So you’ve built a “help” tool—but if it doesn’t account for guilt, stigma, or the fact that asking itself feels like a chore, it misses the mark. In this post, we share principles for creating support that people actually use: empathetic, low-friction, and designed to feel like relief instead of another task on the list. Plus, a peek at how Duckbill puts these ideas into action.
If there’s one thing our recent report makes clear, it’s this: the desire for help is not the issue. The problem is everything wrapped around it: availability of genuine help, access to helpful resources, guilt, shame, cultural pressure, logistical barriers, and the quiet fear of being too much or asking too much. Any solution that hopes to actually serve people has to account for those barriers. It’s not enough to offer support—you have to make that support safe, seamless, and stigma-free. Because for most Americans, especially women and working parents, asking for help isn’t just a logistical decision. It’s an emotional one.
That means real solutions need to be built with efficacy and empathy at their core. They must acknowledge the complexity and weight of invisible labor, the internalized belief that self-sufficiency equals success, and the way our culture too often frames rest as indulgence.
Duckbill was built in direct response to these realities. It’s not just a tool, it’s a recognition of the mental load. Duckbill is designed around what the data shows people actually need: fewer decisions, less friction, and support that feels like relief, not another project to manage.
That’s why Duckbill doesn’t just offer help—it actually completes tasks. It doesn’t require people to learn a new system, master a new workflow, or become an expert in delegation. The product is built to move things forward without micromanagement, nudging, or constant oversight. Because people who need help the most often have the least time to figure out how to ask for it.
We know that the solution is not just more tools. It’s about designing solutions that understand what people are facing and meet them with empathy and clarity, not complexity. This report doesn’t just shape how we should talk about the problem. It shapes how we build the solution. And with the right support, we believe a life that feels more manageable—and more joyful—is within reach, because time is not a luxury, it is a human right.