name your series, and practise episode zero first

rich walked through underway's first visit again on 7 october, the way most new founders meet it: on an iphone, inside facebook's own browser, a few seconds after tapping an ad. the three getting started steps held up. a handful of small things did not, and each of them was the kind of thing that makes someone close the tab. this is what changed, on the web and the phone.

step 1 asks what it's called

the first step used to ask three things: your first name, one line about what you are documenting, and how you see yourself making it. it never asked the obvious one, so every new series was called after its founder: rich's series, sam's series. that is a placeholder, not a name, and it went on the card that opens episode zero.

so step 1 now asks four things, and the second is what's it called? your company, your project or your brand, in a word or two: underway, polajoy, the shop. whatever you type is the name of your series, on the card and on every episode after it. leave it empty and the placeholder is still there until you change it.

the same four questions are now at the top of account, under series, in the same words and the same order: your first name, what's it called?, what are you documenting? and how do you see yourself making this? both places edit the same answers, so what you type on today is what you find in account, and the other way round. account keeps its extras underneath: the name the questions say out loud if it is different, the interviewer's voice and the episode label.

step 2 looks like step 1

see how it works is now the same dark card as step 1, with three white boxes and a gold arrow on each. show me around my app comes first, because a tour of your own screens is the quickest way to see what is yours. then look around a real account, then the welcome film.

practice, said before you press anything

episode zero always had a three-minute practice in front of it, but you only found out after pressing start. the card now says so in three short lines: a co-host asks and you answer, like a conversation, and nothing is posted. it is the foundation, because what you say here is what underway works from, for every question, episode and goal after it. and you can try a three-minute practice first or go straight in, then keep it, redo it or delete it.

two buttons sit side by side under them. start episode zero opens the moment before the call, as before. practice episode zero goes straight into the practice, on camera or with just your voice depending on what you answered in step 1. once that practice is used the button says practice used. the practice screen itself is short lines now too, with its two buttons on one line, on a phone as well.

your co-host has a name

the practice call showed your co-host as underway, which read like the app talking to you rather than someone asking questions. it now shows the name your co-host goes by, the name of your series' interviewer voice, and that is the name it introduces itself with.

context from the start

context was held back from the top bar until episode zero was made. it is in the bar from the start now: today, context, vault and account. it is underway's brain, the tools it reads, and the tour stops there to say so. the directory still joins after episode zero. agents now waits for your twentieth numbered episode, or joins sooner if you already have an agent, and ai agents on your account page opens it any time.

one way back out of the demo

look around a real account opens underway's own account to press anything. it used to carry a pill in the corner saying demo, with start your own beside it, that opened to a panel with leave. now it is one gold back button, always in the same corner, and nothing else. it takes you back to your own today, or to the page you came from if you are not signed in. if you are signed in, nothing in the demo asks you to start your own: you already have one.

open in safari, without the black screen

inside facebook's browser on an iphone, pressing open in safari blanked the page for about eight seconds and then came back to loading your series, still inside facebook. the page now stays as it is while it asks for safari, the sheet stays up, and if safari has not opened a moment later the sheet shows the steps to do it from facebook's menu. a new account that comes back to today in the same browser no longer waits on a sync it does not need.

faqs

start your series, give it a name, and try a three-minute practice. start free.