Systematic review · 2023
User Cold Start Problem in Recommendation Systems: A Systematic Review
Yuan H, Hernandez AA
What it found
Recommendation quality drops sharply for a user with no history, the 'cold start'. The review treats it as its own problem and maps the ways systems have tried to solve it, including simply asking the user.
Where the evidence stops
Recommender systems, not personal guidance. We could not reopen the abstract on 7 October 2026; this summary rests on the lab's earlier reading and its DOI check.
How it shapes Pursue
Pursue
In its first days Pursue knows almost nothing about you, so it asks a few short questions instead of pretending to know.
A design input, not evidence that Pursue works.
Cited in
- 01How can an app help me if it doesn't know me yet?By asking, briefly, instead of guessing. A 2023 systematic review (Yuan and Hernandez) treats the 'cold start', a new user with no history, as its own problem, and asking the person directly is one approach that works from the first day. Later, fresh answers should outweigh old patterns, because preferences drift (Koren, 2009).Learning a person
- 02Is there an app that notices when my day is slipping and suggests one next step?Tre-Up, an iOS app in development, is being built for exactly that, and it is not released yet: its AI, Pursue, is designed to notice when your focus or energy shifts and to answer with one small next step, one question, or nothing. Until it ships, your phone's focus modes and scheduled notification summaries cover part of the job.Timing and receptivity