Build Phases
The roadmap from educational platform to full ESP, broken into sequential phases.
Phase 0: Foundation ✅
Current state — BETA v0.1.4
What's been built:
- Educational platform (Developer + Marketing + Coding 101 courses)
- AI Playground (Claude + RAG + Pinecone)
- Multi-client Render Simulator
- Sandbox editor with live preview
- Portfolio showcase with iOS Mail simulator
- Token economy (signup, course, referral rewards)
- Referral program with unique share links
- User auth (email, Google OAuth, magic link)
- Station admin dashboard
- Kinetic tracking database (Convex)
- SEO + pre-rendering + Schema.org
- Resend integration for test sends
What this proves: People can learn kinetic email, generate emails with AI, preview across clients, and send test emails. The core creation experience works.
Phase 1: Workspace & Persistence
Turn the playground into a production tool
Goal: Users can save, organize, and manage their email work.
- Save emails from Playground to Workspace
- Projects — group emails under campaigns
- Version history on saved emails
- Re-open saved emails in editor
- Personal template library
- Workspace dashboard (recent emails, projects, usage stats)
What this unlocks: Stickiness. Users come back because their work lives here.
Phase 2: View in Browser & Send Infrastructure
Own the full send pipeline
Goal: Every email sent through kinetic.email gets a hosted web version and full send tracking.
- Hosted email pages (
kinetic.email/view/{token}) - Personalization token system (merge tags:
{{name}},{{company}}, etc.) - View-in-browser link injection
- Send tracking (delivered, opened, clicked)
- Unsubscribe link management (CAN-SPAM compliance)
- Bounce handling and suppression lists
What this unlocks: We're no longer just generating emails — we're delivering them and tracking results.
Phase 3: Contact Management
Know who you're sending to
Goal: Users can manage their contact lists, segment audiences, and personalize at scale.
- Contact import (CSV, manual entry)
- Contact profiles (name, email, custom fields)
- Lists and segments with a rules-based segment builder
- Contact activity history (sends, opens, clicks)
- GDPR consent tracking and data export/deletion
What this unlocks: Personalization at scale. This is where "email tool" becomes "email marketing."
Phase 4: Campaign Builder
Send to many, not just one
Goal: Full campaign creation, scheduling, and delivery to contact lists.
- Campaign creation wizard (select email → audience → schedule)
- Send now or schedule for later
- A/B testing (subject line, content, send time)
- Campaign analytics dashboard
- Per-recipient personalization (merge tags resolved per contact)
What this unlocks: Real email marketing. This directly competes with Mailchimp's core offering.
Phase 5: Automation & Drip Campaigns
Emails that send themselves
Goal: Visual automation builder for triggered email sequences.
- Visual flow builder (drag-and-drop nodes)
- Triggers: signup, tag added, date-based, link clicked, email opened, custom event
- Actions: send email, wait, add tag, update field, split test
- Pre-built recipes (welcome series, onboarding, re-engagement, abandoned cart)
What this unlocks: Lifecycle marketing — competing with Marketo and HubSpot automation engines, but with AI-generated kinetic emails in every node.
Phase 6: Drag-and-Drop Email Builder
For people who don't want to write code or use AI
- Block-based editor (text, image, button, divider, columns)
- Kinetic blocks (tabs, accordion, carousel, survey, lightswitch)
- "Enhance with AI" button on any block
- Import from Playground (AI-generated → drag-and-drop for refinement)
Why this comes later: AI generation is our moat. Lead with what's different, add what's expected once we have traction.
Phase 7: Deliverability & Sending Infrastructure
Own the pipe, not just the product
- Dedicated IP addresses (per-customer at scale)
- Domain authentication wizard (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Deliverability dashboard (inbox placement, spam rates, blacklist monitoring)
- Evaluate: build on SES vs. maintain Resend vs. hybrid
Phase 8: Analytics & Reporting
Data that drives decisions
- Campaign performance dashboards
- Kinetic interaction analytics (which tabs clicked, carousel slides viewed, survey responses)
- Revenue attribution (e-commerce integrations)
- Custom report builder
Unique angle: No ESP tracks kinetic interactions. We can show "42% of recipients interacted with the carousel" — analytics no one else can offer.
Phase 9: Integrations & API
Play nice with everything else
- REST API for all platform actions
- Webhooks (real-time event notifications)
- Zapier / Make integration
- Shopify, WordPress, CRM integrations
Current Status
| Phase | Status |
|---|---|
| Phase 0: Foundation | ✅ Complete |
| Phase 1: Workspace | 🟡 In Progress |
| Phase 2: View in Browser | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 3: Contacts | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 4: Campaigns | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 5: Automation | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 6: Drag & Drop Builder | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 7: Deliverability | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 8: Analytics | 📋 Planned |
| Phase 9: Integrations | 📋 Planned |