The engine works. What's left is the wrapper. Everything Jill has noticed isn't a to-do list of 154 fixes — it's really a small set of decisions and module cleanups. Here they are on one page.
154
open observations on the board
→
7
design rules (decide once)
8
module cleanups (design once)
11
real bugs (fix regardless)
How to read this. Don't work the 154. Work the 7 rules first — each one quietly clears a whole stack of observations because they were the same decision showing up over and over. Then take the modules one at a time. The bug list at the bottom is separate on purpose: those get fixed no matter what the new UI looks like.
Part 1 · The 7 rules
Decide each of these once. Apply everywhere. This is where most of the board disappears.
1
Speak human — hide the plumbing
The customer never sees a vendor name, a system word, or a machine ID. No "GHL," "WordPress," "tenant," "ICP," "CSV," "slug," raw database IDs, filenames like pexels-4238392, or "WP #3." Previews show their real company name and logo, not "yourbrand."
Blog, Social, Newsletter and Planner all use the same words: Draft → Review → Schedule → Completed. You pick the stage from a dropdown, not by clicking to advance. System-only states (Posted, Failed, Archived) can't be set by hand.
Clears: Blog-vs-Social status mismatch, one-way promotion with no way back, two status fields disagreeing, raw status keys. (8, 25, 45, 74, 91, 102, 139, 142, 176, 220)
~10 observations
3
Nothing goes out by accident
Every delete asks first and drops to a recoverable trash. Every "publish / approve / send" is hidden until review is actually done — no button that puts something live in one unguarded click.
Clears: delete-with-no-confirm, one-click publish, approve-before-review, data loss on Clear Week. (13, 14, 67, 100, 109, 143, 236)
~8 observations
4
Navigation that matches itself
One rule for the whole app: a section with more than one page expands to show its pages. The sidebar label, the page title, and where a link actually goes are always the same word. "Settings" is "Settings" in every corner.
Clears: flat-vs-expanding sidebar, label ≠ destination, "Newsletter" vs "Email Studio," three names for Settings. (4, 5, 6, 34, 85, 150, 166, 167, 182, 186)
~10 observations
5
Never make them type code
No raw URL boxes — every image field opens the picker. No Markdown, no visible field keys like first_name. If a real person has to fill it, it's a friendly input, not a developer input.
Clears: "paste a URL" image fields, "Markdown supported," exposed form keys, the whole Landing builder sweep. (87, 88, 89, 155, 156)
~6 observations
6
Nothing hidden or cut off
Long text always has a way to read the whole thing. Actions aren't hover-only (that dies on phones and tablets). A dead arrow or chevron either does something or gets removed — no controls that look clickable and aren't.
Clears: truncated titles/bios, hover-only edit/delete, dead chevrons, the grey eye icon that does nothing. (16, 30, 42, 140, 153, 181, 214, 218)
~8 observations
7
Always show the next step
Lead with "here's what needs you," not just a wall of statuses. Every state word says what it's waiting on. First-time hints appear until the user dismisses them. The app guides a non-marketer instead of describing itself.
Rename "Register external" → "Add a page you built elsewhere" (it doesn't create one). 155
Expand sidebar into Builder / My Pages. 186
CRM 4 open
Name sort actually sorts everyone (today it only sorts half). 92, 183
Workflows tab: make it real, or hide it until it is. 94
Explain what a Segment is (a saved combination of rules). 221
Library / Media 3 open
Two clear sub-pages: Mobile Uploads + Media Library. 167
One photo search box ("My images / Stock" filter), no source jargon. 168
Settings 9 open
One name — "Settings" — everywhere (Rule 4). 114, 166
Access tiers: customer vs admin vs behind-the-scenes. 117, 119, 122, 123
Hard-gate the "Danger Zone" brand-regenerate button. 115
Undo / version history on the big text fields. 120
Module 1 is already designed — by Jill. Her Blog Automation spec (the card home + Create → Draft → Review → Schedule → Post pipeline) is adopted as the Blog brief. It came from live use, and it independently landed on Rules 1, 2, 3 and 4 — the strongest sign the rules are right. Design credit: Jilly, Sage Coast Realty. Seven modules to go, same shapes.
New capability (not a cleanup): a context-aware Help chatbot pinned to every page, grounded in Content Studio's own help docs. Jill requested it in the Blog spec, but it spans the whole app — parked as a cross-cutting roadmap item pending a build-vs-embed decision.
Part 3 · Real bugs & safety
These aren't design. A prettier screen won't fix them — they get their own track so they don't get lost in the redesign.
CS-100
Planner "Clear Week & Regenerate" permanently deletes a pending post.
Confirmed data loss — no confirm, no trash.
CS-1
The "silent failures" root cause (Connections capability).
Mostly config — the media-permission fix is in; verify it now reads green.
CS-216 / 235
Newsletter scheduling hits a raw 404 / audience won't resolve.
Real backend endpoint + audience work, not a label.
CS-133
WordPress category swap adds the new one but never removes the old.
Additive by design today — needs a real swap.
CS-92 / 183
Contact name sort only orders half the list.
CS-104
Regenerate produces nothing at all.
Generation path, not the title fix.
CS-214 / 24
Blog eye-icon (publish / revert-to-draft) does nothing when clicked.
CS-240
"Approve & Post now" button isn't clickable.
CS-179 / 192
Image layers "burn in" too early; moving a scheduled post backward may not actually unschedule it in the backend.
Silent-failure risk — verify before trusting.
CS-94
CRM Workflows is a dead list — nothing clickable.
Blocked: needs a tenant with real workflows to test.
CS-212
Ad-hoc post says "created" but doesn't appear at the top of the list.
How we work it
First
Lock the 7 rules
Agree them once, together. They cut across every module, so deciding them up front stops each redesign from re-arguing the same point.
Then
Module by module
A short design chat (seeded by Jill's notes for that module) → one decision → one focused build session. Repeat down the 8.
In parallel
Bug track
The 11 real bugs get fixed on their own, regardless of how the new UI looks. They never live only as a note on an old screen.
Nothing Jill did is lost. Every one of these lines came from her walk-through. This page just regroups her 154 observations into the shape of the work: a few rules, a few module redesigns, a short bug list. Her notes stop being a backlog and become the spec.