Build: Social / Community App
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Preset
Authentication Methods*
Access Control*
Multi-factor Authentication
Tradeoffs
Each provider requires an OAuth app registration and key rotation policy
Requires IdP partnership and XML-based protocol handling; significant integration work
Permission checks must be applied consistently across every data access path
Delivery Method*
User Control
Tradeoffs
Requires persistent connection infrastructure (e.g. Redis pub/sub, WebSocket server)
Higher server request volume; notifications may lag by poll interval
Requires APNs/FCM credentials and certificate management
Significantly more complex preference storage and UI
Search Approach*
Search Scope*
Tradeoffs
Requires FTS index maintenance; adds write-time overhead
Embedding generation adds latency and API cost per indexed document
Results must be unified and ranked across disparate data models
Storage Backend*
File Processing
Tradeoffs
Not horizontally scalable; lost on server replacement without backup
Higher monthly cost; requires cache invalidation strategy
Upload latency increases; requires AV service integration
Interface Type*
Capabilities*
Tradeoffs
Faster to set up but customization hits a ceiling quickly; often needs to be replaced
Requires a flag evaluation layer in every feature; adds latency if not cached
Every admin action must be explicitly logged; easy to miss if not enforced at the framework level
Fan-out Architecture*
Ordering & Ranking*
Feed Capabilities
Tradeoffs
Read speed gains paid for by write amplification — cost scales with follower counts
Model training, feedback collection, and trust-and-safety review all expand
Requires a pub/sub layer (overlaps with notifications infra)
Threading Model*
Content Features
Moderation Controls
Tradeoffs
Mobile UX suffers past 3 levels; pagination and collapse behavior need design attention
Expand notification infrastructure — mention notifications are high-priority and user-visible
Third-party ML dependency and ongoing tuning of thresholds to balance false positive rate
Rate Limit Algorithm*
What to Limit By*
Abuse Prevention Layer
Response Behavior*
Tradeoffs
False positives behind corporate NATs; attackers bypass with rotating proxies
Noisy-neighbor protection — one tenant cannot starve others
Allows bursts but requires a per-identity bucket state in Redis — higher memory footprint
Meaningful latency cost at the edge if the WAF is geographically distant from users
Onboarding Format*
Personalization Signals
Activation Support
Tradeoffs
Controls first-experience but introduces sign-up drop-off proportional to wizard length
Requires event tracking + scheduled jobs + segmentation infrastructure
Staffing cost scales with signup volume — not viable for self-serve products below a certain ACV
Summary
9 of 11 features enabled
Commonly added together
Gap analysis
Most communication apps include Analytics & Tracking
Effort Estimate
10+ weeks
9 enabled features
Key Decisions
User System & Auth
Will this product be sold to businesses (B2B)?
If yes
Add SAML/SSO and RBAC. Enterprise procurement often requires both.
If no
Email + password plus one OAuth option covers 95% of consumer use cases.
User System & Auth
Is this a security-sensitive application?
If yes
Enable TOTP MFA. Consider making it mandatory for privileged users.
If no
MFA is optional — offer it but do not require it to reduce friction.
User System & Auth
Email+password, passwordless, or SSO-only?
If yes
Passwordless (magic links or passkeys) eliminates password reset tickets and credential stuffing risk.
If no
Keep email+password as a universal fallback — OAuth outages should not lock users out.
User System & Auth
Do you need social providers (Google, GitHub, Apple)?
If yes
Add Google for B2C breadth; add GitHub for developer tools; add Apple only if you ship iOS (App Store requires it when you offer other social login).
If no
Skip social OAuth and avoid the app registration / key rotation overhead.
User System & Auth
Do you need SCIM provisioning?
If yes
Add SCIM alongside SAML — enterprise IT uses it to auto-provision/deprovision employees and map group membership to roles.
If no
Manual invite flows are fine until your first enterprise customer asks for SCIM in a security review.
User System & Auth
Should MFA be required, optional, or risk-based?
If yes
Risk-based (step up MFA on new device, new IP, or sensitive actions) gives security without friction on every login.
If no
Offer MFA as optional first; require it only for admins or on privileged actions.
User System & Auth
Which MFA factors will you support (TOTP, SMS, WebAuthn/passkeys, hardware keys)?
If yes
Prefer WebAuthn/passkeys and TOTP. Avoid SMS as a primary factor — SIM swapping is a real threat.
If no
TOTP alone (Google Authenticator, Authy) covers the vast majority of users with minimal implementation cost.
User System & Auth
Do you need device fingerprinting or trusted-device flows?
If yes
Remember trusted devices for 30 days to skip MFA; challenge on new device or changed fingerprint.
If no
Re-prompt MFA on every login — simpler and safer for low-volume or highly sensitive apps.
User System & Auth
Offer passkey-only sign-in?
If yes
Passkeys eliminate passwords entirely — use WebAuthn with platform authenticators. Still keep an email recovery path for lost devices.
If no
Offer passkeys as an optional second factor; users without compatible devices keep using passwords.
User System & Auth
Support staff impersonation of user accounts?
