Ripcord, a robotics scanning startup, was no exception to the AI frenzy that was triggered by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT. A team was formed to create an enticing AI product on our existing platform. The result was Docufai — an application that lets users upload and chat with sets of their own documents in theme-based workspaces.

Several months later, when the designer on Docufai went on paternity leave just before launch, I subbed in and ran some internal user testing which revealed major unresolvable issues. It was clear to both the PM and I that releasing in this state would hurt the product and company’s chances of success.

We delayed the launch and completely reimagined the user experience. The re-design proved to be far more intuitive, but we also introduced critical features like support for multiple file formats, note-taking, and export capabilities. These improvements led to strong verbal interest from major organizations, validating our decision to overhaul the design and pivot.

Retrospectively, I’m proud of the extraordinary team effort it took to get Docufai live. Now we know that at the time, Google was also working on Notebook LM, which is a direct competitor.