Editorial note: 🙏 Thanks to Rick Olson, who introduced me to NotebookLM and created a lovely sample podcast per some of my LI posts. (Talk to Rick about retail innovation and emerging tech in retail!)

TL; DR

Even Google's innovators didn't know that a feature that can create AI-voiced podcasts would make their new NotebookLM tool take off.

Lesson? Get user feedback and act on it. No team, even the most brilliant kind, knows what will succeed until they get user input.

The story

Google’s NotebookLM is one of THE hot ai tools du jour. It’s an AI research and writing assistant. Feed it text, and it returns nice summaries, blogs, etc.

In September 2024, it introduced the ability to create podcast conversations based on whatever content you feed it. No more robot-sounding voices. Legit podcaster style! The internet went crazy. (Well, at least AI nerds did. 😂)

And this is where NotebookLM teaches a key lesson for doing credible innovation work:

Reece Rogers at WIRED reports in an excellent story how the feature came to be, what makes it great, and how to use it to create your own AI-voiced podcast.

[Source: Rogers, Reece. Wired (2024).]

The point for doing credible innovation work

Even the Google Labs team–innovators at an arguably already-innovative company–may not have known just how much this podcast feature would take off!

They appear not to have known that the podcast feature was a "transformational" addition.

Only once launched, was it “clear what the roadmap was afterwards,” Rogers quotes the leader of the NotebookLM team, Raiza Martin.

That’s key: ONCE launched. Not BEFORE it was launched. And, to be clear, that’s a great thing, not a knock on the team.

Why? Because no team ever knows 100% what users will love. That’s why you “must get out of the office,” to quote Steve Blank: Get out. Let users experience things. Pay attention. Adapt to what works!

The Google team launched features in which they already had reasons to believe, then carefully observed user reaction, then doubled-down on what worked.

So what?

Don’t insist on“being the experts on what’ll succeed.” Instead, seek out and listen to your users. They’ll let you know!

T.I.S.C.

Footnotes

Original story

Rogers, Reece. Wired (2024).

Disclaimers

External links for your convenience. I do my best to link to reputable sources. But I cannot guarantee or accept liability for 3rd-party links beyond my control.

I have no affiliation with or investments in organizations mentioned in case studies–nor do I ever unless explicitly called out.

The organizations mentioned do not endorse me in any way. Nor do I endorse them. These case studies are offered merely for general information purposes. They do not imply that certain choices or actions are effective or ineffective, either for the organizations mentioned or for you. Consult your own professionals before taking action on anything mentioned here.

I have received no incentive of any kind for mentioning or not mentioning organizations or for the perspectives I take. Opinions voiced above represent my subjective, editorial take, based on public data.

I use all third party content in accordance with "fair use," "open source," and similar permitted uses, to the best of my knowledge. Please contact me in case of legitimate questions.