Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

Sidenote, I appreciate that you allow installing on macos. I hate typing on a phone so having it run on a computer is much better.

I totally hear you that there are so many products in the market that only work for the person who designed them. We designed this with hundreds of beta users (I had 5-6 deep calls per day for at least a month) and it's based off of our learnings from our 50+ adhd coaches and thousands of adhd coaching clients as well. As we build this out more, we have deeper personalization of how the app works planned too, so hopefully we'll be able to serve (not all but) many ADHDers! I'm always curious about what people build on their own though, and what about Indy wasn't fit for them. This helps us figure out what adaptability to build going forward! But if you have a system that works well for you already, that's amazing!

And hear you on that copy! We tested it with our beta community and it was based off of thousands of ADHDers main sentiment & challenge. Here are the top ones if you're curious: “I’m stuck and something has to change”; “I don’t trust myself anymore”; “I want direction, not another to-do list”; “I want to work with my ADHD, not fight it”; we'll be continuing to test this as we talk to more users!

A few things top of mind:

1) A big differentiation is the guidance. Indy is based on science-backed frameworks and exercises that set the foundation for and fuel the main scaffolding interactions. For example, by going through the lifeline exercise when you sign up, members are prompted to think of future events across different life areas (vs. often when you tackle this yourself you may just start working on productivity/work oriented things for example) and the objective function of the app is general well-being rather than productivity

2) Indy is built not to give you answers but to build your capacity. For example, in the problem solving agent, it teaches you the COM-B framework through demonstration, and I've already talked to many members who are surprised that they found themselves going through similar thought process even when Indy wasn't there and getting things done that they haven't been able to in months or years

3) Sounds trivial but the design and user experience. It's built for ADHD and although not perfect and there's tons we want to add, the app is trained to help you see the good (pulling out wins, surfacing it in pretty ways, allowing you to add photos to build salience, etc.) to build self trust over time; and other UI / illustration choices to provide some dopamine (and we've considered hard the balance between providing dopamine but not trying to just get people to return to the app for the sake of it)

I’ll give this app a try later.

Good stuff, I appreciate your work.

I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms and systems (and some people seem to have very high intellectual horsepower), so you might not find the best market fit or feedback here. I think I am past the point where this may have been a fit for me, but earlier in my life it may have been very useful.

Edit: Can you explain what "clear boundaries around non-medical use" means?