Liza
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Why Liza?

Salih Bozkurt

Illustration of Salih working in his bedroom, his desk under the window and Vohn Kurt parcels by the bed.

While building Vohn Kurt, a fashion tech brand, I ended up handling everything on my own. Design, production, admin, meetings, decisions…

But the hardest part was not having a lot to do.

It was knowing what to do, right now.

Some mornings, I opened my Mac with ten things on my mind and no clear idea where to start. I could lose so much time rebuilding my day before I even got to work.

And in the middle of all that, tasks and meetings could slip through the cracks.

So I tried to understand why.

I am neurodivergent, and for years I have been interested in cognitive science, attention, and the way we work.

I read, searched, tested methods and tried a lot of tools that were supposed to help us get organized.

The problem? I always ended up dropping them.

I had already tried to solve the problem.

For my master’s thesis, I studied how artificial intelligence could support the executive functions of people with ADHD at work.

I looked at how our work environments can help, or hurt, attention, organization and creativity.

So I designed a first AI assistant for neurodivergent people.

Neuralia.

More about the research

The thesis was called Designing Strategic AI Systems for ADHD Professionals: Compensating Executive Functions to Unlock Cognitive Potential.

It also compared how several countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden, approach workplace accommodations for neurodivergent people.

Neuralia could help me.

But for her to help me, I had to remember to ask for help.

Open the tool. Explain my day to it. Keep my information up to date. Come back the next day. Start over.

To use my organization tool, I already had to be organized.

So I flipped the problem around.

I did not want to get better at maintaining an organization system.

I wanted to have as little as possible to organize.

A thought often shows up while you are doing something else entirely. And normally, to not forget it, you have to

  1. a thought
  2. open an app
  3. find the right place
  4. write it down
  5. pick a date
  6. save
  7. get back to what you were doing

I wanted to remove almost all of that path.

A thought. A word. And poof.

Reducing friction solved part of the problem.

But I still had to remember to use the tool.

Why did I always have to be the one going to it?

What if the tool came to me?

I no longer wanted a chatbot that waits politely to be spoken to.

I wanted to open my Mac and know exactly what to do.

I wanted a small presence that could come to me, bring order to what matters, remind me of what slips away and, sometimes, put me back on track when I scatter.

Not one more tool to maintain.
Something that is already there.

That is how Liza was born.

I built her for myself first.

Today, I am building Liza for everyone who, like me, wants to spend a little less time getting organized, and a little more time doing what really matters.

The vision for Liza.

Today, Liza lives on the Mac. I want Liza to stay with you when you leave your desk too.

  1. Today

    Mac

    The current version.

  2. Next

    iPhone

    Liza goes everywhere with you, synced with your Mac, screen time included.

  3. Then

    Apple Health

    With your consent, Liza takes your sleep, your steps and your energy into account to shape your days.

  4. And together

    Group Lock In

    Voice focus sessions, with a friend or a group.

A little less in your head.
A little more in your life.

Discover Liza