Build an app to help share/get updates with only your close friends.

Interesting question.

Let's first put a structure so that we can have some framework on how we go about answering this question.
Structure:
1. Clarifying questions
2. Users
3. User pain points
4. Solutions
5. Solution Prioritization
6. Success Metrics - North Star and Supplementary

Claifying questions:
1. Assuming by app you mean both web and mobile - Yes
2. What sort of app are we talking about here? - Is this just a push based app where people can post updates or are we thinking of a messaging sort of app where it can be a conversation? - You choose
3. I will restrict this just for the US for now - Sure
4. When we talk of updates, what exactly are we talking about - just text or even multimedia? - Anything
5. Is this app going to be a standalone or integrated into facebook or other platforms? - Assume that it is a stand-alone
6. How would this be any different from adding a group in whatsapp or Instagram and only get updates from them? - That should be part of your answer.
6. Any constraints that I should know about? - No

Ok - from this, what I will be looking to build is a stand-alone app that allows me the ability to add just my 'close' friends with any sort of updates being shared.

Users:
1. Heavy users of social media - They are very active on various social media platforms including posting and watching content on a daily basis. These could be influencers or celebrities or jsut active day to day users.
2. Silent users of social media - They are active on various social media platforms, but only go there to view what others have posted. They are not willing to post content for a variety of reasons such as shyness, lack of updates, find it meaningless or are just not ready to put in the work needed to provide updates.
3. Mild users of social media - They are rarely active. They are ok posting and viewing content, but do so rarely as they are not addicted to the social media craze and do not find the need to keep posting things on social media
4. Non social media users - They are people who do not even have social media accounts or apps installed on their phone - they believe that they get the updates they need about the people they care about via other channels and are not interested in getting the daily updates from others.

For the purposes of this conversation, let's target the mild and non social media users as they are the ones that would be prime candidates for this app.

User pain points -
1. Users often refrain from posting things on social media in the fear that they will be judged for their update or that they think others are not going to be interested in their update - This is a big barrier for entry for some users - they need a safe space where they are more likely to be themselves without the need for approvals

2. Some users do not wish to download or log in to social media apps because they feel that there is too much unwanted noise that they do not need.

3. Customers are spread between social media apps and posting things even to close friends and keeping them updated is painful as it might need to be done through multiple channels which is painful and timeconsuming

4. There is a big chance for a lot of unwanted or useless messages /updates being shared in social media - such as forwards from people in whatsapp groups that causes many participants to not want to interact in these groups

5. Threat of scam and fraud - Many users across social media are falling victim to fraud and account impersination - There is a fear that prevents users from using social media accounts due to this.

6. Being on Social Media apps today also leads to fears from certain users that their data is being used for targeted Ads.

So, in summary, the fears are:
1. shyness and fear of judgement
2. growth in unwanted content
3. Too many social media apps to keep track of and update
4. Fear of scam and fraud
5. Fear of data being sold to 3P advertisers

Solutions:
1. create an app that only allows you to add people that you truly care about from your contacts - this way, you can maintain the closeness and have a personal touch to things that you could not from other social media apps - this also allows you to have a central place where you can get updates from all your close friends.
2. We can employ locked in features that only allow you to add someone or someone to add you based on mutual approvals so that updates can be shared between the users - this will significantly increase the confidence of the users to be willing to share more updates as they are more secure that the people that they are sharing updates to won't judge them or there being any negative effects.
3. Use AI/ML to detect users that are sharing a lot of forward type contents - we can allow receivers to provide anonymous feedback on the content they do not want to see and we can warn content creators when they plan to share such content to ensure a clean experience for all users.
4. We can even employ AI/ML models that can detect whiff of fraud or impersonation accounts thereby ensuring that all users feel safe in using the app to share updates with their friends.
5. We can ensure a no-ad platform where the data from users is secure and not persisted or sold for targeted Ads.
6. We can add an AI based content creator within the app that allows users to enter a broad stroke of what they want to share and we can come up with good captions and messages that they can choose from so that they are secure in the fact that the content is written well or that the picture is good enough to post - This increases the chance of greater engagement on the app.

Success Metrics:
North Star -
# DAU/WAU/MAU - This measures engagement
# updates posted per unit time -
#Average number of updates per user

Secondary metrics -
# sign-ups to the app - Tracks Acquisition and Activation
#Average amount of time spent on the app per user