Core Framing
Monko is a mix of validated demand, accumulated delivery experience, researcher-specific intuition, and a strategic bet that AI changes the ceiling of what this kind of product can be.
The risk is building another CMS. The opportunity is building an AI-first research communication system that helps groups think, remember, plan, publish, and improve.
Main Interfaces
1. Identity + Memory
The “soul” layer. A canonical internal sourcebook for the group/project/person:
- what they are about
- what they believe
- what they know deeply
- how they sound
- what they refuse to overclaim
- recurring concepts, taste, vocabulary, red lines
- learned preferences from edits and approvals
2. Strategy
The external action layer:
- audiences
- goals
- positioning
- channels
- cadence
- opportunities
- campaigns or dissemination obligations
- communication priorities
This touches Identity + Memory, but is not the same thing. Identity is the inner truth; strategy is how that truth moves through the world.
3. Pipeline
The production workflow:
- sources
- extraction
- drafts
- review
- approval
- publication
- distribution
This remains necessary, but it should not be the whole product.
4. People / Group
The human context:
- individual researchers
- roles
- research areas
- ORCID/profiles
- contribution context
- review responsibilities
- visibility preferences
Important guardrail: avoid turning this into hierarchy, status scoring, productivity metrics, or PI ego reinforcement.
Category-Shaping Ideas
- Communication Sourcebook / Project Soul: the basis for everything they publish.
- Communication Strategy Space: an interactive strategy artifact most groups have never had.
- Research Pulse: lightweight recurring voice/text capture from researchers.
- Opportunity Radar: Monko suggests moments worth communicating.
- Narrative Map: visual map of people, projects, themes, outputs, claims, funders.
- Audience Simulator: show how the same research lands for peers, funders, industry, students, public, etc.
- Red Lines / Claims Guardrail: protect against overclaiming and bad simplification.
- PI Briefing Room: compact view of pending reviews, opportunities, weak spots, and group communication state.
- Grant / Dissemination Mode: turn project obligations into an operational communication plan.
- Voice and Taste Training: teach Monko what feels right, wrong, generic, or embarrassing.
Current Best Product Shape
Monko should have the pipeline, but the intelligence is in the layer beside it:
Identity + Memory gives Monko judgment. Strategy gives it direction. Pipeline gives it execution. People/Group gives it social and scientific context.