If yes
Add an impersonation flow that logs both the staff identity and the target user, with a visible banner in the impersonated session.
If no
Skip impersonation — instead build admin-side read views and support tooling that do not require acting as the user.
User System & Auth
Captcha or bot detection on signup?
If yes
Add hCaptcha or Cloudflare Turnstile on signup and password reset — invisible challenges avoid user friction.
If no
Skip captcha for internal tools or invite-only products where bot signups are not a realistic threat.
User System & Auth
Use lockout or rate-limit throttling for credential stuffing?
If yes
Exponential rate limits per IP and per account — lockouts create support tickets and denial-of-service vectors via targeted lockout.
If no
If account takeover risk is low, a simple fixed rate limit (e.g., 10 attempts per 15 min) is sufficient.
User System & Auth
Allow multiple concurrent sessions per user?
If yes
Show active sessions in account settings with a revoke button — expected behavior for any multi-device product.
If no
Single-session apps (banking, compliance) should terminate old sessions on new login.
Notifications
Do users need to know about events immediately?
If yes
Use real-time delivery. Budget for WebSocket/SSE infrastructure.
If no
Polling is simpler and cheaper — pick an interval that matches your SLA.
Notifications
Is this a mobile-first product?
If yes
Add mobile push (APNs/FCM). Plan for certificate rotation.
If no
Skip mobile push; web notifications or email cover most cases.
Notifications
Do users often go offline and still need to receive notifications?
If yes
Add email fallback driven by a "last seen" timestamp. Send email only when the user has been offline >5 minutes to avoid spam.
If no
In-app real-time or polling is enough — email adds unsubscribe risk without upside.
Notifications
Will you send multiple notification types with different urgency levels?
If yes
Adopt per-type granularity so users can mute digests without muting security alerts. Define the taxonomy up front.
If no
A single all-or-nothing toggle is enough and avoids preference-UI bloat.
Notifications
Is notification volume high enough that users will complain about floods?
If yes
Batch similar notifications in a rolling window (e.g., "Alice and 12 others liked your post"). Entity + time-window grouping is the standard pattern.
If no
Deliver individually — grouping adds UI complexity that is not worth it at low volume.
Notifications
Are any notifications security-critical or financially sensitive?
If yes
Require at-least-once delivery with persistent storage and retry. Pair with email fallback for the highest-urgency classes.
If no
Best-effort (fire-and-forget) is fine for social and informational notifications.
Notifications
Do users have reasonable expectations of quiet hours / do-not-disturb?
If yes
Add a per-user quiet-hours window and a priority flag that lets critical alerts bypass it. Requires per-type granularity to know what is critical.
If no
Skip quiet hours — the added preference surface is not worth it for low-volume products.
Notifications
Do users need to mark notifications as read / track what they have seen?
If yes
Persist notifications with a read state. Consider cross-device read-state sync via a server-side timestamp or event log.
If no
Ephemeral toast-style notifications are simpler and appropriate for low-stakes alerts.
Notifications
Do you need delivery analytics (delivered, opened, clicked)?
If yes
Use a provider like Knock or Novu that tracks delivery funnel by channel. Essential if notifications drive revenue or retention KPIs.
If no
Skip the instrumentation — simple success/failure logs are enough.
Notifications
Do users have multiple devices (web + mobile + desktop)?
If yes
Sync read-state across devices via a server-side last-read timestamp. Without this, users see the same notification over and over.
If no
Device-local read state is simpler and avoids backend round-trips.
Notifications
Do you need SMS as a notification channel?
If yes
Use Twilio or Messagebird. Reserve SMS for high-priority alerts only — it is expensive per message and users churn fast on SMS spam.
If no
Skip SMS — push and email cover 99% of use cases at a fraction of the cost.
Notifications
Are some notifications purely in-app / ephemeral (toast-style)?
If yes
Deliver via SSE/WebSocket without persisting — no storage, no retry, no read-state UI. Good for "Saved", "Uploaded" feedback.
If no
All notifications go through the durable pipeline with read-state tracking.
Notifications
Do you need localized notification content (multi-language)?
If yes
Store notification templates with i18n keys and render per-recipient locale at send time. Avoid pre-rendered strings in the event.
If no
Hardcoded English strings are fine until you have non-English users.
Notifications
Do you have more than 5 notification types or expect to add more regularly?
If yes
Invest in a template engine (Knock, MJML, or Handlebars) with versioned templates rather than hardcoded message strings.
If no
Hardcoded message strings in the sender are simpler and fine for a small stable set.
Notifications
Do product/marketing teams need to preview and test-send notifications before release?
If yes
Build an internal preview tool with a test-recipient flag. Prevents production embarrassments.
If no
Skip — engineers can validate in staging until non-engineers start authoring templates.
Notifications
Are there urgent notifications that must bypass quiet hours (security alerts, outages)?
If yes
Add a priority flag on notifications and skip DND for priority=urgent. Document this behavior so users expect it.
If no
Quiet hours apply uniformly — simpler and avoids abuse of the override.
Search
Do users search by meaning, not just keywords?
