Platform feedback call: Nico <-> Livia
Audio Recording.webm/2024-01-29
How big is your team? Like how big is the overall company? Like full-time employees, more like? Okay, exciting. Yes, sounds good. If you can send the recording to me afterwards as well, it would be super useful because we kind of need it as well. Okay, you have the homepage open, right, could you maybe share your screen so I can follow your thought process? Yes, I can see your screen. Okay. So, like, it's like when you click on it, what would be your expectation? Like, under the use case, like, if you scroll down, so it brings you into the product, right? Ideally, would you like another landing page on the website that then dives deeper into those templates? Like, that's kind of, like, the idea you're going with, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, kind of. I mean, the workflow is similar. So just how you use a meeting minutes template, you use an action plan, but I can see how it can be confusing if you're suddenly on a landing page, it's meeting minutes, if you're going to action plan. So good feedback. Okay. So it refills. So you get to use 1,000 credits on the platform. So different activities consume a different amount of credits. And then at the end of the month, 1,000 credits get added to your account. And I think there's a max of, like, 2,000 to keep, so, like, you can carry over some of the credits as well. Sorry? Yeah, to a certain extent. So like, it will fill up, but it won't fill up, like, if you don't use it for, like, 10 months, you won't suddenly have, like, 10,000 credits, so you need to use them as well. I think a box will pop up within the app, and then you can reach out to purchase more credits additionally, like, outside of the plan. Okay. Yeah. So, like, with the activities you did, you ran out of, like, the 50 credits starter plan quite quick, right? What was the last part? Like, what was the last thing you said? Like, when you make the meeting minutes, what's the output? Okay. Yeah. I can see how that can be a bit more frustrating when you're getting started with it. So, like, you didn't feel like you really were able to understand the platform in depth enough with the 50 credits provided, like, to fully test out before knowing if you want to switch to, like, a paid plan, you would need more credits to kind of, like, understand the platform, right? Okay. Okay. Okay. So, for the test email, like, currently how it's set up, like, you would like to, for example, put, like, email at m.getbash.com. So, it's, like, your name as well. Okay. Sounds good. And what's the rationale why you want to have, like, what use cases do you have for the email where you think that someone else will see the address? Kind of, like, why is it important for you to have that visible to people? Okay. Makes sense. Okay. Okay. And you have that with every single email? Okay. Okay. Okay. So, sometimes you summarize stuff and you kind of, like, just want to see it in this and if the information is actually relevant, then you would like to save it to your sources, right? Okay. Nice. I did as well. So, very curious, kind of, like, so, you see a Reddit post in here, right? And now you can follow different subs without having to go on Reddit and kind of, like, see what discussions happen. Besides the tracking, like, what other features are useful for you? So, for example, would you, like, summarize to be separate here as well so you can quickly see what's discussed in this large Reddit post? Okay. Okay. And then if you're planning on engaging with the post, would you also find it useful for Bash to write the first draft of an answer that you can then polish yourself or do you just write that from scratch? So, something you could potentially do with Bash is you could use a custom template over this Reddit post and be like, write an answer to the source content that covers X, Y, and Z. And then Bash will give you a first draft of an answer to that post. Yeah. You could technically also jump over that. Like, if you look at the top right corner, it says turn into meeting minutes. There's, like, a dropdown. So, if you select the dropdown on the right, you could also pick a template and then it will do everything in one go. So, then, the template gallery, you could potentially select custom template and then say in that custom template, like, draft a response for the social media post and then it will write the first draft for you. Obviously, you'll probably want to, like, tweak it around with, like, your own tone of voice in your business, but it would then be a bit more, like, you don't have to write from scratch. Okay. Super useful. Then, from the different use cases you've seen on Bash, what things were you thinking of using it for? So, let's say you don't have that 50 credit limit. Let's say you have, like, 100,000 credits and you can do whatever you want. What workflows would you change today or do you think Bash could help you save time with that you've explored a little bit? Hmm. Yep. Hmm. Okay. Super cool. Super insightful. And then, the channels you're writing socials for was you're managing some of the social media of your business. So, it's, like, you mentioned Instagram captions. They also do, like, X here in Facebook. Okay. Perfect. It's a good insight. Like, I think I agree with you that the 50 credits is maybe a bit annoying, that you kind of, like, want to try the tool, you do one thing, and then you're already locked out of doing anything else because you pass that limit, right? Okay. I'll bring that to the