AI versus Marshy #38: voice surveys, flipping AI software, and ADHD update

Hello and welcome to the 38th edition of AI versus Marshy.

Think of this newsletter as a low-key way to ride the AI wave and not get left behind.

I’ve got you 🌊🏄🏾

There’s a number of new subscribers this week as I’ve been working on the ADHD problem - hi!

This week covers:

• Get more survey responses, with more depth, and more insights - without much of a catch
• Flipping AI micro-software companies
• ADHD Goal machine update

I’m excited to bump into this newsletter so let’s make like a geologist and rock on with it.

-Marshy 💪

Better surveys - just add voice

I’ve mentioned Kaz McGrath before and the work she’s doing with PLAI (Purpose Led AI).

This one is for the research nerds or anyone who is sick to f**king death of Google Forms and Survey Monkey.

A conversation about using VoicePanel unfolded on LinkedIn this week:

Asking for help

If you’d like to have a go yourself - visit here.

So what is VoicePanel?

A timed Q&A that simply reads out some questions to you and you answer with your microphone in your own words.

Simple yet effective

It’s easy to answer, and based on what you answer it will steer you in a direction and try and get more details.

I’m in hardcore nonprofit research mode at the moment with 3 projects, so I guess the ask was timely.

Towards the end of the 8 minutes, it asked me for an example of needing to give clients in this sector more education.

I spat out a fairly obvious example and use case about lower tech literacy.

It surprised me by asking for another example.

This took me off autopilot and forced me to think about my answer and provide another about education time potentially slowing down the speed of innovation and taking action.

Nothing will replace the insights you can get from a deep 1:1, but with a tool like this you could scale richer insights that you simply don’t get from survey responses.

Imagine having 50 people respond and over half of them telling you that they aren’t proud of the product/leadership/purpose with such a tool.

A survey could be designed to get you there too, but a tool like VoicePanel would help you understand the feeling with the potential to dig into it later.

Flipping mini AI software

Via Indie Hackers.

I love the vibe at Indie Hackers.

It’s full of people looking for an edge, wanting to build a business, and like testing, making and breaking things.

It’s also as rabbit-holey as Reddit, with less fake accounts and snark.

Well worth a visit for learning about building things

One recent enterprising share was about a gentleman who has been scouring the web for niche problems, building no-code apps and landing pages within a day, and then selling them on Acquire.com.

This would be interesting if he was able to do it once or twice, but he’s managed to do it for:

• teachers
• a bedtime story generator
• Real estate property listings
• a songwriting AI

Santiago does it with:

• Bubble (building the app)
• Unicorn Page Builder (landing page)
• Gumroad (info product)
• Canva (templated designs)

It’s a good idea!

It sounds like a neato mechanic and I’m tempted to have a go at this myself - maybe for the ADHD goal machine?

Heyo… onto the next topic!

ADHD Goal Machine update

Via my own interviews.

Last edition I talked about rabbit-holing into ADHD and seeing what AI can do.

Since last update I’ve continued to interview knowledge workers with ADHD and dig into the problem with work more.

There’s something here and I keep learning about the problem more deeply.

Here’s some of the trends:

90% of the people I’ve spoken to (~15) are womenAll interviewees have been diagnosed since COVID arrivedOne group of people struggle with forced systems - such as mandates to use MS teams, Sharepoint, or - the forcing is like Kryptonite for neurodivergent minds and most people I spoke to struggled to adaptAnother group are business owners/freelancers - they got sick of trying to fit into a hole as a peg and have forged their own pathNearly all of the ways they work through their traits are unrelated to technology (breaks, keeping phones away, moving around etc.), nearly everyone hasn’t looked at using technology as a way to workaround these issues

I’ll keep interviewing people and see if I can get even deeper into the problem.

I’m also keen to ship an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by EOM (end of month ;).

–

That’s it for this week’s edition.

I’m looking forward to a bit of a quieter weekend here in Melbourne as the last one was scorched earth (38 degrees).

As always if you’ve got questions or thoughts about AI just reply and I’m happy to hear it.

Remember - we’ve got this! 💪

-Marshy

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