If yes
Invest in semantic/vector search. Start with full-text and migrate.
If no
Full-text search covers keyword use cases at a fraction of the cost.
Search
DB full-text or a dedicated engine (Elasticsearch, Typesense, Algolia)?
If yes
Reach for a dedicated engine when DB FTS can't meet latency or ranking needs. Algolia for hosted DX, Typesense/Meilisearch for self-hosted.
If no
Start with SQLite FTS5 or Postgres tsvector — no extra service to run.
Search
Do users need faceted filtering (refine by category, tag, date range)?
If yes
Use a dedicated engine — faceting across millions of rows in Postgres FTS gets slow fast. Typesense and Algolia do this natively.
If no
Keyword-only over FTS is sufficient; add facets later.
Search
Do you need typo tolerance / fuzzy matching on short queries?
If yes
A dedicated engine (Typesense, Algolia, Meilisearch) gives this out of the box. DB FTS typo tolerance is weak.
If no
Strict matching is fine for structured queries and technical users.
Search
Will you support multiple languages with proper stemming?
If yes
Pick an engine with per-locale analyzers (Elasticsearch, Meilisearch). Postgres tsvector ships only a handful of language dictionaries.
If no
English-only tsvector or FTS5 is plenty.
Search
Do users expect personalized ranking (their clicks influence their results)?
If yes
Algolia or a custom scoring layer on top of an engine — personalization needs per-user signals, not just index weights.
If no
Use global relevance scoring (BM25) — simpler and predictable.
Search
Is autocomplete / instant search (as-you-type) part of the UX?
If yes
Pick Typesense, Algolia, or Meilisearch — all tuned for sub-50ms responses. Postgres FTS will feel sluggish here.
If no
Submit-driven search works against any backend.
Search
Do you need search analytics (popular queries, zero-result queries)?
If yes
Log queries + result counts separately; feed into your analytics pipeline. Algolia and Meilisearch expose this natively.
If no
Skip until product teams ask for it.
Search
Must results respect per-user permissions (ACL-aware)?
If yes
Index ACL identifiers alongside documents and filter at query time. Global cross-entity search is especially risky — validate before shipping.
If no
A flat index is simpler; use when all users see the same corpus.
Search
Do customers need custom synonyms and stop-words (domain vocabulary)?
If yes
A dedicated engine with synonym dictionaries (Algolia, Elasticsearch) — editable without re-indexing.
If no
Default analyzers work for general-purpose text.
Search
Do you need rule-based boosting (featured or sponsored results)?
If yes
Algolia has a dashboard for this; Elasticsearch supports function_score. Don't hand-roll on top of tsvector.
If no
Pure relevance ranking is cleaner.
Search
Is mobile bandwidth a constraint for search-as-you-type?
If yes
Debounce aggressively (~300ms), return tiny payloads, and consider a provider that supports partial-result responses.
If no
Desktop-grade instant search is fine; no special tuning needed.
Search
Must newly created content be searchable within seconds (near-real-time)?
If yes
Index on write into an engine with NRT support (Elasticsearch, Typesense). Budget for higher write amplification.
If no
Batch reindex every few minutes via background job — simpler and cheaper.
Search
Do users search across multiple indices / entity types in one query (federated)?
If yes
Global scope is required. Use Algolia multi-index search or aggregate in app code — plan ranking carefully.
If no
Per-resource search is simpler and faster.
Search
Do users need "did you mean" spell correction for empty-result queries?
If yes
Meilisearch and Algolia provide this out of the box. Ties naturally with zero-result analytics.
If no
Show filters and suggested queries instead; simpler to build.
Search
Should users be able to save searches or get alerts on new matches?
If yes
Store the query, schedule a job to re-run it, and diff results. Pair with the notifications module for delivery.
If no
Manual re-runs cover most use cases; skip the infra.
File Storage
Will the app run on more than one server?
If yes
Object storage is required — local disk breaks horizontal scaling.
If no
Local disk works for prototypes; switch to S3-compatible before scaling.
File Storage
Do users upload files directly via presigned URLs?
If yes
Issue short-lived (5–15 min) presigned PUT URLs so uploads skip your server — cheaper, faster, and sidesteps body-size limits.
If no
Proxying uploads through your API is simpler but caps throughput at your server bandwidth — fine for small files only.
File Storage
Do you need chunked/multipart uploads for large files?
If yes
Use S3 multipart upload for anything over ~100MB — single-PUT uploads fail expensively on flaky networks.
If no
For small files (photos, documents under 10MB), a single PUT is simpler and sufficient.
File Storage
Resumable uploads required?
If yes
Use tus.io protocol or S3 multipart with client-side state so users can resume after network drops — critical for mobile video uploads.
If no
Small-file workflows can safely require restart-on-failure.
File Storage
Auto image/video transcoding or thumbnail generation?
If yes
Pipe uploads to a transcoding service (Cloudinary, Mux, Lambda@Edge with sharp/ffmpeg) — async, never block upload completion.
If no
Skip transcoding for document-heavy workflows where files are not consumed as media.
