There were an apparent 23 versions before this, but this is when it really started to take shape.

We talk all the time about the need to ruthlessly edit ideas. Sometimes you omit something because you realize it’s not great. Sometimes because you don’t think it has a market. Sometimes because you realize it would just take too much time away from other objectives.

This was a particularly painful cut for me. Paprika started out to be the Wii Fit of productivity. We would incentivize users to use the app more by unlocking new features for them as they did. Behind the scenes, a lot of this reward system actually works- but we didn’t launch it.

Despite the fact that we really believe productivity can be aided by incentives and goals (Like http://www.epicwinapp.com/) we just didn’t feel right about our implementation. It felt more like clippy than a fun way to keep on task.

So we ended up cutting the very thing we set out to build. Painful, but we think it was the right move. Paprika is even more focused, and simple. Nothing to distract you from what you’re working on… But I still miss the little Paprika robot just a little.