nikema/works in progress

I build things.
Then ask better
questions.

Case studies in building, testing,
and figuring things out.

Build, test, learnAn overlapping cycle of building, testing, and learning. Small experiments and feedback lead to better questions.BUILDTESTLEARNIDEAS →EXPERIMENTS→ BETTER QUESTIONSSMALL EXPERIMENTS.REAL FEEDBACK.PEOPLECONTEXTTRADEOFFSthe interesting partis the why

01 / Selected work

A closer look at the process.

MotionBrief

The five-second video I stopped generating

I set out to generate vertical video with AI. The footage was slow, expensive, and never matched the motion I wanted — so I generate the still and move the camera instead.

Open the field notes
MotionBrief's Create the visual screen showing image prompts, the Slow push in camera move, a portrait hamster preview, and the pinned Save changes bar.
The visual step in Small Brave Moments. A generated still and a selected camera move share one screen.

Social Content Agent

An AI workflow before an AI agent

I set out to build an agent that could create and post social content. My first version became an AI-assisted workflow.

Open the field notes
Social Content Agent draft library showing topic cards and filters for draft, approved, scheduled, and simulated published states.
The draft library, from an earlier version of the app. Published items reflect the simulation; no posts were sent to a social network.

The decisions behind
the interface.

01

Start with a question.

What does the person on the other side of the screen need?

02

Follow the friction.

Look closely at the places where a good idea becomes difficult to use.

03

Show the reasoning.

Make room for the tradeoffs, the rough edges, and what comes next.

Outside the case studies

More thinking, in public.

Notes on the things I’m learning and making.

Read on nikema.dev ↗Same curiosity,
different pages.