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Design phase 0: strategy brief

mdcraft.ai Phase 0 — Strategy-to-Design Brief#

Objective#

Translate the business direction into a product design brief that guides homepage, workbench, and monetization surfaces.

Strategic direction (locked)#

mdcraft.ai is a premium markdown finishing layer, not a commodity file converter.

Primary value:

  • turn rough markdown into polished, sendable documents fast
  • keep preview and export visually aligned
  • recover usable markdown from text-first PDFs with honest beta guidance

This brief aligns with foundation/MDCRAFT_FOUNDATION.md and existing product docs.

Design principles#

  1. Beauty by default
    • default output should feel professional without manual tuning
  2. Trust before speed claims
    • show quality proof and scope limits clearly
  3. Fast first win
    • first-time users should reach first preview/export with minimal friction
  4. Progressive depth
    • simple entry for newcomers, advanced controls in workbench
  5. Honest reverse conversion
    • never imply perfect extraction for complex PDFs

Target audiences and jobs-to-be-done#

ICP 1: AI power users#

Jobs:

  • transform AI-generated markdown into stakeholder-ready PDFs
  • avoid reformatting in Docs/Word

Decision trigger:

  • visible quality lift in under 2 minutes

ICP 2: Developers and docs teams#

Jobs:

  • export technical markdown with stable tables, code, Mermaid, math, links
  • avoid template/CLI maintenance burden

Decision trigger:

  • reliability across difficult markdown structures

ICP 3: Consultants and product teams#

Jobs:

  • ship polished proposals/specs quickly
  • apply consistent templates and brand controls

Decision trigger:

  • obvious professionalism and reduced handoff edits

Product narrative hierarchy#

Every key page should communicate this order:

  1. Core promise: polished markdown outputs quickly
  2. Proof: benchmarked quality + parity
  3. Path: quick start now, full studio when needed
  4. Trust: privacy and reverse-beta honesty
  5. Value ladder: free to pro/team progression

Conversion model and success events#

Funnel stages#

  1. Visitor lands on homepage
  2. User starts quick conversion flow (upload/paste)
  3. User reaches first preview
  4. User completes first export
  5. User returns and repeats usage
  6. User upgrades to paid plan

Primary design KPIs#

  • visitor -> upload/paste start
  • upload/paste start -> first preview
  • first preview -> first export
  • first export -> 7-day repeat usage
  • free -> paid conversion

Guardrails and non-goals#

Guardrails#

  • prioritize Markdown -> PDF quality in all design tradeoffs
  • keep reverse flow explicitly labeled as beta
  • preserve preview/export parity as a first-class UX promise

Non-goals (for current cycle)#

  • broad format expansion beyond current Phase 1 direction
  • workspace/collaboration complexity
  • positioning as a generic all-file converter

Deliverables expected from next phases#

  • Phase 1: information architecture and user flows
  • Phase 3: homepage redesign concept (activation + trust)
  • Phase 4: workbench structure redesign concept (execution + retention)

Decision rubric for design proposals#

Any design proposal should pass all checks:

  1. Does it improve first export speed without reducing quality perception?
  2. Does it reinforce the premium finishing-layer positioning?
  3. Does it keep reverse-conversion claims disciplined?
  4. Does it create a clearer path to monetization?