File Storage
Access model: files public, private, or signed-URL access?
If yes
Private by default with short-lived signed URLs issued per authenticated request — safest for user-generated content.
If no
Fully public buckets are fine for static assets (logos, public images); never for user data.
File Storage
Do you need client-side encryption at rest?
If yes
Encrypt on the client before upload with customer-managed keys — required for strict compliance (healthcare, legal).
If no
Server-side encryption (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS) is enough for most workloads and is transparent to clients.
File Storage
Store file metadata in DB or only in object storage?
If yes
Keep a files table in your DB with upload metadata, owner, status, and a content hash — drives permissions and search.
If no
Object storage alone is sufficient only for truly anonymous, throwaway uploads.
File Storage
Do you need cold-storage tiering for old files?
If yes
Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering or lifecycle rules to move files untouched for 30/90 days to Glacier — dramatic cost savings on archival data.
If no
Skip tiering for small storage footprints or hot-access workloads where retrieval latency matters.
File Storage
Track storage usage per user/tenant for quotas/billing?
If yes
Aggregate usage in a separate table, updated on upload/delete events — do not scan object storage for totals in real time.
If no
Skip metering for internal tools or flat-rate products without storage-based billing.
File Storage
CDN fronting for downloads?
If yes
Put Cloudflare or CloudFront in front of downloads — cuts global latency 5–10x and offloads bandwidth cost. Use signed CDN URLs for private content.
If no
Direct object-storage serving is fine when users are regional and file access is infrequent.
File Storage
Deduplicate identical uploads (content-addressed)?
If yes
Hash files on upload and store by content hash — saves storage on duplicate assets but complicates deletion (reference counting).
If no
Skip dedup for user-facing products where each upload is semantically distinct regardless of bytes.
File Storage
Strip EXIF/metadata from uploaded images for privacy?
If yes
Strip GPS and camera metadata on upload — critical for public-facing photos where location leakage is a real privacy risk.
If no
Keep EXIF for creative-workflow tools (photography, mapping) where metadata is a feature, not a leak.
File Storage
Retain prior versions of files (file versioning)?
If yes
Enable S3 object versioning and track versions in your files table — required for collaborative document editing and compliance workflows.
If no
Overwrite-in-place is simpler and sufficient for user-managed assets where history is not valuable.
File Storage
Soft-delete with trash/recycle bin?
If yes
Mark files deleted in DB but retain objects for 30 days — dramatically reduces "help, I lost my file" support tickets.
If no
Hard delete is appropriate for compliance-driven retention where files must be gone when requested.
Admin Panel
Will non-engineers (ops, support, trust & safety) need to manage data regularly?
If yes
Use auto-generated UI or a data platform — custom-built does not scale with non-technical users.
If no
A simple custom-built page for core actions is faster to ship and easier to secure.
Admin Panel
Are you in a regulated industry or need SOC 2 compliance?
If yes
Enable audit log from day one — retrofitting it later requires touching every admin code path.
If no
Skip audit log until you have a compliance requirement.
Admin Panel
Do you need per-tenant admin isolation or a single global admin?
If yes
Scope every admin query by tenant_id and give each tenant its own admin roles — required for B2B SaaS and marketplaces.
If no
A single global admin (your internal staff only) is simpler — gate with SSO and IP allowlists.
Admin Panel
Should admins be able to impersonate users?
If yes
Ship an "impersonate" action — record the real admin + target in every log line during the session and show a banner in-app.
If no
Use read-only views and screen-share with customers instead — safer but slower support.
Admin Panel
Can admins perform destructive actions (bulk delete, force reset) from the UI?
If yes
Gate destructive actions behind a typed-confirmation modal and log the reason — or require two-person approval for bulk ops.
If no
Make destructive actions CLI-only so they go through code review and are harder to fat-finger.
Admin Panel
Is the admin panel a separate app/domain or embedded?
If yes
Host at admin.yourdomain.com with its own auth and IP allowlist — reduces blast radius if the main app is compromised.
If no
Embed under /admin with role-gated routes — simpler, but shares the production attack surface.
Admin Panel
Build-your-own (Retool, Forest) or auto-generated from schema?
If yes
Retool/Forest lets ops build workflows without engineering — great for fast-moving support teams.
If no
Auto-generated from schema (AdminJS) gets you CRUD instantly but ceilings out fast on custom workflows.
Admin Panel
Do you need approval workflows (two-person rule) for sensitive actions?
If yes
Build a pending-action queue with approver roles — required for finance, security, and many SOX contexts.
If no
Single-admin actions with audit logs are sufficient for most products.
Admin Panel
Do you need read-only dashboards separate from mutation tools?
If yes
Split into a Metabase/Redash dashboard surface (read) and an action-capable admin UI (write) — different tools, different access levels.
If no
A single UI with per-role capability gates keeps things simple.
Admin Panel
Should admins have break-glass access to production data?
If yes
Implement just-in-time elevation with a reason prompt, TTL, and Slack/PagerDuty notification — never standing admin DB access.
If no
Lock production access to a tiny on-call group via SSM/bastion — not through the admin panel.
