Using standup comedy frameworks to design your next product’s vision.

Nitya Kumar at UXDX Community: Using Comedy and AI Insights for Team Success. Video: https://youtu.be/bqm5i3YMNMg

Readable transcript: edited from the recording's captions for readability (fillers and false starts removed, punctuation and section headings added). Wording is the speaker's own. Timestamps are positions in the video. Names marked [?] could not be verified against the audio.

What comedians and product visions have in common

[00:00:00] Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. The previous session was really fun and I hope that you learn something from this one as well. I'm Nitya, I'm a product designer at Meta, and before Meta I worked at the New York Times. Today I'm going to be talking to you about a comedian a day keeps the product vision alive, and how we could use standup comedy frameworks to design your next product's vision.

[00:00:28] And I know what you're thinking: what do standup comedians and designing product visions have in common? We've all read the step-by-step guide of designing a product vision, that's rephrased in a lot of ways, starting with product motivation, the difference between product and vision, and strategy to get to the goal, getting buy-in from stakeholders.

[00:00:55] And yes, we design experiences, comedians write jokes that make you crack up with laughter. But in our hearts we know the root of both designing product visions and a comedian's mission is building an emotional connection with our users. And I'm sure a lot of you, including me, have seen Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, Joey from Friends or Hasan Minhaj and laughed a lot and felt emotionally connected to the topic they were speaking about.

[00:01:32] So what if I tell you we can build the same level of emotional connection with our users as these comedians have, using some of their techniques? Today we're going to go over four comedy techniques to build an emotional connection between our users and our products. We're going to go over anamnesis, therapeutic humor, euphemism and punchlines.

Anamnesis: you get me

[00:02:03] The first one is anamnesis, to recall something from the past. Comedians often use this technique to connect with their audience through personal experience. In product design this can translate into personalization. It gives the effect of, you thought of me, you get me.

[00:02:24] For example, Kevin Hart, in his set about middle school, recalled him sitting in math class and stated, 2 + 2, I don't know what that is. The audience felt connected to Kevin Hart as they all recalled their past experience of struggling at math.

[00:02:42] Spotify often uses this. In one of the experiences of Spotify Wrapped they use anamnesis to recall the user's past moods and songs as an end of year reflection. It takes the user down memory lane and makes them feel as if the app thought of them and understood them. So, how might our product remind users we are thinking of them, and our vision let users feel that we understand them?

Therapeutic humor: you help me be myself

[00:03:14] The second comedy framework that we can use while designing our visions is therapeutic humor, jokes based on genuineness and acceptance. Therapeutic humor is a type of humor that leaves a positive impact on the audience by valuing genuineness and acceptance. The jokes cracked show compassion and a non-judgmental attitude towards the audience. This gives the effect of, you help me be myself and I don't feel scared any more.

[00:03:45] For example, John Mulaney in his Netflix joke series says, I'm 35 and I'm still thinking when I'm going to get all big and strong. The audience starts laughing as they relate to the feeling. He increases trust by eliminating fear. The audience no longer fears looking a certain way at a certain age and feels connected to John Mulaney.

[00:04:11] Tinder often uses similar techniques in their automated messaging prompts. They use therapeutic humor in their automated messaging prompts to let users feel free and less scared to message new people, and make it easy for them. By adding these prompts, the users consent easily. This helps increase user trust while eliminating fear. So, how might our product's vision increase our users' trust?

Euphemism: it's the problem against us

[00:04:43] The third comedy technique is euphemism, which basically translates to taking the life out of life. Euphemism helps the audience have fun through life's problems by using soft, empathetic language. It is a mild word that is used in place of a harsher word when explaining something uncomfortable. This gives the effect of, we are on the same page, it's the problem against us, not the app against me.

[00:05:14] For example, in the TV show Friends, Rachel asked Joey if he stole Monica's award. Joey says, I'm not stealing it, I'm accepting it on her behalf. This made the audience burst into laughter.

[00:05:34] This experience can also be used in error messaging. Euphemism can be used to let users feel like the product is working together with the user to fix a problem. For example, instead of "no, try again", to say something like "get help here" is a nicer way to let users know of an error. We can use this concept while designing product visions by thinking, how might our product vision help users feel like it's the problem against us, that we have their best interests at heart?

