Example
How to run a genealogy research project without confusing a tree app with sources
Edith's problem is not a lack of effort. It is that Answer one written question about the confusing great-grandparent with sources attached, and treat hints and stories as leads until they earn a citation has outgrown scattered reminders, tabs, and memory. This fictional playbook shows a concrete Board, the Cards inside it, one consequential Room, and the line Ava does not cross.
This fictional example was created with AI assistance from a structured editorial brief and reviewed by the You.one Editorial Team for usefulness, distinctness, and product truth.
Edith is an explicitly fictional portrait, not a customer or testimonial.
The One research question Board gives one mission a visible field; the Choose archive, park story, or cite existing Room keeps its evidence, conversation, state, and decision together.
Current Superboard provides the durable structure and explicit, bounded Ava paths described here; broader proactive or external work is not a current promise.
Edith's pressure is ordinary—and still heavy
Edith is a fictional 63-year-old family historian tracing one confusing great-grandparent in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Edith has a tree app full of hints, a folder of census images, and a cousin who sent an unsourced story. A research trip to an archive is possible in May. She keeps adding distant branches because the hints are easy.
Edith can click hints. The project fails if the unsourced story, the May archive day, and the one confusing person never share a question.
A tree app, a census folder, and an email story all look like progress.
Chasing a distant branch feels like research and postpones the archive appointment.
A hint is not a source, and a cousin story is a lead
The mission is specific: Answer one written question about the confusing great-grandparent with sources attached, and treat hints and stories as leads until they earn a citation
The consequential choice is not something a board or an AI should quietly make: Whether to spend May at the archive on that question, park the cousin story, or spend the month citing what she already has
That distinction matters. Superboard can make the work, evidence, waiting, and decision visible. Edith still owns the purpose, tradeoff, and final call.
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One research question: one Board shape to adapt
A useful Board gives this mission one durable operating picture. Edith does not have to convert life into project-management jargon or decide the perfect taxonomy first. Lists separate kinds of attention; Cards keep each meaningful item visible and movable.
The Cards are deliberately mixed. Some are tasks, some are decisions, some hold a person or promise, and some are reference points. Current Superboard supports that flexibility without flattening the mission into one long to-do list.
| List | What belongs here |
|---|---|
| Mission | The written question and the no-hint-as-source rule |
| Questions | What is actually being asked |
| Sources | Images and records with citations |
| Leads | Hints and cousin stories not yet sourced |
| Waiting | Archive day and record requests |
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The Cards make the operating picture concrete
A Board becomes useful when the Card titles sound like the actual situation. These are not generic placeholders; they show what Edith would need to see to run this mission without carrying every open loop in memory.
| Card | List | Job |
|---|---|---|
| One person, one question | Mission | Keep the confusing great-grandparent ahead of easy distant hints |
| Choose archive, park story, or cite existing | Questions | Compare May-archive, park-cousin-story, and cite-what-you-have |
| Census images already in a folder | Sources | Name evidence that still needs a citation |
| Cousin story unsourced | Leads | Keep a narrative from becoming a tree fact |
| Tree-app hint pile | Leads | Hold easy clicks so they cannot replace the question |
| May archive day | Waiting | Keep a possible trip from being spent on a different branch |
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Available today: Choose archive, park story, or cite existing becomes a Room
Opening the Card gives the visible item durable depth. Stage can hold Research-path brief: Place the written question, existing images, and archive / park / cite options on one page. Chat keeps the request and response beside that artifact instead of in a detached thread. Pulse can show Waiting for Edith to choose a path that serves the written question. Activity preserves the attributable Card record supported by the current product.
A useful Card Chat request would be: “Using only this Board, compare using May at the archive, parking the cousin story, and citing what is already in the folder. Do not contact archives or choose for me.” When live AI is configured, current Ava can respond to an explicit Card mention using supported context and can make limited reversible product changes. She does not deeply reason over the whole Board by default, and she does not gain authority over the decision merely because the context is organized.
Edith's call remains explicit: Edith chooses the question, cites sources, and owns any archive visit
| Surface | Job in this example |
|---|---|
| Stage | Research-path brief: Place the written question, existing images, and archive / park / cite options on one page |
| Chat | Keep Edith's request and Ava's attributed response with the work |
| Pulse | Waiting for Edith to choose a path that serves the written question |
| Activity | Preserve attributed Card changes and the supported record around the request |
What to ask Ava—and what not to assume
These are useful requests to adapt, not claims that current Ava automatically surveys the whole Board, prepares every comparison, or follows up on her own. The relevant facts must be present in supported Board/Card context, and the human still checks the result.
Edith owns the research, citations, and any archive visit. Ava does not contact archives, invent ancestors, or attach unsourced facts.
The modest outcome is not that Ava lives Edith's life. The modest outcome is a project with a question: the cousin story is a lead, the census folder is work to cite, and May is aimed or parked.
- Request idea: summarize questions, sources, and leads already on the Board
- Request idea: compare research-path options using the written question Edith captured
- Request idea: help keep hints in Leads rather than in Sources
A tree app plus a hints sidebar may still be enough
A tree app plus a hints sidebar is enough when the question is already sourced
It starts to break when an unsourced story, a May archive day, and easy distant hints share one person
Superboard earns a place only when the responsibility needs a durable picture around the list: the reason, artifact, conversation, current state, decision, and history.
A starter recipe to adapt, not obey
Use the names that already make sense in Edith's world. The recipe is successful when the Board reduces remembering and exposes the real decision—not when every Card is perfectly categorized.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1. Write one question | One person |
| 2. Move images to Sources | Citation still required |
| 3. Keep hints as leads | Easy is not true |
| 4. Park cousin stories | Until they have a record |
| 5. Aim May | Open a Room before a distant branch spends the archive day |
Direction
Direction, not a current promise
Later, Ava may help this Board notice when a hint Card is being treated as a source, still leaving every citation with Edith.
The unified You.one and Superboard runtime, cross-product personalized Memory Spine, broad proactive coordination, realtime shared editing, and general external execution are not available today. Future actions would still require the applicable capability, connection, grant, and human authority.
What this realistic example does not claim
- Edith is fictional and is not a customer, testimonial, research participant, or disguised real person.
- This is not genealogical proof, legal identity, or a claim about any real family.
- It does not show Ava contacting archives or adding people to a tree.
- It is not a measured research result.