Admin Panel
Do you need feature-flag management in the admin panel?
If yes
Integrate LaunchDarkly/Statsig or a simple DB-backed flag table — exposing flag toggles to ops lets them triage without redeploys.
If no
Manage flags via config/PR; avoids another UI surface to secure.
Admin Panel
Will admins moderate UGC?
If yes
Add a moderation queue with bulk-review, reason codes, and one-click takedown — plug in Perspective/Hive for auto-flagging.
If no
Skip moderation tooling until user-generated content emerges.
Admin Panel
Do admins issue refunds / billing overrides from the panel?
If yes
Integrate Stripe/billing APIs into admin with reason codes, approval limits per role, and an audit trail of refund amounts.
If no
Route billing exceptions through Stripe dashboard directly — keeps finance workflows separate.
Admin Panel
Admin roles: RBAC or policy-based?
If yes
Policy-based (OPA/Cedar) scales to complex rules like "support can refund up to $100 in region X" — worth it past ~5 distinct roles.
If no
RBAC with 3–5 fixed roles (superadmin, support, readonly) covers most teams.
Admin Panel
Do you need SSO for internal staff login?
If yes
Enforce Google Workspace / Okta SSO for all admin logins — removes password risk and centralizes offboarding.
If no
Email+password with MFA is acceptable for very small teams only.
Admin Panel
Should admin sessions have shorter TTLs than user sessions?
If yes
Drop admin session TTL to 1–4 hours and require re-auth for destructive actions — limits damage from a stolen cookie.
If no
Match user session TTL — simpler, but a leaked admin cookie has much higher blast radius.
Activity Feed
Do you expect users to follow accounts with very large follower counts?
If yes
Pull-on-read or hybrid; pure fan-out-on-write will bury you in writes.
If no
Fan-out on write gives you the fastest reads for typical workloads.
Activity Feed
Is the feed for a consumer social app or a workspace productivity tool?
If yes
Consumer: plan for ranking and grouping. Productivity: start chronological and sectioned.
If no
Defaults above still apply by category.
Activity Feed
Is the feed personalized/ranked or strictly chronological?
If yes
Go with engagement-ranked — budget for model training, signal collection, and a feedback loop.
If no
Reverse-chronological is predictable and debuggable; sectioned adds structure without ML.
Activity Feed
Do you need cross-entity aggregation ("Alice did X, Y, Z") or flat events?
If yes
Enable grouping/collapsed actions. Group by (actor, action, target, time window) and re-collapse on new matching events.
If no
Flat event rows are simpler — skip grouping until the feed visibly floods.
Activity Feed
Will inactive users get the feed as an email digest?
If yes
Layer a digest job on top — roll up the last N events per user and send via your transactional email provider on a cadence.
If no
Keep the feed in-app only; rely on notifications for re-engagement.
Activity Feed
Do users follow other users, or is the feed account-scoped?
If yes
You need a follow graph and fan-out strategy — pull-on-read to start, hybrid once celebrity accounts emerge.
If no
Scope the feed to a single account/workspace — no follow graph, just filter by tenant.
Activity Feed
Must the feed backfill historical events at signup?
If yes
Run a backfill job on signup that populates the user feed from the event log — pull-on-read makes this trivial; push requires explicit backfill.
If no
Start the feed from signup time onward; simpler and avoids reading cold history.
Activity Feed
Is read volume high enough to justify precomputed timelines (fan-out on write)?
If yes
Use push-on-write or hybrid — precomputed per-user feeds turn reads into a single indexed query.
If no
Pull-on-read is cheaper and simpler until reads dominate your workload.
Activity Feed
Do you need private/scoped feeds (team, project, channel)?
If yes
Model feed scope as a first-class field on each entry and enforce ACL at query time — Linear/GitHub style.
If no
A single global per-user feed is simpler to model and query.
Activity Feed
Should the feed include system-generated events (badges, milestones)?
If yes
Add a "system" actor type and treat these as first-class events — same schema, different source.
If no
Keep the feed user-driven; surface system events elsewhere (notifications, profile).
Activity Feed
Is infinite scroll required, or is pagination acceptable?
If yes
Use cursor-based pagination with an intersection observer — offset pagination breaks when items shift.
If no
Classic page-based pagination is fine for lower-engagement feeds.
Activity Feed
Do you need real-time insertion of new items at the top?
If yes
Enable real-time updates — SSE or WebSocket with an "N new items" indicator; insert on user click to avoid layout jumps.
If no
A pull-to-refresh or periodic re-fetch is enough.
Activity Feed
Will users filter the feed by activity type?
If yes
Use a sectioned layout (Mentions / Replies / All) or add filter chips backed by an indexed action-type column.
If no
A single stream is simpler and avoids empty-state UX for rare filters.
Activity Feed
Must low-value events ("X viewed Y") be suppressed?
If yes
Add a signal-score threshold at write-time or a "collapse low-signal" toggle in the feed renderer.
If no
Log everything and let users filter — but expect noise complaints.
Activity Feed
When a source object is deleted, should its feed entries disappear?
