Identify the friction. Build the fix.

Gift ideas strike at random—overhearing "I've been wanting that book," spotting something perfect while browsing. By the time birthdays arrive, those ideas are gone. Every gift app requires opening, logging in, navigating. That friction kills capture.

The fastest input device is already in your hand. Texting is instant, universal, and requires zero context switching. If capturing a gift idea took the same effort as texting a friend, you'd never lose another one.

• SMS-first capture: Text "mom would love those blue earrings from Nordstrom" → Claude parses recipient, item, and source automatically
• Multi-channel access: PWA for browsing lists, Chrome extension for one-click web capture
• A2P 10DLC compliance for carrier-grade SMS delivery
• AI-generated avatars make family profiles feel personal and fun

50+ gift ideas captured that would have been lost. Family actively uses it for birthdays and holidays. The insight: meeting users where they already are (SMS) beats building a better app.

Mornings start by checking three apps: Calendar for time reality, Todoist for tasks, Gmail for fires. By the time you've context-switched through all of them, momentum is gone. And projects without due dates quietly slip because nothing screams at you about them.

Productivity tools fail when they're passive dashboards you glance at occasionally. What works is a partner you're in constant dialogue with—one that knows your calendar, your tasks, your priorities, and isn't afraid to call out when you're drifting.

• Chat-first interface: Always-on sidekick, not another dashboard to check
• Big 3 commitments: Each morning, declare what WILL get done (not what could)
• Focus sessions: Tracked deep work with energy logging and interruption counts
• Smart email triage: Gmail integration with VIP detection, school sender recognition, AI urgency scoring
• Platform integration: Connects Todoist + Calendar + Gmail + shared Supabase with Family HQ
• Proactive accountability: "That's twice you've pushed the PRD. Want to break it into smaller pieces?"

Daily use for morning standups and focus tracking. Surfaced three slipping projects in the first week. The cross-platform integration means one conversation has full context of calendar, tasks, email, and weekly priorities.

Running a household with three kids means hundreds of recurring decisions, contacts, and schedules—scattered across texts, emails, different apps, and people's heads. Every "where's that info?" moment adds friction. Every missed detail adds stress.

Household operations need infrastructure, not just apps. A central data layer that other systems can read from and write to. Build the foundation first, then build specialized interfaces on top.

• Supabase + Notion hybrid: Structured data in Supabase, documents and SOPs in Notion
• Relational model: Kids → activities → schedules → contacts all linked
• Calendar aggregation: Multiple school calendars synced to one cached source
• Weekly priorities: Shared table that Focus Hub reads for accountability
• API-first design: Every piece of data accessible to other systems

Single source of truth for family logistics. New babysitters find emergency contacts in seconds. But more importantly: this became the foundation that Focus Hub, Morning Rundown, and Email Priority all build on. One data layer, multiple specialized interfaces.

Morning starts with three app checks: Calendar (what's my time reality?), Todoist (what's due?), Notion (what projects need attention?). By the time you've context-switched through all of them, you've lost 10 minutes and your momentum. Worse: projects without due dates quietly slip because nothing screams about them.

The question isn't "what's in each app?" It's "what should today look like?" That requires synthesizing information across systems, not just displaying it. And it should be accessible from anywhere—voice-first, device-agnostic.

• Single API endpoint: Pulls from Calendar, Todoist, and Notion simultaneously
• Claude synthesis: Custom system prompt that prioritizes, flags stale projects, and recommends focus
• Siri integration: "Hey Siri, morning rundown" from any Apple device
• "Last Worked" tracking: Notion field flags projects untouched for 7+ days
• Mode recommendation: Task day, builder day, or mix—based on calendar shape

15 seconds from "Hey Siri" to knowing exactly what today should look like. Surfaced three slipping projects in week one. The synthesis is the value—no single app could provide this view.

Email volume makes everything feel equally urgent. Important messages from schools, time-sensitive requests, and actual human correspondence get buried under newsletters, notifications, and automated noise. Filters help, but they're brittle and require constant maintenance.

Priority isn't about rules—it's about context. A message from a teacher matters more than a message from a vendor. An email mentioning "tomorrow" needs attention today. AI can understand these nuances in ways rule-based systems can't.

• Context-aware classification: VIPs from Notion contacts, school domain detection, personal vs. automated
• AI urgency scoring: Claude analyzes content for time sensitivity and action items
• School sender recognition: District, principal, teacher, PTA—each handled appropriately
• Digest generation: Low-priority items batched into a single daily summary

Critical school communications now surface immediately. Marketing and low-priority items auto-sorted. Email processing time cut significantly. The classification logic is now shared with Focus Hub's email tools.

Traditional flashcard apps are static, boring, and one-size-fits-all. Kids lose interest quickly. Parents spend time creating cards that don't adapt to what the child actually knows. And when a kid gets stuck, the app can't explain—just repeat.

Learning is personal. The same concept needs different explanations for different kids. And engagement matters as much as content—a bored kid isn't learning. AI can adapt both the difficulty and the encouragement in real-time.

• AI-generated content: Create flashcards from any topic, age-appropriate automatically
• Adaptive difficulty: Performance tracking adjusts what comes next
• Encouraging feedback: Claude provides kid-friendly explanations when wrong
• Voice input: Younger kids can speak answers instead of typing
• Character mascot: CottleCub (25+ expressions) keeps it fun and engaging

Used weekly for spelling, math facts, and science vocabulary. Kids actually ask to use it. The AI encouragement and adaptive difficulty transformed study time from a chore into something they engage with.

Three kids across multiple schools means information comes from a dozen sources: school emails, parent apps, websites, paper handouts, text chains. Critical dates get missed because there's no single place to see what's coming.

Schools won't consolidate their communication—that's not happening. But we can aggregate on our end. Pull from every source, normalize the data, and present it in a way that answers the only question that matters: "What do I need to know about today?"

• Email parsing: Extract events and deadlines from school newsletters
• Calendar aggregation: Multiple school platforms synced to one source
• Child-specific views: Filter by kid for quick daily reference
• DAKboard integration: Ambient display in kitchen shows today's schedule

Single source of truth for school logistics. "I didn't know about that" moments dramatically reduced. The calendar sync feeds into Family HQ, which feeds into Morning Rundown. Data flows downstream.