I stumbled upon a great post by current Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner titled – What makes a truly great product. It enlists the five great qualities that a product should have in order to be a class apart. Having been an Android user for long now, I started using the Pocket app two years back. As a long-time customer of Pocket, I realized how well Pocket was able to satisfy those qualities. That pushed me to write this post wherein I'll try to map how the dimensions that Jeff talked about relates to Pocket as a product.
It has focused on delivering this proposition by making itself available on almost any device (tablet, phone, computer) and platform (chrome, android, iOS). I can actually read any saved article anywhere without worrying about the device I'm using or whether I've internet connectivity or not. I can read it in a flight or while I'm on a hike in a dense forest. Practically anywhere and anytime! This is perhaps the main reason why customers are so impressed - its android app has a rating of 4.5 stars on Google Play after 200K reviews!
Being a voracious reader, I read things related to politics, tech products, investing, current affairs from all over the internet. But it is impossible to read all the stuff that you discover at the moment. I used to bookmark a ton of articles on Chrome browsers on Mobile and Desktop separately. Apart from this, I read Quora and Medium for which I use their reading list and favourite post features. Similarly, many other publishers that I visit have their own "favorites list" feature.
Do you see the problem with the individual bookmarking above? After a while, it became impossible to manage all the awesome content that I discover everyday even after the bookmarks and the reading lists. Pocket greatly simplified my life by helping me track all the good things that I read. Further, Pocket introduced better features to organize and search the saved content if I wish to revisit any content a few years down the row.
Delivers on a singular value proposition in a world-class way
Pocket is a productivity app with an amazing user experience. Its value proposition is "Save your favourite articles, videos and other web-content and view it later anywhere, anytime even when you're offline".It has focused on delivering this proposition by making itself available on almost any device (tablet, phone, computer) and platform (chrome, android, iOS). I can actually read any saved article anywhere without worrying about the device I'm using or whether I've internet connectivity or not. I can read it in a flight or while I'm on a hike in a dense forest. Practically anywhere and anytime! This is perhaps the main reason why customers are so impressed - its android app has a rating of 4.5 stars on Google Play after 200K reviews!
Simple, intuitive, and anticipates needs
Pocket's user interface is so simple, clean and beautiful that it doesn't need to do any user onboarding the way FB, Twitter, Quora and other internet services do. It's apps across different devices and platforms integrate seamlessly. It anticipates user's needs by making available the saved article in day/night viewing mode, with custom fonts and other formatting options. Pocket gives you unlimited storage space to store your articles, videos and other web content.
It recently started the Recommendations feature, which suggests the most interesting articles saved to Pocket by millions of users. The recommendations are personalized just for you, based on what you save, read and watch in Pocket. It anticipates the user's interests and serves interesting personalized content.
It recently started the Recommendations feature, which suggests the most interesting articles saved to Pocket by millions of users. The recommendations are personalized just for you, based on what you save, read and watch in Pocket. It anticipates the user's interests and serves interesting personalized content.
Exceeds expectations
If you're a person who enjoys uniformity and consistency while reading, you'll love Pocket. Pocket removes clutter from articles and allows you to adjust text settings for easier reading. This enables standardization of fonts and formatting for all articles available on the web. You'll be reading all your stuff in a single consistent format.
Its almost as if you're reading different chapters (articles) in one book (the web). However, Pocket never marketed this as a feature, but anyway exceeded users expectations from the product. What Pocket does extremely well is making available all of the articles you wish to view in one place.
Emotionally resonates
I tend to be a procrastinator at times. Pocket is a procrastinator's delight and a productivity enabler. If you add anything to Pocket, your job is done. It will permanently save that read for you and make it accessible on any device. I discover a ton of content on my phone but I prefer reading them on my laptop, because of the larger form factor. Pocket auto-syncs the content on my phone and laptop, enabling me to read more and save time.
We don't necessarily need to be connected to the internet while using Pocket, which gives the user a sense of freedom and empowerment. I experienced this while using the app when I was on a long flight and didn't have anything on my hands. I ended up browsing and reading all the good content that I had saved in the past on my phone.
In case you're interrupted while reading, Pocket remembers your last read position and opens the article where you left reading. These kind of small tweaks don't take much effort to develop but subtly make the users feel that the product values your time.
We don't necessarily need to be connected to the internet while using Pocket, which gives the user a sense of freedom and empowerment. I experienced this while using the app when I was on a long flight and didn't have anything on my hands. I ended up browsing and reading all the good content that I had saved in the past on my phone.
Changes the user's life for the better
Do you see the problem with the individual bookmarking above? After a while, it became impossible to manage all the awesome content that I discover everyday even after the bookmarks and the reading lists. Pocket greatly simplified my life by helping me track all the good things that I read. Further, Pocket introduced better features to organize and search the saved content if I wish to revisit any content a few years down the row.
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