team. I think that's something that can be fixed and patched up really quickly and might make it easier for you to kind of, like, try it out. We're actually doing this special thing where if people give us feedback, we offer them, like, a free month of the paid plan plus a free month that you can give to anyone else. So, after this meeting, I'll send you an email. You can then apply that or you give me one of the accounts. So, I'll make sure that you get boosted up to 1,000 credits. And then, if anyone else in your team or in your network you think could find Bash useful, you can also give them a month of, like, 1,000 credits so they can play around with it, they can test it out, and kind of, like, see if it works for them. And then, if you... But if you have any other feedback or you test it out and you see, like, stuff's broken, stuff doesn't work, you can always send me an email as well. I'm directly connected to the development team. So, similar to, like, how you're with a small startup, I think we're about seven people currently. So, expanding it, I think we've been live, like, five to six months. So, we're, like, quite new, developing a lot. There's some really cool stuff happening soon as well. Like, we're looking to automate Bash directly so you can apply a template. Let's say you record a meeting and you want to directly send out that action plan. Like, we're looking to automate that so that you don't have to copy-paste things left and right once you actually have it generated. Yeah. Okay. Do you have anything else you want to mention or any other experience that you think is relevant to still discuss before we jump over to your market research? Okay. Awesome. Sounds good. Yeah. Okay. Where did you originally find my posts about Bash? Like which Reddit post or like subreddit did you find it? Okay. Super cool. Thanks for the insight. Yeah. Let's. Sure. So I have, I originally studied business in business administration as a bachelor's degree and a master's in business information management. Three years ago, I went into startups. So I started a job at a different startup entry level role, which was a go to market slash business focus. So I basically do everything that encompasses user acquisition, retention and conversion. So it includes anything from digital marketing stuff to sales and customer success. So I manage all the verticals in a small team. In the past, I used to work with more coworkers. So initially I was with like a team of two. Then we ended up growing up to five people in kind of like the business marketing team. That's not all marketers. Like some people were more customer success, but I very much was like in touch with them on a day to day basis. And currently I'm working on growth for bash. So new AI startup bootstrapped small team of seven. And I'm the only one that actively works on the business side of things. So the rest of our team is engineers and then we have the CEO. And then I do everything that is new user acquisition, conversations with users, growth, retention, and kind of like converting user feedback, also like product suggestions and all that stuff. So we currently do everything in house. So which kind of software development would you refer to? Would it be like further expansion of the tool? Would it be a website or which kind of like add on would that be? Yeah. So everyone's on a freelancer contract. So I'm on a freelancer contract. I do like 24 hours a week for the business, sometimes 30. Depends a bit on the week. And everyone else is the same. So we have a mobile dev person that I think works like 16 hours a week or like 20 hours a week. And then some of our developers are hired on a more full-time basis. I think some of the people on the team do work 40 hours per week. And then we have our own QA person. And for the websites, we use no code tools. So we do everything on Webflow. Our UX designer is a Webflow expert. So he knows like more of the complex stuff. And then I do more of the simple stuff. So like, let's say we want to copy a page or make some simple changes, then I can just go into Webflow and make those changes. So we currently are not working with like, we're not really outsourcing anything per se to like a business specifically. So most of the team currently are still from the previous business. So I used to work for Rock three years ago. Then we downsized and the CEO started Bash. And then he took part of the team with him to Bash, but on a lower amount of hours. I think he has quite a strong product background in engineering. So he knows what needs to be constructed and how. He just needs an individual to then do that. So he very much is able to see what the skill set is of specific people and whether it will complement the needs he has for the business. So he has a quite wide understanding of what it actually means to develop it and what skills he needs. So there's not a lot of open questions or uncertainty on how something should be developed. I think that's the main reason why his approach is more towards hiring a specialist or someone that is an expert in a certain types of code and like certain like coding background, instead of going with an agency or kind of like a more established service that provides a certain amount of hours for the developers. There's also, I think a lot of the roles could move into full-time. So then the people would just stay as like employees and gives a bit more of a team feeling. Quite a bit. I think it's one of our main acquisition channels. So I write all the content for our business and then social