christalwang (u/christalwang)

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

codeguro · 2 months ago

I appreciate the effort. I'll give you my honest two cents. If you don't have thick skin, stop reading here. I'm going to be critical, and I'm going to be blunt. You can take it or leave it.

The landing page sucks. In my first impression my eyes immediately darted to the animated graphics/webms. The text reads like it was written by AI with the sentences in triplets everywhere. Immediately my trust for this site (which was finicky at first) has already gone down. If you can't sustain my attention in the banner, what makes me think you can sustain my attention for the app? Be direct - show me what your app does at a glance. My attention is very scarce and very expensive, don't waste it on vague niceties or depend on me to trust you on what you say other people are saying about your app. I feel like you're trying to cheat me out of own autonomy when you're selling me something (even if it's free, my time = money) that I have no idea what it does until I get to the FAQ. My 2c - put the FAQ in the very top, with the questions "Is this just another AI chatbot?" and "How does Indy fit with ADHD coaching or other support?" in order with minimized distractions. This tells me what your product is and what it isn't at face value.

christalwang · 2 months ago

we love blunt and critical, it's why these forums are so important for us. totally hear you on these, and some other folks here have mentioned similar comments. we'll be looking at our landing page further over the next week! thanks! and also agree time = money, with you on that one. appreciate the feedback

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

ottah · 2 months ago

I need assistance with task retrieval, time management, and working memory. I do not need an app that makes me feel guilty, and quantifies it with pretty charts. We are not lacking in knowledge, and track data isn't particularly useful. Especially if you're ability to consistently engage with an app is not there. No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and and distraction.

What we need is assistive technologies that complement our deficits. I won't use an app to just log I did something, but I will use an app if it's crucial to do that activity, and it makes it easier for me to do so.

christalwang · 2 months ago

thanks for this feedback - curious what current assistive technologies you use right now? totally agree on complementing our challenges, and there are definitely a lot of apps that do pieces of it (we have some of these features on our roadmap to integrate in) but what we've found through coaching and our members is that a big part of their barrier to reaching the life they want is around self worth, noticing wins / patterns in little wins over time, and coming up with / remembering strategies across different life areas. the goal here is not to choose one or the other but to support both types of needs

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

w10-1 · 2 months ago

(1) The App and the description seem just as relevant for a non-ADHD population.

(2) Relying on, and committing to, an app like this has high requirements of diligence for efficacy; in an age of extractive apps, users might doubt even promising apps, and be less prone to adopt or maintain. So there's a yawning participation gap.

Relying on AI for the interactivity/liveness to maintain participation could work, but actually then puts a lot of quality pressure on the AI. The first off tone could prompt escape. How do you scale QA for that?

So, I'd think this needs to be coupled with social factors: testimonials and community building.

Efficacy testimonials would distinguish this from other self-management apps. Allowing users to gift others the app would spread the word. Providing users an in-app way to share feedback could help with QA, particularly if it was validated by others' responses. e.g., "I don't like this phrasing. It sounds like x." reply: "yeah, others agree so we're working on that" or "we'll look into it" Maybe only people who participate diligently get the ability to gift the app to others (but I would steer clear of obvious incentives/kickbacks).

I think the killer feature would be dedication to reporting actual feedback. Admit that it won't work for everyone, require feedback on whether it's working, and post that feedback to all users. Then work on improving it, either by fixing the app or selecting users better. That would given people confidence and mitigate the loneliness. Users should feel that they're not only helping themselves, but helping others like them. To me that commitment to others often gets me over a momentary lack of commitment to my larger self.

christalwang · 2 months ago

Some really good stuff in here. - on testimonials. We have some early ones here https://testimonial.to/indy/all and a bunch of video ones that include the good and the bad (but not shared for privacy). i do like the idea of sharing all of it in a live place so people can engage though. something we'll look into - community building is huge for us. i'm on IG with 200K+ and we constantly throw free community events (live), e.g. last week we did a 2026 planning with 1,000+ ADHDers there - we’re also looking to include thumbs up/down around messages similar to other ai chat apps so people can provide more feedback around specific messages/outputs and for each chat interaction too! any other ideas welcome :)

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

raincamp · 2 months ago

thanks for making this. it can take a lot of time and effort to create systems like this for yourself. i hope you help the people you're trying to reach.

christalwang · 2 months ago

Appreciate this!

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

tiniestcabbage · 2 months ago

How much does this cost? The cost is rather difficult to find and isn't listed in the FAQ.

christalwang · 2 months ago

It's free!

