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Product Definition
The core product decisions, scope, sharing model, and user flows for CraftlyNow.
Product Definition
What a course is
A course in CraftlyNow is a named collection of YouTube videos grouped around a topic.
It is not a school course with lessons, quizzes, and completion tracking. It is a performance tool — a structured knowledge base you build once and reference repeatedly. Closer to a Notion doc than a Teachable course.
Each course has:
- A title and description
- An ordered list of videos
- A published status (
is_published) - An owner (the user who created it)
What a video inside a course contains
Each video added to a course stores:
| Field | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube URL | User input | Entry point |
| Title | Auto-pulled from YouTube | |
| Thumbnail | Auto-pulled from YouTube | |
| YouTube description | Auto-pulled from YouTube | |
| Transcript | Auto-pulled from YouTube | If unavailable, field is empty |
| Description / notes | TipTap editor | AI-generated from transcript or manually written |
The description field is a TipTap rich text editor. It can be populated by AI from the transcript, written manually, or both. It is the main place for annotations, summaries, and context that makes the video useful as a reference.
If a video has no transcript available on YouTube, no AI generation is possible. The description field can still be edited manually.
Sharing model
There are two distinct sharing modes:
Private link
- A unique URL is generated for the course
- Anyone with the link can view it
- Not listed anywhere publicly
- Best for sharing with a friend, teammate, or small group
Public publish
- The course is marked
is_published = true - It appears on the CraftlyNow public landing page
- Anyone can discover and view it
- Intended for courses the creator wants to share with the broader community
Auth requirement
- Creating, editing, and publishing courses requires a signed-in account
- Viewing a shared or published course does not require sign-in
User flows
Creating a course
- Sign in
- Click "New course"
- Add a title and optional description
- Paste one or more YouTube URLs
- CraftlyNow pulls metadata and transcripts automatically
- Edit the description field per video (or generate from transcript)
- Save as draft or publish
Sharing a course
- Open a saved course
- Choose "Share via link" (private) or "Publish" (public)
- Copy the link or confirm publish
Discovering courses (public)
- Visit the CraftlyNow landing page
- Browse published courses from the community
- Open any course — no sign-in required to read
What success looks like at the end of day one
- A working demo a friend can open and use
- At least one course created with real videos and generated summaries
- A shareable link that works without sign-in
- Validated with 2–3 real people from the community