The Moment the App Said 'What's Next?' — And How I Found the Right Question for Planner

It started with a question. Not the kind you ask a user, but the kind that haunts you as you sit in front of a blank screen. What if there was a way to think through a task, not just list it? What if planning could be more than checking boxes and ticking off to-do lists? I had been working on a simple to-do app for a while, but it wasn't solving the real problem — the confusion of knowing what to do next, what to prioritize, and how to break a big goal into manageable steps. That’s when I decided to build Planner, a tool that would help people think through their goals with the help of AI.

The idea came from frustration. I had seen people struggle with planning tools that were too rigid, too focused on managing what they already knew, rather than helping them discover what they needed to do. I wanted Planner to be different. It would be a thinking partner, not just a task manager. But how do you build that? The first challenge was defining the problem clearly enough to make it solvable. That’s when the app said, 'What's next?' — and I had to find the right answer.

Building Planner meant diving into AI collaboration in a way I hadn’t before. I worked closely with Claude and Codex, not just to write code, but to reason through the planning process itself. They helped me structure the logic behind the AI’s ability to surface dependencies and suggest sequencing. It wasn’t just about writing an app — it was about designing a system that could understand the complexity of planning and help users navigate it. The app didn’t just say 'What's next?' — it asked the right question at the right time, and that was the beginning of something real.

The process was messy. There were moments when the AI suggested steps that made no sense, or when the logic didn’t align with the user’s actual needs. But those were the moments that pushed me to refine the product. I had to learn how to ask the AI the right questions, how to interpret its responses, and how to build a system that could adapt to the user’s thinking. It was a process of discovery, of trial and error, of learning how to work with the AI as a collaborator rather than a tool.

Now, Planner is live — and it works. It helps users articulate their goals, break them down into actionable steps, and track their progress in a way that feels natural and intuitive. It’s not a perfect product, but it’s a step in the right direction. And it all started with that one question — the moment the app said, 'What's next?' — and I found the answer.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in the planning process, if you’ve ever struggled to figure out what to do next, I hope Planner helps you move forward. It’s not about managing tasks — it’s about thinking through them, and that’s the beginning of something real.