media is one of the distribution channels we have. And then we're also investing into Reddit as a channel, just kind of like jump into conversations, see where our product could be relevant, see where we could help out people with anything. So it's a bit of a combination of both. In terms of which social channels, I use Reddit, LinkedIn and Twitter more than anything else. We don't use Facebook, we don't use Instagram, mainly because of like, I don't think it falls under our ideal customer profile and it's just me and the team. So we can also not do like 20 different channels besides everything we're already doing. So I use Reddit personally as well. I like scrolling around, seeing stuff. Then Instagram stories only. I don't use anything else on Instagram anymore. The feed is filled with ads and then the discovery section is not really relevant and I don't like reels. Instead of reels, I'll just go to TikTok. So I spend like an hour a day on TikTok or something like that. Yeah, I don't post anything. I'm just like a ghost account that just like doing scrolls through. I don't think I've ever commented or anything or given likes. I just kind of like use it as like a post feed. But I don't think... So I don't think I consume a lot of like, I don't see a lot of like posts that have to do with marketing or like my job. Like I mostly get like irrelevant stuff, like Reddit stories that are just like doing scrolling. I don't know, like I get some Gen Z, millennial kind of like influencers that talk about like layoffs and all that stuff, but that's kind of like the most business it goes. It's a bit different. Like I think I use Instagram to keep up with like my friends' lives. So like I travel a lot, I go to different places. So I need to make an active effort to kind of like keep in touch with the people I'm interacting with. So I don't really post a lot. I don't really need to make an active effort to kind of like keep in touch with the people I care about. Instagram stories are great for that because like whenever I see someone doing something, I can give them a response. I can reconnect or like, I don't know, kind of like show that I exist and that the friendship exists. Whereas TikTok is more of a, I'm feeling tired or I'm feeling lazy. I want to do something to kind of like get distracted, like not think for like 15 to 20 minutes. Okay. It's okay. Like I don't have anything after this. We can continue. Like which device I use? So Reddit is mostly on web. So I use it on like my laptop. Also because I use it for work. So sometimes I just like switch around the two. TikTok on my tablet and then Instagram stories on my phone and on my tablet. I never use Instagram on my laptop. My phone's quite shit. So like got my phone robbed a little like earlier this year, replaced it with like a temporary solution. So battery doesn't last very long. It's not super useful as a phone. Like typically I would use the iPad less and the phone more, but because my phone's not that good, the iPad has become a replacement for it. It's okay. That's life. So on TikTok, I get a lot of these like Reddit stories with like an AI voice over it. But I don't watch them that much. Like I often block the accounts when it's like part one, part two, part three. And I'm like, I'm not going to go into this account and like scroll through every one of them. Then I get a lot of like Gen Z millennial corporate culture TikToks, kind of like, I don't know, like people talking about like differences in work culture, kind of like how Gen Z is entering the corporate workforce. Sometimes I get some recruiters that are talking about like people getting laid off or like people like applying to like a thousand jobs and not getting a response. So like I get quite a few of those. And that's it. I think most of the TikToks I get are U.S. based. Like I get a lot of like U.S. content regardless of where I am. I typically live in Spain, but I still kind of like get mostly like U.S. TikToks, like English speaking TikToks. So LinkedIn, I just scroll my feed. I don't go like anywhere else. So I try to post sometimes, like this is all like personal branding thing going on. So I'm like trying to post like on a recurring basis if I have time for it. And that's most of the interactions I do on that platform. Give some likes to some stuff. Give some comments to some stuff. And then I try to post on LinkedIn. So that's probably like because of the algorithm. But a small fact about like the LinkedIn stuff. Then for Reddit, I'm on r slash marketing, r slash SEO, productivity, like I'm on a lot of different things. So I'm on a lot of different things. I'm on a lot of For Reddit, I'm on r slash marketing, r slash SEO, productivity, startups, chat GPT, r slash open AI. I'm on there sometimes. And that's it. I've been on like r slash growth hacking, but I feel like it's just product on posts 24-7. So it's not really relevant to me. So I'm typically in the Reddit that are a bit more have some good moderation on it. So it's not just like spam posts the whole time. I think it depends on what I'm doing. So to entertain me, it's video. But if I want to consume information, it's mostly text and image. Because I take my time to consume some stuff. Videos go quite fast. So then like if you want to read back on something, like you need to like re-scroll the video. So once the topic becomes a bit more complex, or when I want to learn something or have like have a discussion or like a bit more in depth, I prefer written stuff. So I don't really do a lot of like explainer videos