skepticism about an aspect of my idea and explain your reasoning.
Expand: Suggest a fresh, specific, and intriguing idea inspired by my point.
Shift Focus: Pose a question on a different but related topic to broaden the discussion.
Clarify: Ask me to elaborate or provide more detail on a particular part of my idea.
I’d like you to have a conversation with the user based on the topic she/he provided. Each time the user responds, I’d like you to respond with one of the options below for continuing the dialogue, following the templates below.
Reference: Draw on an idea from previous work or academic literature in your area of expertise that my point reminds you of.
Challenge: Express skepticism about an aspect of my idea and explain your reasoning.
Expand: Suggest a fresh, specific, and intriguing idea inspired by my point.
Shift Focus: Pose a question on a different but related topic to broaden the discussion.
Clarify: Ask me to elaborate or provide more detail on a particular part of my idea.
Even simple prompts or interactions can lead to significant creative breakthroughs
Topics are provided based on the user's intent, guiding the flow for users to engage in discussions with AI on specific subjects
