Building the Ultimate Tool for Thinking, Research, and Knowledge Management

My Journey Through the Maze of Human Knowledge and Management

I've always been fascinated by human knowledge, especially in how we approach thinking, learning, researching, and understanding. As curious creatures, we continuously seek out new information and strive to stay informed. Today, as knowledge workers, we are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of data—an estimated 34GB per day. Between meetings, workshops, customer feedback, and personal learning, we manage an immense amount of information.

This deluge of information necessitates efficient systems to manage and make sense of it. We collect interesting media, think and research to understand it, and use this knowledge to enhance our work and lives. Sharing this information with others who might find it useful is also a common practice.

From Architecture to Product Design

My personal story goes something like this. As a self-taught Product Designer who studied Architecture, I've always been interested in technology, digital media design, and coding. In 2012, I decided to quit architecture and pursue designing and building for the digital world. What I love about the digital world is its multidisciplinary nature and the never-ending stream of information.

Since then, the tech industry has seen dramatic changes. We’ve moved from designing with a 960px grid for the web to embracing mobile phones, responsive design, native mobile apps, crypto, web3, and now AI. Our tools have evolved from Fireworks to Photoshop to Sketch, and now Figma (and whatever comes next). Job titles have shifted from Web Designer to UX Designer, UI/UX Designer, Product Designer, and Full-Stack Product Designer. Keeping up with these changes requires continuous learning, navigating, and adapting.

Quick History of Commonplace Books

Breaking down and understanding topics is challenging, especially when multitasking. During my learning journey, I used books, tutorial videos, articles, and notes. This method of capturing and organizing information is akin to a commonplace book—a personal database of knowledge.

While some still use physical books for this purpose, they have drawbacks: they need to be carried, indexed, and managed across volumes. Modern tools like Notion, Logseq, and Obsidian help but often require additional tools like Miro and involve manual organization. Switching between tools can result in lost context, unsupported file types, and difficulty sharing ideas with all the necessary context.

Building Systems for Learning

To keep up with all of this, I had to develop systems to manage the vast amount of information I encountered. I needed a place to save interesting items (Google Drive), a repository for research (Google Drive, Docs, later Notion), a space for project-specific inspiration (Dribbble, Pinterest, Figma, my computer desktop), a note-taking system (Todoist, Apple Notes, Notion), and a brainstorming area (Miro, FigJam). Keeping track of all this information and knowing where to find it has always been a challenge.

The Birth of Spaceduck

Last year, we started building Spaceduck as a research tool for competitor analysis. Through numerous pivots based on feedback and data, we realized the scope of the problem we were tackling. Learning and researching are not just about gathering information but also about understanding, breaking down, and making sense of complex topics.

The Perfect Thinking Tool

Our goal with Spaceduck is to create an ecosystem of tools that facilitate deep understanding and insights into complex topics. We aim to make it the go-to digital space for knowledge workers, specifically designed for deep thinking and research—a perfect "Thinking Tool."

To achieve this, we focus on the knowledge lifecycle: Exploration -> Capture -> Research/Think/Learn -> Creation -> Sharing/Collaboration. Since exploration happens in your day-to-day activities of browsing the net, reading, listening, and watching, we are not focusing on exploration; you have your computers, phones, and browsers for that. We want to focus on Capturing, Understanding, Creating, and Collaborating. Let's begin with the "Capture" phase.

Capturing Knowledge

Different projects require capturing various data types, such as notes, images, videos, PDFs, and files. An ideal capture tool must be accessible, unobtrusive, effortless in organization, connected to similar content to remind you of what you've captured previously and potentially reuse that content, and seamless in retrieval.

Thinking, Researching, and Learning

After capturing content, the next step is to utilize it. The first tool we're introducing in this category is our Document creation tool, which helps make sense of captured content. Writing is a way to navigate thoughts and ideas, leading to deeper understanding and better communication.

The Spaceduck Document tool isn't just another note-taking app. It's connected to all your collected information, allowing easy insertion of data into documents, suggesting relevant connections, and helping retrieve forgotten content. More tools, such as our Board and Categories, are in development—more on them soon.

Seamless Retrieval

With no input required for organizing what you capture or create, Spaceduck allows you to search and retrieve content in a way that mimics natural recall. You can use natural language and distinctive attributes like color, objects, or subject matter. Alternatively, you can utilize our uniquely designed filtering system to find the information you need.

Moving Forward

This is where we are currently at. In the coming weeks, I'll share more about the subsequent phases of the knowledge gathering cycle that we're solving with Spaceduck. We'll continue to introduce tools for creation, sharing, and collaboration. Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.