or like eight minute like things that cover recent news. Like I would rather just read text that is news. So for example, on Reddit, like a lot of is like marketing focused discussions. I prefer those being written so I can take my time to digest the content instead of it being blasted in my face and then not being able to like go back into it or kind of like consume it in a way that allows me to digest the information as required. So the more complex the topic becomes, the more I prefer for it to be like written or image. So I think not really, but it's also on purpose. Like I do marketing. So like I'm very aware of when an ad comes in just because that's my day-to-day job as well. Also means I'm much more skeptical and much more critical about what I read. And I don't know, very often like I feel like I get sold stuff. So I very much, if I get an ad, I enjoy it the most when it doesn't feel like I'm being sold something. And it's very much more focused on solving a pain or the actual use case. So it's a typical conversation of I don't want to read on Reddit an ad that says like, let's say like make an ad for Bash. Like I wouldn't want to read like automate your meeting minute generation with this tool. It's more kind of like, I don't know, like it needs to be more focused on my pain points and then merge into storytelling. So it feels relatable. It feels personable. It doesn't feel like I'm being sold yet another thing. Yeah. So like, I love a good story. I think like I'm working like in the marketing industry. So like it's everything is shifting into storytelling. Like people want to see stories. People want personable things. People want to hear it from like a person and not from a company. So I like it when it feels like it's a person telling me stuff rather than like a company advertising something. A fun fact formatted ad. I don't recall seeing one, but maybe, I guess it depends on the specific ad visual. I think it's a better approach than directly selling, but there's probably, but it might go too far from what it actually wants to accomplish, you know, like I, I don't know, it could tap into the pain point. I think it would depend on the ad, I would have to see it to kind of like have a strong opinion of it. Could you repeat the question? I think so, an advertising, maybe, but I'm, I don't think I'm the target audience for it as much because I don't make, like the CEO does like everything that's product. So if anyone will be targeted by it, it will probably be him and not me. We do get cold emails of people asking it. And I do sometimes like browse on some of my Slack communities and I get people like asking if we need outsourced development services. So I do see them sometimes. I just think I'm not the main decision maker in hiring the development company, so it's not like it doesn't stick in my brain as much. I think it depends on the length of the, or like how complicated the activity is that we need. So if it's something simple that can be done within like a short timeframe, we would probably go to like Upwork or Fiverr just because it's like, it's quick, it's secure. You can see the portfolio and all of that. And then for longer term commitments, I would probably like look for a dedicated development agency, like similar to like what you guys have. So it's like if we want a project and it's going to take like three months to do, I would rather do it with one of these development companies than with like a Fiverr freelancer just because they're a bit more established, a bit more trustworthy. So I think that's like the difference in like how I would search for something like that if I were in the decision making position. Price and portfolio, I think like probably the two things we would compare, get like a portfolio or comprehensive overview of past projects that have been completed similar to the one I want to commission out and then compare it to other prices I can see in the market and see kind of like quality versus what I'm paying for it, at what position do we want to kind of like set ourselves, where does our budget get us and how does it align with what we want to get produced. I like the idea of reviews, but as someone that's in marketing, I know a lot of companies play their reviews. So I'm not sure to what extent I will trust the number of reviews or kind of like what's said in there. Very often reviews are also hosted on the company's websites themselves. As someone who does marketing, I know you can just, I know there's a lot of companies that just put reviews because like they know it's good, but they're not genuine. So I'm very skeptical when I see reviews on the site. Like it's a good sign, but it doesn't move the needle as much as it used to in the past just because I think like it has been played so much and it doesn't really provide, like it's sometimes not relevant either. Like let's say I want to get a mobile app developed by you guys, then a review from someone that says like, oh, they made an amazing web app is irrelevant to the project I'm commissioning out, you know. Yes, referrals are relevant. So for example, I'm in a few WhatsApp groups, Slack groups, so like I would maybe ask for like a recommendation there for like someone that says like, I would also like have this project looking for maybe a development company. Does anyone recommend anything? I think a referral would be something I would look into, like it's something I find relevant as well. Did you repeat the question? So I would ask the person that refers me to the company, like, hey, what did