Hikikomori Sprint (HKS) #3: Saving a Sinking Ship

My company currently has only 2.5 months of runway, and we need to rebuild the product from scratch:

A new scientific network that blows everything that came before it out of the water.

And as per tradition, I’ve decided to dedicate a “Hikikomori Sprint” to this: I will mostly sleep in the office in Tokyo until the thing is done.

Deadline: May 30th, 11:59pm

It means the platform is DONE, tested, demo-ready, and an announcement email has been sent to investors.

I want this platform to be highly useful from Day One, and a delight to use.

From a usefulness standpoint (cheese and friction):

All Users:
1. Identity verification by other users
2. Public endorsements
Authors:
1. One-click coauthor invites (and designate first author etc)
2. One-click collaborator links (not co-author but someone you want to share draft with and see their comments)
3. Easily organize their drafts and published papers, see collaborators
4. Create & edit beautiful papers (with references & metadata)
5. Github-like collaborative editing and merging (no live multiplayer)
6. Import .tex or Overleaf zip files (+ .bib)
  - Blocksuite post-import view
  - Original source files
  - Import report (success vs needs review etc)
7. Publish papers with both a technical title and a human-friendly “display” title
8. Paper supplementary resources and timeline area (links with note, or blog posts)
9. Author comments, replies, and private comment for co-authors
10. Author can reply to individual community ratings
Readers:
1. Clean reader view
2. References navigation
3. Comments with annotations
4. Comment reply threads (in popup)
5. Version history of paper and fragments
6. Sharing links externally + internal embeds (fragments, comments, paper)
7. Private notes
8. Rate / score papers with explanation / feedback (and rescind rating)
9. Reproducibility attempts (blog post / link)
10. Compliment other comments with optional explanation / feedback
Social features (eventually)
1. Simple Twitter-like timeline
2. DMs and message requests

From a design / UX standpoint, it has to be: