The Kismet blog
Field notes on deciding less.
Ideas worth putting in the pool, how-tos for owners and guests, and the engineering that keeps the draw honest.
Posts
Kismet now sends exactly one email
New members get a welcome email explaining how the draw works. There is no second one, no drip sequence, and…
When Kismet interrupts you, and when it deliberately doesn’t
Kismet sends eight kinds of notification and refuses to send a ninth. The one we left out is the one…
After the draw: accepting your fate, and what happens next
The reveal is the loud part. What comes after it — accepting, the calendar, and everyone's picks finally becoming visible…
Anything Goes: 15 things to let fate decide that aren’t dinner
Restaurant, movie, trip and night out cover most of it. Anything Goes covers the rest — you write the question,…
Restaurant night: how to run one that actually ends in a reservation
Nine people, one group chat, zero decisions. Here's how to set up a Restaurant draw so the hints steer the…
One text, no spam: how guest SMS works
Guests can get exactly one text — the result — and only after verifying their number. The design constraints behind…
Hidden means hidden: engineering invisible picks
Keeping submissions secret isn't a UI choice — it's an API contract, a websocket rule, an admin-panel policy, and a…
How the draw stays fair (and why the owner can’t peek)
The whole product rests on one promise: the draw is honest. Here's the architecture behind it — server-side randomness, persisted…
The trip pool: destinations your squad will actually accept
Group trips die in planning. A well-built destination pool — matched to budget, drive time, and the squad's real energy…