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

theCodeStig · 2 months ago

I’m an adult with combined type ADHD. I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization. No matter how well intentioned, and I know that you are.

One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than from any app. No other tool has impacted my life and productivity more.

That said, I have found some tertiary apps to be helpful, though my BuJo is my compass. Endel for time boxing/Pomodoro, and sleep. Headspace for guided meditation.

No, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic, with pretty lettering and doodles (as seen in social media).

christalwang · 2 months ago

Glad you found the system that works for you! Not an easy feat and not many folks have gotten there. And thanks for sharing your exact system, no doubt it'll help people here. The doodles you're seeing is probably for our other product and social media. The new Indy app has a celestial theme in dark mode, and we'll likely make other modes later! For a lot of our members, they've noted that the calming nature of it helps them settle into a reflective state (vs. our coaching app is more bright and uplifting!).

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

NoSalt · 2 months ago

My son (12 year old) has ADHD ... I wonder if they did any testing of this with kids.

christalwang · 2 months ago

The app is for 18+ only, currently! (but we do have a coaching program specifically built for teens between 13-17 y/o if you're interested in the future!)

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

Nevermark · 2 months ago

I am going to second the comment you are replying to. Strongly.

Why are you (indirectly by omission) asking a cohort of people who need information to be direct, to redirect? That's a serious market/message mismatch.

> Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality

That is what the snake oil industry does. Or enterprise sales. Even cults. ("Look at what we say these people say about us!" "We have a solution to your problem! [restated several times in different ways]!"

I am baffled by the term "care team" in this context.

I find that being concrete and credible, instead of asking people who don't know you for trust and unrewarded interest out of the gate, is a much better way to communicate something that is real.

If you do have a way to help ADHD people, I wish you luck communicating that. As an ADHD person myself, I have system creation/adoption fatigue. You seem to be aware of this. So be very direct about exactly what you do that helps, so someone that has tried many things, i.e. a sophisticated customer by necessity, can judge anything you say. (As they say in science, non-testable claims are not worth much. When marketing solutions to serious problems, this relates to the first thing you show people.)

christalwang · 2 months ago

Fair, feedback heard from multiple people here on: being more direct, concrete, credible. I'll take this back for the next iteration of the landing page!

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

desmondl · 2 months ago

This new product might be better, but Shimmer was publicly criticized exploitative when it launched. I saw those criticisms at the time, gave the product a fair chance anyway, and unfortunately found them to be accurate.

I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promised between-session support mostly consisted of DM'd article links, even after I raised that concern directly.

The sessions themselves often felt unprofessional, with background noise, unstable connections, and poor audio quality. The coach WFM'd on their couch during call. Given the price (hundreds of dollars per month at the time), the gap between what was marketed and what was delivered was significant.

Hopefully the new product addresses these issues, but I’d encourage people evaluating it to look at Shimmer’s prior execution and customer feedback, not just the announcement.

christalwang · 2 months ago

I'm sorry you had a poor experience! 2022 was the year I got diagnosed and the app definitely wasn't nearly as good as it is now, and I'm sorry you went through those bugs. But more importantly, I'm sorry about the experience you had with your coach. We take these flags really seriously and since then, we've put in several rounds of guardrails in the hiring process, with ongoing contract renewals with our coaches, and general culture & training. Now, we only take <3.5% of qualified coaches and have far more processes in place to make sure these things don't happen and catch them if they slip through. Because we don't record the sessions or supervise them because of privacy, there definitely has been a few situations like yours and again, we do take them really seriously! We do have hundreds if not thousands of really impactful stories and progress (I've personally cried in multiple feedback calls) so if anyone is reading this, I highly recommend checking out this page too! https://testimonial.to/shimmer-care/all

christalwang commented on Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains shimmer.care/indy-redirec... · Posted by u/christalwang

user_7832 · 2 months ago

> I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms...

Can't speak for everyone, but as one guy - I wish lol. I'm just raw dogging life - to use Gen Z (or is it Alpha?) lingo.

(I wanted to add a sarcastic thing to my message but I'm too tired to even do that without sounding rude.)

christalwang · 2 months ago

Hahaha, I'm a millennial and that still resonates with me, so I get it. I think within every community there's always a really big span and hopefully our new product experience can be helpful to a subset of that span! With the AI chats, it's substantially more personalized and less restrictive than last gen text box flows!