What makes working on mymind so fulfilling is that everything starts with the WHY, which also happens to be my personal design philosophy.
All of our values & principles come all the way at the beginning. Then they trickle down into product decisions, the HOW and WHAT.
Some examples from our product manifesto:
Make it invisible
We had an AI-first approach all the way back to 2019 when we launched. That's not long ago, but still before it became the current industry obsession.
From the first day we wanted to make AI feel more human and unobtrusive. It should work quietly in the background. In fact, we removed most of the AI mentions from our marketing already because it's not really a selling point anymore. Having AI horizontally integrated today is like saying "we're open 24h, visit us online."
Data privacy even if no one cares anymore
Privacy means your data is treated with respect. The truth is, that idea is almost extinct today. Most companies track everything you do and sell the data to whoever pays the most. They do it either through ads or by embedding other tools into their product [aka sub-processors]. Most sub-processors are terrible with privacy. The more you integrate, the more your data is being thrown around the internet.
With mymind we don't run ads, we don't sell your data, and we're incredibly picky with sub-processors simply because we think it's a matter of respect.
Private first, in a world that wants you to share everything
This goes beyond data privacy. “Private first” means we protect your attention and integrity. It's one of our core principles behind everything we build.
Most apps push you to share, invite, perform and engage because those are all natural growth and engagement levers.
But when every single app or service becomes a stage there is no room left to simply be yourself. I am sure you know that you act differently when you're alone.
You think differently when you're alone too. And it's that integrity of self that we're trying to protect with mymind. Even if all other online spaces exist to perform, think of mymind as your quiet escape in the chaos that is the internet.
We're a bit old fashioned this way. We just like to build something of quality and conviction. We don't need to "lure" you into it with cheap engagement hacks or dark patterns.
In fact, we don't want to get you addicted just for the sake of it. Measuring success by time spent would betray the whole idea. We like to think of mymind as an extension for your mind, there when you need it, gone when you don’t. We have zero interest in chasing engagement beyond what serves its true purpose.
There are many more smaller principles, but all of them rest on our core pillars of our philosophy. The WHY drives it all.
Funny enough, that used to just be called product design. Now they call it “opinionated product design,” when having a clear point of view back then was simply the norm.
