New post — progressive collapse

The shipped 3-step wizard, restructured so each finished step gets out of the way. Vs today: (1) clicking Plan this idea collapses Step 1 to a one-row recap — focus moves to the plan; (2) Continue to Draft → lives at the end of Plan & research (the separate Step-3 summary block is gone — it duplicated everything you just saw); (3) topic & series are Advanced, collapsed by default — the AI already matched them, most users never need to touch them; (4) deeper angle/hook research is an inline "more options" expander, not two big always-open sections.

Mockup state

A · Before planning B · After planning

Click Plan this idea in state A to watch Step 1 collapse.

Your idea & setup

Everything the post needs to exist — captured manually, before any AI spend. Unchanged from the shipped wizard.

What's the post about?

Format required

Video Carousel Image Text

Image essentials

Aspect ratio

1:1 4:5 Suggested · LinkedIn+IG feed 9:16 16:9

Platforms

LinkedIn Instagram Reels TikTok X

Priority

Low Medium High

Skip planning, just draft

What changed in Step 1: nothing in the fields — the change is what happens on click: the step collapses to a recap row and the plan takes the stage. "Skip planning" moved up here too (it used to live in the now-deleted Step-3 block).

Plan & research

Appears when the plan returns — switch to state B to see it.

Your idea & setup Image 4:5 LinkedIn · Instagram Medium “A quick win story: we cut…”

Expanding re-opens the full Step-1 form (idea, format, essentials, platforms, priority) for edits. Editing the idea or format marks the plan below stale and offers a re-plan.

The collapse: done steps become one scannable row. The eye goes to exactly one place — the plan.

Plan & research

Review the plan, optionally research deeper — then continue. The CTA is HERE now.

AI planned it from your idea · ran on your click

“Show a client win where better systems halved weekly reporting time — same team, same budget — as a before/after image post.”

Angle

Lead with the before/after numbers, then reveal the 3 systems that made it possible — proof first, playbook second.

More angle options optional · runs research

Myth-bust: you don't need more headcount to fix reporting — you need fewer, better systems.

A day-in-the-life contrast: Monday reporting before vs after the rebuild.

Picking a different angle clears the hook below — hooks belong to an angle.

Integrated research: the plan's best angle stands alone; deeper research is one quiet expander — not a second full section. Same AI calls underneath, same angle→hook gating.

Hook

“Same team. Same budget. Half the reporting time.”

More hooks for this angle optional · runs research

“We didn't hire anyone. Reporting time still dropped 50%.”

“6 hours → 3 hours. Here's the system swap.”

Advanced — topic & series AI matched: Client proof · Client Spotlight

Parent topic

Client proof Systems & ops Hiring myths New topic…

Series optional

Client Spotlight None

Why collapsed: the AI already matched both — the badge says so at a glance. Indie users skip this 95% of the time; power users expand. Nothing was removed.

Picks live only in this wizard until you create. Nothing saved yet.

Skip planning, just draft Continue to Draft

Step 3 is GONE. Today a separate "Create" block re-lists format/AR/platforms/topic/series/angle/hook below the plan — and holds the only CTA, which is why Plan & research feels like it has no exit. Everything it summarized is already visible right here (recap row + plan card), so the CTA moves into the plan's footer and the duplicate block is deleted.

No post exists until you create it — abandoning the wizard leaves nothing behind. Explicit progression everywhere: nothing auto-runs, nothing auto-advances.