Skip to content

Sophia — Product Overview

As of: 2026-09-22 · Spec: PRODUCT_CONTEXT.md · Tracker: implementation-tracker


What is Sophia?

Sophia (Sofia) is a standalone, public, self-service AI interview SaaS: signup, prepaid interview-minute credits (Stripe), Positions, Candidates, private links, English voice interview via shared Pipecat bot + Daily, scored evidence-backed report with honest assessed flags. Same engine as CleverHire, sold without an ATS.


Target market and users

SegmentRolePhase 1 focus
SMB recruiters / hiring teamsPrimary buyersNot enterprise; ATS deferred
Workspace adminBilling, team, all interviewsCreator starts as admin
Workspace memberOwn interviews onlyNo private billing
CandidatePrivate linkNo account
Highbrow operatorInternal recovery/auditNot customer-visible

Pricing model

  • Unit: 1 credit = 1 interview minute (integer credit-seconds in ledger).
  • Packs (USD): 50 / $19 · 250 / $79 · 1,000 / $299.
  • Billing: Reserve max duration at schedule; charge actual connected seconds at settlement.
  • Release gate: Blended variable cost ≤ $0.15 per paid minute (or signed exception).
  • Phase 2: Subscriptions, auto top-up, enhanced tiers.

Phase 1 scope (target 7 October 2026)

Standalone SaaS (AC16); signup + admin/member; positions, candidates, résumés; day-window + email/ICS; candidate lobby (screen share, live AI); credits/Stripe; results + assessed; FR19 proctoring/credibility; retention, sweepers, 10/3 concurrency, 100-session qual; contract docs; minimal public pages.

~30–40% built. Gaps: email/ICS, FR19, report UI/PDF, sweepers, notifications, ops console, load/cost qual, AC/WAL/PRO.


Out of scope (Phase 1)

SSO; Apple/Microsoft sign-in; candidate accounts; mobile/coding/multilingual; guest scores; subscriptions; white-label; CleverHire migration/adapter; ATS; calendar; templates; phone QR; lockdown browser; gov ID.


Release gate

  • AC01–AC21 after re-baseline (calendar/templates/bulk dropped; PDF AC06–AC08 stale).
  • Zero critical/high defects; no billing/isolation/data-loss defects.
  • Blended cost ≤ $0.15/paid minute (or Kevin-signed exception).
  • Kevin release decision on tested build.

Key decisions (selected)

DecisionChoiceNotes
D1Standalone SaaSAC16 independence hard gate.
D2Shared bot, not forkedCoupling risk to CleverHire.
D3Single MongoDB, org-scoped
D5–D6Reserve max, charge actualBilling trust model.
D7Snapshot at scheduleReports stable if position edits.
D10assessed per skillNo silent missing criteria.
D13–D14Drop templates + calendarDay-window + ICS remains.
D16–D17Credibility + full detector scopeTop delivery risk; not implemented.
D19Position required

Identity: Spec Cognito; code Firebase Auth (Google + email).


CleverHire relationship

  • Shared Pipecat bot (cleverhire-bot), not forked.
  • Separate deployment, DB, customer journey; no CleverHire hybrid tenant port.
  • Future: CleverHire as consumer of interview service (G5); packages/ must stay CleverHire-usable — strategy tension (§23.3).
  • No historical migration Phase 1.

Timeline — 7 October 2026

MilestonePlannedStatus (Sep 2026)
G0 Kickoff9 SepDone
G0b Detector feasibility11 SepCritical — FR19 not productized
G1 Independent vertical slice15 SepPartial — bot E2E + email incomplete
G2 Feature freeze29 SepAt riskremaining-work.md
QA week30 Sep – 6 OctNot started
G3 Acceptance6 OctNot started
G4 Release7 OctRe-baseline + qualification evidence

Capacity (§18.6): ~270 build-hours; 120 QA-hours final week.

See also: implementation-tracker.md, remaining-work.md, nfr-and-quality-gates.md.

Sophia AI Interview Platform — Internal Documentation