Saurabh Bhide

Discovering our hooks : how we went from zero engagement to addictive products

About The Speaker

After studying at the National Institute of Design, Saurabh spent time at companies of varying sizes and goals, ranging from Microsoft R&D to a tiny three-person studio. During these years, he designed products and experiences that are used and loved by thousands of users. While working with CogBooks (now with ASU), he discovered his passion for building innovative b2c digital products.

He founded a UX design studio in Goa in 2017 and has since been helping early-stage product companies around the world build and deliver experiences that are loved by users.

Discovering our hooks : how we went from zero engagement to addictive products

While the pandemic was tragic to humanity in general, it was a golden opportunity for designers: an opportunity to observe how the world changed and to design products that fit into the changing world. I’d like to take you through stories of two products: Workomo and AugLi. Both were early MVPs with ~zero engagement. We were trying hard to bring about tiny changes in our users’ behaviors to make sure they use our apps. Alas, it wasn’t working.

Enter March 2020. We got to see human behavior change drastically in a matter of weeks. This time, instead of trying to change user behavior, we observed the changes that the pandemic had already brought about and redesigned these products to turn them into things that users love.

Our key learning was: human behavior twists, turns, and changes based on factors beyond any product creator’s control. If we’re good observers, we can find ‘hooks’ into these behaviors to hook our products into their lives. I’ll take you through the key lessons, failures, and realizations that we had during this journey that any designer can apply to build experiences that get their users ‘hooked’!

Key Takeaways