Note: Check out the reply in the comments after you listen to read Taylor's additional thoughts after she hit "publish".
Beeeeep.
Hey, Josh! Happy Tuesday!
I just finished reading all of Tova's insights from her research to prep for our call tomorrow. And the thing feeling most alive for me right now is networking and the type of connection that happens inside a Groove.
And I guess, I'm not really, I'm not really sure where this voice note is gonna go, which I sort of think is the whole point. But it's feeling very alive that I want the type of connection on Groove to continue to be different. And I think that we've done a really good job up to this point, that it doesn't feel like traditional networking. And there are a few reasons for that.
Inside of the app right now, we really don't have a lot of discoverability. So you really can't search. Let's say, I'm looking to connect with more photographers, I might think—let me look up photographers, you can't do that right now.
Also, right now, when you send a message to someone, it's in the form of an orbit request, sort of like a friend request or a LinkedIn connection request. But it feels a little intimate, is what we've heard from from Groovers. And I've felt it myself, not knowing if your orbit is just supposed to be people you know, or have met before. Is it normal and okay to request someone you don't know? Which is related to our voice notes from last week.
A lot of the connection happens in real time, over time. So it's meeting up in Grooves and forming a crew that you continue to see again and again, which leads to things like virtual coffee chats, it leads to Groovers collaborating on a project together, Groovers working together with a client, Groovers cohosting a podcast episode together. All sorts of things—meeting up in different cities, traveling together. It can be all sorts of things.
What we've seen in the last bit of Groove existing is that people over time build meaningful relationships through the experience of Grooving together. And what I'm nervous about is if we build in more discoverability—if we make it easier for people to read someone's bio, and then reach out, we start to land in that category of fake interactions, where people are selling, where people are marketing, where people are not connecting meaningfully but are judging based on just one thing about that person.
Yeah, I guess that's what worries me is like, on one hand, I really want to make the experience easier for newer Groovers to find people they vibe with and have something in common with...And at the same time, we have a responsibility to work with Groovers to establish norms. And I feel like we have a real opportunity to redefine what relationship-building online can be and can feel like.
Hearing the word "networking" come up as much as it did in Tova's insights and research brought up these nerves. And it's interesting because a lot of people who said "networking" were actually talking about collaboration, they were talking about meeting up with people in the same city that they're in. They talked about discovering people they already know inside of other social networks on Groove so that they can find people they're already connected with and Groove together.
I'm just very sensitive to the word "networking" and what that means. And I believe we've been doing something that's different than networking. And I think there's a real opportunity to continue building something that does not remind us of networking, but instead reminds us of something better. So that's what's alive for me today.