If yes
Propagate deletes with edit/delete-sync — store entry version IDs and tombstone on source deletion.
If no
Accept eventual-consistency staleness and surface "content unavailable" at render time.
Activity Feed
Is ranking ML/collaborative filtering or rule-based scoring?
If yes
Start rule-based (recency + engagement + affinity weights) — a linear scorer beats ML until you have signal volume.
If no
Stay chronological until ranking is measurably worth the investment.
Activity Feed
Does each feed item need a stable permalink?
If yes
Mint stable IDs on write and expose a `/feed/:id` route — required for notifications that deep-link into the feed.
If no
Treat the feed as ephemeral — simpler, but no deep-linking from emails or notifications.
Comments & Discussions
Is this a collaboration tool or a public discussion forum?
If yes
Collaboration: one-level replies. Forum: flat or deep nesting depending on culture.
If no
Flat list is usually enough for product reviews or simple feedback surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Are comments visible to non-authenticated users or strangers?
If yes
Invest in moderation tooling from day one — flagging, rate limits, and either manual or automated review.
If no
Internal/authenticated discussions need less moderation but still need edit/delete.
Comments & Discussions
Support edit with full edit history?
If yes
Store every edit as a version row — useful for trust and dispute resolution, but plan a UI to expose history without cluttering the main view.
If no
An "edited" marker without history is enough for most collaboration tools.
Comments & Discussions
Hard-delete comments or leave a tombstone on removal?
If yes
Tombstones (show "[deleted]" in-place) preserve thread context — the right call for anything threaded.
If no
Hard delete is fine for flat comment lists where there is no structural reply to preserve.
Comments & Discussions
Moderation timing: pre-publication, post-publication, or none?
If yes
Pre-publication review is required for regulated industries (children, health). Expect significant moderator workload and latency from post to visible.
If no
Post-publication review (flag and hide) is standard — fast for users, with moderator queues for flagged content.
Comments & Discussions
Rich text, Markdown, or plain text only?
If yes
Markdown is the sweet spot — expressive, safe, and ubiquitous. Render server-side with a sanitizer; never allow raw HTML.
If no
Plain text is appropriate for short-form reactions (reviews, microposts) where formatting adds nothing.
Comments & Discussions
Comment permalinks required?
If yes
Every comment needs a stable ID and shareable URL — critical for linking in tickets, emails, and threads.
If no
Skip permalinks for ephemeral surfaces where no one will ever cite a specific comment.
Comments & Discussions
Allow anonymous/guest commenting?
If yes
Require captcha and aggressive rate limits — anonymous comments are the #1 spam vector. Store IP and user-agent for abuse investigation.
If no
Authenticated-only commenting dramatically reduces moderation burden.
Comments & Discussions
Do you need spam/abuse detection (Akismet, Perspective)?
If yes
Akismet for spam, Perspective API for toxicity — both are advisory signals feeding a human review queue, not auto-ban triggers.
If no
Manual flagging + rate limits are enough for low-volume or trusted-user surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Allow file or image attachments in comments?
If yes
Add object storage and content-type validation; require virus scanning if comments are public. Consider size limits per comment and per user.
If no
Text-only comments dramatically reduce moderation, storage, and security surface.
Comments & Discussions
Full-text search over comments?
If yes
Postgres tsvector covers you up to ~10M comments; switch to Meilisearch/Typesense when search becomes a core workflow.
If no
Users navigate to the parent object and scroll — no search index needed for low-volume surfaces.
Comments & Discussions
Owner-exportable comment archive (for GDPR/DSR)?
If yes
Provide a JSON or CSV export endpoint for comment authors — required for GDPR data portability in EU markets.
If no
Internal-only products without EU users can defer this until a customer specifically asks.
Comments & Discussions
Pin or highlight specific comments?
If yes
A boolean pinned flag per comment plus a UI treatment — useful for FAQs, announcements, or marking resolution on issue threads.
If no
Skip pinning if comments are short-lived conversational — it adds UI and moderation complexity.
Comments & Discussions
Inline translation across languages?
If yes
Call Google Translate or DeepL on-demand per comment and cache translations — full pre-translation wastes API budget.
If no
Skip translation for single-language communities or where users handle translation externally.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have unauthenticated endpoints (signup, login, public API)?
If yes
Add per-IP limits on those endpoints plus CAPTCHA on threshold. Assume credential-stuffing is attempted on day one.
If no
Per-user limits on authenticated APIs are sufficient.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do different customer tiers pay for different rate limits?
If yes
Keyed-on-API-key limits with plan-configured thresholds; expose a usage endpoint.
If no
A single default limit keeps configuration simple.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you expect adversarial traffic (credential stuffing, scraping, spam)?
If yes
Use sliding window or token bucket — fixed window leaks under boundary timing attacks. Pair with WAF and bot detection.
If no
Fixed-window with Redis INCR + EXPIRE is cheap, simple, and sufficient.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have legitimate burst patterns (batch imports, bulk API calls)?
If yes
Token bucket is the right model — allows bursts while enforcing a sustained rate. The standard for commercial API gateways.
