The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products - Ep. 42 with Chris Pedregal

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Dec 12, 2024

Chris Pedregal, Co-founder and CEO of Granola, shares his invaluable insights on crafting delightful AI products that truly resonate with users. He discusses the role of intuition in product decisions and the importance of embedding 'soul' into technology. Chris also emphasizes the advantage smaller startups have over big tech in targeting specialized user needs. With engaging anecdotes about personal growth through reflection and travel, he offers a fresh perspective on creativity and navigating the fast-evolving landscape of AI.

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ADVICE

Intuition-Based Product Decisions

Base product decisions on intuition, informed by user context.
Get face-time with users to build an internal mental model of what feels good or bad in a product.

INSIGHT

Perspective-Driven Feedback

Approach user feedback with an existing perspective to evoke valuable responses.
A blank slate approach yields blank feedback, hindering intuition development.

ANECDOTE

Socratic and Teen Feedback

Chris Pedregal shares his experience at Socratic, where getting face-time with high schoolers was crucial.
Teenagers are trained to tell adults what they want to hear, so building trust is key for honest feedback.

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Chris Pedregal knows how to build AI products that people love.

Chris is the cofounder and CEO of Granola, an AI notepad for meetings. We use it all the time at Every—Granola listens in on a meeting and, when it ends, generates notes and a shareable transcript for anyone who missed it.

Granola is one of my favorite consumer AI products because it’s equal parts delightful and useful. So my question for Chris was:

How do you do it? How do you make an excellent product in AI?

We spent an hour talking about:

How Chris uses intuition while making product decisions
The importance of building products with “soul”
How to develop your product thinking muscles
When Chris trusts his gut over listening to user feedback
How fewer users gives startups a leg up over big tech
Why Chris is bullish on founders building specialized AI tools for professionals

This is a must-watch for anyone interested in building valuable, sticky AI products that users will love.

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Timestamps for Spotify:

Introduction (00:00:48)
How Chris made early product decisions at Granola (00:09:14)
Chris’s philosophy around product development (00:13:36)
When to follow your intuition v. listen to your users (00:19:24)
How to build a product with “soul” (00:20:40)
Chris’s advice on becoming a better product thinker (00:25:12)
The role travel plays in shaping Chris’s intuition (00:31:17)
Why having fewer users is an advantage for AI startups (00:45:52)
Why Chris is bullish on startups building specialized AI tools (00:52:09)
Where Chris sees Granola in the next year (00:56:52)

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:

Chris Pedregal: @cjpedregal

Granola: http://Granola.ai, @meetgranola

The piece Chris wrote for Every about building useful AI products: https://every.to/thesis/how-to-build-a-truly-useful-ai-product