Shared Memories, A Tribute to My Late Mother
A product concept and working prototype for Google Photos that turns shared albums into co-authored timelines, designed around grief, not engagement.
- Product brief
- Figma Make
- AI inspiration prompts
- Collaborative timeline
Built as a tribute to my late mother and packaged as a product brief for the Google Photos Reminiscing team. The premise: photos live in Google, but the stories live everywhere else. Shared Memories turns static albums into living, collaborative narratives so families can co-author the story of a life event, together.
The user problem
My photos are here, but the stories are everywhere else. Users have a treasure trove of photos but no native tool to collaboratively build a narrative around them. Sharing memories of a wedding, a trip, or a loved one's life is fragmented across multiple apps.
Shared albums are photo dumps. They lack structure, context, and narrative flow. They are utility folders, not emotional experiences.
For deeply emotional events like a tribute, contributors face a blank canvas and don't know what to write.
The business problem
How can Google Photos evolve from a world-class storage utility into a primary destination for active engagement and creation, deepening user investment in the ecosystem? Shared Memories is the answer: a new content type that combines photos, videos, text notes, and reactions into a chronological timeline.
Three core epics
Epic 1, the Shared Story framework: themed templates (Tribute, Wedding, Road Trip, The First Year), invite-by-link contribution, timeline view.
Epic 2, the AI Inspiration Engine: context-aware AI prompts that match the tone of the event (gentle and reflective for a Tribute, adventurous for a Road Trip), AI-suggested photos of a person or moment, and proactive 'create a story from this trip' nudges.
Epic 3, rich content and collaboration: long-form text blocks, photo-level reactions beyond a like, and contributor empathy reactions.
Phased rollout
Phase 1, MVP, the Tribute, the most emotionally resonant wedge. Phase 2, Life Events templates. Phase 3, proactive AI creation suggestions. Each phase validates a layer before adding the next.
Success metrics
North Star: Weekly Active Collaborators (WAC). Engagement: stories created per week, contributors per story, contributions per user. Retention: 30-day retention of story creators vs. non-creators. Qualitative: CSAT on the AI prompts.