you do with them? So I would want to get a bit more context on like when they did it. So like if they did it four years ago, it's maybe not as relevant because I know how fast teams can change. So maybe I'm working with a completely different team and then know a bit more about the project that they might be looking for, how fast they got completed, the quality of it. So like a bit more into the use case. Yeah. And in price, like I would always ask price because I think it's always relevant to kind of like know from a third party what they pay just to see if there's like any differences on that front. It's easy, I understood you at every point. I think the questions are sometimes just like I like to have them repeated, but it's not an issue of like how you speak or anything. I think your English is great. No issues from my side. Yeah, that's OK. I felt like the conversation was easy, understood you all the way. And if I misunderstood anything, then I would just ask you like a follow up question. I mean, tonight for you. Yeah, share it through Google Drive. I recorded it through Bash so I can send you the meeting minutes of the call as well, just so you have them. And then I'll make sure to get you those codes and like how you can upgrade your own account and that of someone else in your team, outside of your team. It's really up to you who you want to give it so they can test the platform out as well. Yeah. Do I have you on LinkedIn? I don't think I do. OK, let me connect requests. We can chat over there. I'll send everything over. Stay in touch. If you have any more feedback on Bash, you get to try it out or you think it's relevant for us to jump on another call. I'm always available to kind of like discuss the platform a bit more and get some like more insights from people that are trying to use it for like their day to day work. All right. I know it's quite late for you, so I hope you have a great evening and we'll stay in touch. Thank you. You too, bye bye. Bye bye.
Executive Summary
The interview objectives focused on evaluating a product called Bash, engaging with a user to understand their experiences with the platform, identifying pain points, and gathering feedback for improvement. Major themes that emerged include the need for more initial credits to fully test the platform, the desire for personalized email domains, and interest in using Bash for streamlining social media management. The most impactful insight is that users feel limited by the initial credit allocation and need more freedom to explore the tool's capabilities. A key recommendation is to adjust the starting credit limit to better accommodate users' trial needs.
Key Findings:
Test Credits Insufficiency: Users find the initial 50 credit limit too restricting when trying to evaluate the full potential of the platform, suggesting an increased quota for a trial.
Personalized Email Addresses: Users expressed a desire for email customization to maintain a professional appearance and brand consistency in communications.
Social Media Workflow Integration: There is notable interest in integrating Bash with social media management, particularly for drafting responses and content creation.
Template Clarity: Users prefer clear distinctions between templates and the resulting landing pages to avoid confusion during navigation. (action plan link to meeting minutes is confusing)
Credit Rollover & Purchase: There is a lack of information about the credit system, including monthly refills and maximum balance, along with the option to buy additional credits.
Quotes and Anecdotes:
"I mean, the workflow is similar... but I can see how it can be confusing if you're suddenly on a landing page."
"You didn't feel like you really were able to understand the platform in depth enough with the 50 credits provided."
"You would like to, for example, put like email at m.getbash.com. So, it's like your name as well."
"So very curious... you see a Reddit post in here, right? And now you can follow different subs without having to go on Reddit."
"It's a bit annoying, that you kind of like want to try the tool, you do one thing, and then you're already locked out of doing anything else because you pass that limit."
User Needs and Pain Points:
The restriction felt due to credit limits, which affects new users' ability to engage meaningfully with the platform.
Confusion caused by unclear template-to-landing page transitions, which impacts the user experience.
The wish to have visible and personalized email domains for business communications.
A desire for easy-to-follow tracking and the ability to interact with social media posts such as Reddit efficiently.
Actionable Insights:
Increase the trial credit limit from 50 to a higher number that allows users to test diverse functionalities of the platform.
Introduce the option for users to customize their email domains within the platform to align with their branding.
Streamline the user journey from template selection to relevant landing pages with more intuitive design elements.
Expand platform capabilities to include social media management functionalities as identified in user feedback.
Consider feedback mechanisms within the app to allow users to directly communicate suggestions or issues to the development team.
Allow users to summarize information from the feed without turning it into a source. User decides whether the source is relevant after creating that summary and whether they want to work with it (doesn't have to save, could potentially be in the chat box)
Unclear in the feed why summarize
Trancript