TLDR: WATCH THE VIDEO (click above)
Often when a familiar product launches a new feature, it falls under our radar. It takes something unique to get us to notice, and sometimes it’s less about the thing than about how we encounter it. This was the case for me with Zoom's new AI feature set. ☝️
How did it first catch my eye? An invite from a member of my team to ‘Activate the AI Companion.’ This wasn't just another marketing email—it was my colleague asking me to do something. Now, if a suggestion comes from someone I know, I’m more likely to notice (and follow) it. This is called the messenger effect. David Attenborough whispering in my ear about a new nature doc? Sure, I’ll watch the Discovery Channel. 🐼
PLG + BeSci = Eyeballs 👀
PMs call this approach 'product-led growth', a.k.a. when the product becomes its own sales team. 😉 Also at play here is behavioral science, a.k.a. when you understand your user's psychology and nudge them towards prioritized actions. 👉 Whatever you call it, it got my attention.
But in some ways, this is where the genius ended. 😟 Diving into the AI settings revealed a suite of features, but not all held equal weight.
Take the ‘Meeting Summary’, for instance. It’s… OK. What really stands out? The ‘Next Steps’ section, which recaps the meeting's action items. Why? According to the Jobs To Be Done (JBTD) model, the user’s ‘job’ is to get their work done effectively every day. Zoom plays a massive role in this. No one likes having lots of meetings, but in most companies we have multiple a day. This is the nature of a workplace.
If ‘AI’ Stood for ‘Action Items’ 🤔
Zoom could use those Next Steps and do more to increase meeting effectiveness. Productive meetings are about decisions and actions, not chit-chat. Given this, Zoom’s next obvious product step should be to complete their AI workflow and draft an email in the organizer's inbox, addressed to everyone who attended, with the meeting action items. This would: 1️⃣ make the organizer’s job easier and 2️⃣ help all the meetings’ participants get shit done.
👉 3 things I cover in this teardown:
✅ How to use social norms to decrease the uncertainty of enabling a new feature
✅ Why the best features don’t just do the thing, but also the thing’s logical conclusion
✅ How giving users options could increase adoption for B2B users
And now excuse me, because I have a job to do: next week’s teardown! 😄 See you then. 👋
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Questions about your product? Email kristen@irrationallabs.com.
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