Tinkering and Micro-innovations

In their book ‘Abundance’, Thompson and Klein discuss how innovation often isn't a single 'eureka!' moment, but rather a patient process of tinkering and accumulating many 'micro-inventions'. This really resonates with our journey building Maia, and I wanted to share one recent example: the evolution of our weekly follow-up messages.

Initially, Maia functioned like an ‘ask an expert’, ‘chat with the manual’ type tool, enhanced by proactive 'Tips of the Week' introducing best practices. But it was clear that users needed more to bridge the gap between knowing and doing. So the next step was adding a Monday morning follow-up feature targeting users who, guided by Maia, had defined a specific action plan during the previous week. Maia would remind them of their plan and ask if they'd implemented it. This served as a simple behavioral nudge – a prompt designed to increase follow-through and reduce the common intention-action gap faced by busy entrepreneurs.

However, analyzing chat logs and talking with users revealed that many engaged with a topic but didn't quite reach the action plan stage – demands of entrepreneurial life often intervened! To support that group, we introduced a second follow-up version. This one revisited the topic discussed the previous week and prompted users to take the next step to define a concrete action now.

This second version proved to be a significant unlock. It reached a broader group of entrepreneurs beyond the initially highly motivated ones who finalized action plans immediately. Many were intrigued by a Tip of the Week, started a conversation, but got pulled away. This gentle Monday nudge successfully guided a large portion of this group towards creating an action plan, effectively widening Maia's reach and impact – a key challenge for many digital tools aiming for broad external validity.

But the tinkering doesn't stop there. During a recent review of these follow-ups, we saw an opportunity to move beyond simple check-ins towards fostering deeper reflective practice. Encouraging users to reflect on their actions – what worked, what didn’t, and why – is crucial for building agency, problem-solving skills, and ultimately achieving greater impact than just skill transmission alone. Impact evaluations of entrepreneurial training shows this clearly. This aligns with concepts like Kolb's experiential learning cycle, where reflection transforms experience into learning.

Interestingly, I used the latest frontier models (GPT 4.5 and Gemini 2.5) as thought partners during this refinement process, which was incredibly insightful compared to what the frontier models of 6-12 months ago brough to the table. Together, we redesigned the action plan follow-up to specifically prompt this reflection. Instead of just asking if the action was done, the message now asks how it went, using Quick Reply buttons like Sí, pero con dificultades ("Yes, but with problems") and Aún no, mejoremos plan ("Not yet, let's improve the plan").

Early results are promising! We're already seeing users engage more thoughtfully when they encounter obstacles, using these prompts to analyze challenges and adjust their strategies with Maia's help. It’s a small change, but it fosters resilience and encourages users to engage in metacognition – thinking about their own actions and learning processes. This whole evolution is a nice example of how innovating with AI to help microenterprise owners in developing countries doesn’t come from a single idea, and instead is build through persistent tinkering, learning from users, and accumulating many 'micro-innovations'.