Brill.app

Brill is was a productivity app that helps professionals digitise any type of handwritten notes (e.g. workshop outputs) 200x faster than typing and then easily share them with their teams. Unfortunately, its core purpose was heavily hit by Covid–19.

Long story short

How did it start?

From a small team* (of four people including myself), trying to solve a common problem in the tech industry — when after a workshop, nobody wants to digitise the output, typing in the notes into a doc, spreadsheet or managing software, so the momentum is totally lost; with many hours over a keyboard.

Reality check

Lots(!) of workshops

The rise of the digital solutions industry has brought thousands in front of a whiteboard wall pushing colourful stickers with notes.

Too slow capturing

It’s been noted that moving workshop outcomes from analogue to digital and to begin working takes time that it could be put to better use.

Too much project managing

There is a big number of available project managements software for people to do their jobs. This plethore makes things complicated for all.

Problem definition

Save time by efficiently digitise analogue outputs and export them to other platforms.

Initial idea

The very early design concepts for what later turned to become Brill, were based on Catalyst, Tigerspike’s methodology for accelerating digital transformation. Having a digital tool for the company to support their project teams move faster, from collaborative workshops to ideation, sounded like a great idea.

I based the design on the principal that all the knowledge around a project can be split and identified as ‘assumptions’ (small, unique information units), that each includes a description, categories, RAG status and necessary validation activities.

The goal was to design an experience that will help digitise these assumptions, initially ‘captured’ as sticky notes in some workshop, Being a small team with limited time and recourses, we decided to first try voice recognition. It was an accesible and easily adaptable technology at the time, and after a first round of testing all avaible solutions, we found out that Siri Kit was the best option. To make the process even faster, I designed a ‘walkie talkie’ experience where one could use a big button to hold ⟶ dictate ⟶ release and digitise every note without typing.

Proof of concept

In order to validate the idea, we made a coded prototype, created a small set of notes from a hypothetical workshop, send them out to designers, project managers and analysts in all Tigerspike’s 10 offices, and asked them to track time while:

a) typing them in a spreadsheet, and
b) dictating them using the prototype.

The result proved that voice can be up to 3x faster than typing. 

Internal pitching

Although in the lifespan of a workshop this is not a lot faster, multiplying it by the number of workshops in a year, in all offices, we proved that a company, agency or team can save a fair amount of time.

This was the #1 benefit we used for internally pitching the idea to the CEO and ask for resources to work on a product, not for a client. But there were four other benefits: 

We’ve already started thinking that this could be a great product to put in the market instead of just keeping it as a tool in the company.

The team

We managed to gather a team of four were. Interestingly enough, the three of us were coming from a design background. However, we were wearing many different hats. I was daily juggling between research, UX & UI design, user testing, branding, marketing, and even QA.

Is there a market gap for a product?

As we were working on the first version, we were also wondering if there is a hidden opportunity for a product and, if yes, where does it sit in the market? It was clear that this product sits between the professionals’ challenging world of handwritten notes and the extremely cluttered space of project management and design software.

Brill Alpha

As we kept testing the technology (Siri Kit with a layer of ML) we started crafting the first UI concepts and interactions experiments for the MVP. At the time, we were focused on creating a simple, intuitive flow, and setting up easy feedback pathways for our first users.

Simplified UI
Focus on voice capture
Tagging and sharing 

Brill Beta

It wasn’t a long time between the two phases but we gathered a significant amount of meaningful feedback that helped us validate some design decisions or refine some clunky parts. The flows became smoother, we introduced some useful onboarding tips, and we created a ‘labs’ section to test new features, e.g. tagging notes using voice.

Onboarding hints
Bulk editing
Tagging update
Improved UX flows

Brill 1.4

I’ll jump a little forward in time to one of the most important updates for Brill. Version 1.4 introduced Computer Vision for the first time (allowing users take photos of their notes and digitise them in a snap), an Apple Watch app (making capturing of quick notes and ideas even faster, just with a tap or a simple Siri command), and a test for monetisation (a token system that allowed users to capture unlimited notes using the camera).

Content

Having the releases cycle under control, we also managed to focused more on content. We adopted a more thourough process for the app content, e.g. the UX writing, and also the marketing content. We started a Medium Publication, where we’re explaining how we worked or suggesting uses for Brill, e.g. a paperless meeting with an Apple HomePod. I was also responsible for the Creative Direction (and part of the content writing) for Brill’s marketing. See below some examples:

Brill 2.0

The biggest Brill release so far… Instant capture of sticky notes from camera, better control and management of folders (now with option to change their colour) and cards (with a refined UI that will help us enhance this feature in the future), stronger export (now including Jira), and a super onboarding assistant.

Detailed Onboarding
UI refinements
Faster Vision capture
New Subscripion Model

From sticky notes to anywhere, 200x faster than typing.