After 15+ years building products and services at companies large and small, I’m working on something new with a team of four.
We're building a product that heavily relies on social interaction, and as we bring our first testers into the minimum lovable incarnation of our product, one question keeps coming up, "Why this format?" After all, text-based social media is a mature platform. People know how it works, and people have spent a lot of time figuring out how to best execute on text.
Here's our reasoning:
The atomic unit matters
In any system, you start with the smallest functional element. For us, that’s the audio brief: 2–4 minutes, voice matched with visual insights, forming one complete thought. The format isn’t arbitrary. It’s the outcome of a question: What’s the minimum viable container for an idea that needs to be held, not just heard?
Why audio?
Text is precise but flat. Video monopolizes your eyes. Audio occupies a unique space — ambient yet intimate. It fits into real life: walking, commuting, transitions between meetings. And voice carries what text can’t: confidence, hesitation, rhythm, conviction. These aren’t decorative. They’re semantic. They change how an idea lands.
Why the time constraint?
Every design problem benefits from useful limits. Three minutes forces elimination. You can’t scaffold or hedge. The idea either has a core or it doesn’t. Constraint becomes a forcing function for clarity — and clarity is the precondition for retention.
Is it really just audio?
Audio alone leaves gaps. We pair voice with scannable visual anchors — key concepts, data points, structural cues, employing a visual architecture that reinforces rather than repeats the audio. Each brief becomes an interaction: you’re not consuming, you’re holding an idea in working memory while the visuals shape structure.
The design bet
Just like a two-minute punk song, the audio brief cuts straight to the heart of an idea, and builds enough of a story to stick and spark a new idea, a conversation, a change of mind. This is our building block, our atom, for now.
We’re currently in the craft phase: Learning what length feels complete vs. truncated. When visuals should lead vs. follow. What pacing and tone best support retention. And how AI generation fits within guardrails that preserve coherence, and trust.
The interaction layer comes next — ways to respond, connect, and build on these briefs. But systems thinking applies: nail the atom before you design the molecule.
Every brief should function as a cognitive handoff, that the listener can remember and reference. You leave with something you didn’t have before — a frame, a question, a shift in perspective. If it’s forgettable, the design failed.
That’s the standard. That’s the work. We're starting to reflect our humble atom in the tagline "Little audio sparks for big conversations". But more than a tagline, it’s a design principle.
What’s the smallest thing that can change how someone thinks? We’re finding out.
