#5 The Creator's Creation Value Chain：For Creators

Since the rise of the AI era last year, my team and I began developing Minduck, a Web-based AI application designed for users who are not adept at interacting with technological products. Our concept evolved from a simple idea to a complex project addressing hundreds of issues. Now, we're excited to introduce Minduck to everyone on Product Hunt! To give back to the Product Hunt community, we plan to share 10 key insights from our product research and development over the past ten months during our Pre-Launch period. These insights are crucial to our understanding of AI products and are derived from our experiences at Minduck. We hope these content will inspire everyone interested in AI application development. #5 The Creator's Creation Value Chain Last year, the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) made "creation" incredibly accessible. Now, simply by inputting a piece of information in a dialog box, we can generate: - A logically coherent, well-structured text - A high-quality, visually appealing, realistic, or artistic images - An incredibly lifelike animation - A melodious piece of music with aesthetic design And it doesn't stop there. We also have AI-generated speech, 3D models, code, and more. With AI's rapid development, it might seem like there's nothing left for us humans to do. But is that really the case? I don't know how AI will evolve in the future, but I believe it should always serve as an AGENT, helping us focus on what matters most to us. Therefore, we've deeply analyzed the "Creation Value Chain" for individuals (or we call them modern creators) and identified five key phases: Phase 1: Thinking Phase 2: Ideas Phase 3: Creative Formats Phase 4: Business Formats Phase 5: Value Exchange I'll introduce the framework of this Creation Value Chain in the order of 2->1->3->4->5. Phase 2: Ideas (The Aha Moment) Think back to your "aha moments" at work or in life—those instances when you suddenly understand a previously incomprehensible problem or concept. These moments bring a sudden clarity to your thoughts, often accompanied by joy, satisfaction, and amazement. It's at this point that you start having ideas. Psychologists suggest that such "aha moments" leave a mark on our brains, helping us find solutions through insight. (reference: Aha! experiences leave a mark: facilitated recall of insight solutions. Psychological Research. September 2013) Phase 1: Thinking (Before the Aha Moment) What leads to these ideas before the aha moment? As Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." Humans are habitual thinkers. We believe that it is the stored knowledge and experiences in our brains, combined with constant or inadvertent thinking, that lead to these aha moments. Phase 3: Creative Formats (After the Aha Moment) After an aha moment, people often record their ideas in their preferred ways. Some might draft sketches in a notebook, others might create logical diagrams on a whiteboard to communicate with their team, and some might quickly jot down notes on their phones or even record voice memos. These records are what we call the original "creative formats," unique to each individual’s thought process and ideas. These serve as the foundation for further development. Phase 4: Business Formats This phase involves transforming creative formats into "business formats" that can be used in Phase 5 for value exchange. Depending on the industry and role, these formats vary. It could be a market research report, a product development document, a training manual, a marketing video, a presentation, or content for a team meeting. *The creators of these business formats include researchers, product managers, operations specialists, creative creators, team leaders, and project managers—collectively referred to as "Modern Creators." Phase 5: Value Exchange Finally, the completed business formats facilitate value exchange within a company’s departments, between a company and its suppliers, or even between a company and its consumers. This journey outlines the five stages modern creators go through when creating value. Throughout these stages, AI can assist in numerous ways, such as: - Enhancing our thinking process to find aha moments more efficiently - Helping us refine ideas into actionable plans - Utilizing AI to process and develop our thought logic and ideas Minduck is born for this very purpose. Enter Minduck, an AI-native mind-map base software, designed to align with human thinking processes. AI + [Your Thought Logic and Ideas]. Thank you for reading this far. --- If you find our article valuable, please consider visiting Minduck’s Product Hub to notify us, and stay updated on our launch day- 8/3.