If no
Sliding window is simpler and has lower memory overhead.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you run multiple server nodes behind a load balancer?
If yes
Use centralized Redis for rate-limit state (Upstash Ratelimit, redis-cell). Per-node local counters let attackers get N×limit by rotating through nodes.
If no
In-process counters are fine for single-node deployments and dramatically cheaper.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Should users get a warning before they hit a hard limit?
If yes
Emit soft-limit warnings via response headers (X-RateLimit-Remaining) and optionally an in-app notification when usage >80%. Prevents angry support tickets.
If no
Silent throttling at the hard limit is simpler but worse UX — only acceptable for internal APIs.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have enterprise customers who negotiate custom limits?
If yes
Build an admin override table keyed on tenant/API-key. Do not hardcode limits — operations team will need to raise them without deploys.
If no
Static per-tier limits in config are simpler and easier to reason about.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Can a single user enqueue unbounded background jobs (imports, scrapes, AI calls)?
If yes
Rate-limit the enqueue side separately from the API side. Prevents queue-flooding attacks that bypass request-layer limits.
If no
API-layer limits are sufficient; background jobs are produced by your own code only.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have legitimate short bursts you want to allow (e.g. pagination fan-out)?
If yes
Use token bucket with a burst allowance (bucket size > refill rate). Clients can consume the bucket quickly, then settle.
If no
A flat rate is simpler — bursts are a policy decision, not a default.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Are you exposed to L3/L4 DDoS (public API, unauthenticated endpoints)?
If yes
Put Cloudflare, AWS Shield, or Fastly in front of your origin. Application-layer rate limiting cannot absorb network-layer floods.
If no
Application-layer limits are sufficient for authenticated-only APIs.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do some endpoints cost 100x more than others (AI calls, complex queries, exports)?
If yes
Rate-limit by computational cost (credits/tokens per request) not by request count. Pricing and abuse protection align naturally.
If no
Request-count limits are simpler and sufficient when endpoint costs are roughly uniform.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do specific features (uploads, AI generations) have their own cost or quota model?
If yes
Add per-feature limits in addition to global ones. A user at their upload quota should still be able to read the API.
If no
Per-route limits are enough and keep configuration centralized.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Is this a public developer API with SDKs / third-party integrations?
If yes
Always return X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset, and Retry-After headers. Well-behaved clients need them to back off correctly.
If no
Minimum viable is Retry-After on 429 responses — detailed headers are nice-to-have for internal APIs.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have health checks, metrics endpoints, or internal traffic hitting rate-limited routes?
If yes
Exempt health checks and internal service-to-service calls by IP allowlist or dedicated service tokens. Otherwise monitoring will trip your own limits.
If no
Default behavior — all traffic counts — is simpler and auditable.
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Do you have authentication endpoints at risk of credential stuffing?
If yes
Rate-limit failed logins separately (per-account + per-IP), with exponential backoff and lockout after N attempts. Combine with CAPTCHA on threshold.
If no
General per-IP limits are insufficient for auth — always treat login and password reset as a separate budget.
Onboarding & Activation
Do you know what the "aha moment" / activation event is for your product?
If yes
Design onboarding backwards from that event. Every step should reduce friction to it.
If no
Fix this before investing in onboarding UI. Instrument product events and find activation empirically.
Onboarding & Activation
Is the first use of your product collaborative (requires inviting a teammate)?
If yes
Surface the invite action prominently in empty states or checklist; single-user usage is often not the activated state.
If no
Optimize for a single-user first success.
Onboarding & Activation
Is your product self-serve, or sales-led / waitlisted?
If yes
Optimize every step for a frictionless signup: single-field email, magic link, and empty-state-driven first action.
If no
Replace signup with a waitlist form + personal outreach; add a wizard (domain verification, SSO) post-sales.
Onboarding & Activation
Is email verification strictly required before first use?
If yes
Send magic link or OTP, but let the user explore read-only state while waiting. Blocking on verification is a major conversion leak.
If no
Skip upfront verification — prompt later when the user takes an action that actually needs a verified email.
Onboarding & Activation
Would a 1-2 question questionnaire meaningfully personalize the first experience?
If yes
Ask role/use-case upfront and route to a tailored template or empty state. Cap at 2 questions — each additional one costs conversion.
If no
Skip the questionnaire; ship the same empty state to everyone and let them self-select via templates.
Onboarding & Activation
Does your product suffer from the blank-page problem (hard to see value empty)?
If yes
Pre-populate a labeled, deletable sample workspace. Essential for analytics, dashboards, and issue trackers.
If no
An empty-state prompt to "Create your first X" is cleaner and avoids clutter.
Onboarding & Activation
Is team invites in the first session a leading indicator of activation?
If yes
Surface the invite step inside the checklist during onboarding — not after. A team workspace that stays single-user usually churns.
If no
Move invites out of onboarding — prompt only when the user takes a collaborative action.
Onboarding & Activation
Does the product only deliver value once external data is connected (integrations, imports)?
If yes
Make the connect-data step the checklist centerpiece. Offer sample data as a fallback so users can explore before committing.
If no
Skip data connection in onboarding — offer it contextually when the user takes an action that needs it.
Onboarding & Activation
Is your product complex enough that new users will miss key capabilities without guidance?
If yes
Add a short guided tour (under 5 steps) with a clear skip control. Never block the UI behind the tour.
If no
Skip the tour — empty-state prompts and in-app help cover it without the friction.
Onboarding & Activation
Does your product surface more features as users mature (advanced settings, integrations)?
If yes
Progressively disclose — hide admin/API/settings until they are needed. Surface them via contextual prompts when the user is ready.
If no
Show the full surface from day one; simpler mental model.
Onboarding & Activation
Do different user roles (admin, member, viewer) need materially different first experiences?
If yes
Branch onboarding on role — admins get setup checklist (billing, SSO, invites); members land directly in the workspace.
If no
One flow for all users is simpler and easier to iterate on.
Onboarding & Activation
Can your empty states double as the onboarding surface?
If yes
Invest in empty-state-driven onboarding first. Every empty screen should show the next primary action, not marketing copy.
If no
Supplement with a checklist — but fix the empty states first; they will carry users further than any tour.
Onboarding & Activation
Have you defined and instrumented a product activation metric (time-to-value)?
If yes
Track it in your analytics and optimize onboarding against it. Every step should either reduce TTV or get cut.
If no
Instrument this before building onboarding UI — without a metric you are guessing.
Onboarding & Activation
Do a meaningful fraction of signups drop off before activation?
If yes
Enable behavior-triggered activation emails. A nudge at day 1 and day 3 recovers 5–15% of dropped signups.
If no
Skip — nudges on already-activated users feel spammy.
Onboarding & Activation
Do you have the analytics maturity and signup volume to A/B test onboarding variants?
If yes
Use an experimentation framework (Statsig, LaunchDarkly, GrowthBook) and test one variable at a time.
If no
Iterate with qualitative feedback first — A/B tests need thousands of signups per week to reach significance.
Onboarding & Activation
Does your product require payment or a card before the user sees value?
If yes
Only if you can justify it (enterprise, physical goods). For SaaS, defer card collection until after the user reaches their aha moment.
If no
Keep payment setup out of onboarding — gate it on usage or trial expiry.
Onboarding & Activation
Do enterprise customers need to complete setup steps (domain verification, SSO, SCIM) before go-live?
If yes
Build a separate admin wizard post-signup for these. Keep end-user onboarding lightweight; admin work should not block the team.
If no
Skip the enterprise wizard entirely until you have paying enterprise customers requesting it.
Preset
Authentication Methods*
Access Control*
Multi-factor Authentication
Tradeoffs
Each provider requires an OAuth app registration and key rotation policy
Requires IdP partnership and XML-based protocol handling; significant integration work
Permission checks must be applied consistently across every data access path
Delivery Method*
User Control
Tradeoffs
Requires persistent connection infrastructure (e.g. Redis pub/sub, WebSocket server)
Higher server request volume; notifications may lag by poll interval
Requires APNs/FCM credentials and certificate management
Significantly more complex preference storage and UI
Search Approach*
Search Scope*
Tradeoffs
Requires FTS index maintenance; adds write-time overhead
Embedding generation adds latency and API cost per indexed document
Results must be unified and ranked across disparate data models
Storage Backend*
File Processing
Tradeoffs
Not horizontally scalable; lost on server replacement without backup
Higher monthly cost; requires cache invalidation strategy
Upload latency increases; requires AV service integration
Interface Type*
Capabilities*
Tradeoffs
Faster to set up but customization hits a ceiling quickly; often needs to be replaced
Requires a flag evaluation layer in every feature; adds latency if not cached
Every admin action must be explicitly logged; easy to miss if not enforced at the framework level
Fan-out Architecture*
Ordering & Ranking*
Feed Capabilities
Tradeoffs
Read speed gains paid for by write amplification — cost scales with follower counts
Model training, feedback collection, and trust-and-safety review all expand
Requires a pub/sub layer (overlaps with notifications infra)
Threading Model*
Content Features
Moderation Controls
Tradeoffs
Mobile UX suffers past 3 levels; pagination and collapse behavior need design attention
Expand notification infrastructure — mention notifications are high-priority and user-visible
Third-party ML dependency and ongoing tuning of thresholds to balance false positive rate
Rate Limit Algorithm*
What to Limit By*
Abuse Prevention Layer
Response Behavior*
Tradeoffs
False positives behind corporate NATs; attackers bypass with rotating proxies
Noisy-neighbor protection — one tenant cannot starve others
Allows bursts but requires a per-identity bucket state in Redis — higher memory footprint
Meaningful latency cost at the edge if the WAF is geographically distant from users
Onboarding Format*
Personalization Signals
Activation Support
Tradeoffs
Controls first-experience but introduces sign-up drop-off proportional to wizard length
Requires event tracking + scheduled jobs + segmentation infrastructure
Staffing cost scales with signup volume — not viable for self-serve products below a certain ACV