Punchlines: I remember that, I trust you

[00:06:11] The next one is the punchline, a humorous, familiar statement. A punchline is a funny statement that becomes an inside joke between the comedian and their audience. It is something that helps build the comedian's brand identity, by having a statement that associates with the comedian. This gives the effect of, I remember that, I trust you.

[00:06:38] For example, Hasan Minhaj's punchline is "but what will people think". The comedian uses this as he tells stories about his Asian background, of his family members asking him, but what will people think if he doesn't become a doctor or marry someone within his own ethnicity? Soon, "but what will people think" becomes an inside joke with his audience, without him having to explain the story.

[00:07:07] Companies such as Morning Brew use this while writing content, assigning, for example, the word Brew to connect their content. Brew not only reminds users of a cozy cup of coffee, but also helps create an association in the user's mind with what the product is, and helps them trust the product as they recall the statement with ease. Other brands also may use punchlines for their mission statement, such as the New York Times says, we seek the truth. Even in their merch, "we seek the truth" is written without the logo and readers know we're talking about the New York Times. So, how might our product's vision statement help instill the feeling of connection to our product each time they see it?

[00:07:57] Some ways I've implemented these stories while creating product visions are using therapeutic humor to conduct vision brainstorming workshops with XFN. As a result, even engineering and non-design partners came up with fun design ideas that we could implement. It helps break the ice and get everyone involved. I've also used punchlines in thinking of naming different design systems.

[00:08:31] And with that you have a takeaway. When you go back into your design lives, I want you to think about how the comedy you surround yourself with helps you feel emotionally connected to the jokes crafted, and can you use some of these comedy techniques learned today to help you build a deeper connection with your users when you brainstorm your next product's vision? Yes, we can open the room to discussion. I know this is live, but feel free to ask questions.

Q&A

[00:09:03] Host: Great, I have a few questions here and more I know will come in, so let me just bear with this a moment. So, first question: what about if your brand is not humorous, or if your audience is humorous but your brand isn't? So I guess that's two questions. The first part is, what about if your brand is not humorous, how do you approach that?

[00:09:30] Nitya: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I feel like sometimes these techniques can be used in the back end. So when you're working with your team and you're trying to come up with your vision or your brand, even if it's not a humorous brand, it could be used just to get your team to be more collaborative, like when you're conducting workshops, the kind of questions you ask for your team to write points and give ideas.

[00:09:56] Host: Nice. And same situation if your audience is humorous but your brand is serious. How do you approach this?

[00:10:06] Nitya: Yeah, I think it depends on how you want to connect with your audience, because in this case you do want to follow your brand's mission, but you want to think about your audience being humorous as well. And so maybe finding a balance of it. It could be in the content, it could be when you're thinking of a high-level experience, that you can connect both parts, and thinking about how you can increase trust, comedy could help there as well.

[00:10:40] Host: Yeah, it's something that we've discussed quite a lot internally, because for us our audience are quite humorous and our brand is a little bit serious and, I like to say, friendly. So it's, how do you balance being authoritative but friendly? And one thing that we look at is maybe putting the human element, so Rory is the person who cracks the most jokes on the team, so we allow him a bit more freedom at an individual level over at the company level. But how do you do that? That's easy for a small company and a small team, but how do you do that when it comes to Meta, in terms of brand tone, brand voice and putting comedy in there? There must be a lot of brand guidelines to encounter.

[00:11:31] Nitya: Yeah, for sure. I think I mainly use this in my personal practice, when I'm trying to brainstorm ideas. I've also used this even when you're designing portfolios for yourself. It could help have a human element, as you're talking about, for your brand there too.

[00:11:52] Host: Yeah, no, great. And what blogs or resources do you use, I guess personally, for keeping up with this?

[00:12:03] Nitya: Yeah, that's a great question. So I use a few blogs. I really like reading from Niat[?], and I also recently just watch all the videos that interest me from like Config[?] and UXDX. In terms of comedy, this topic, I actually took this as a college elective in my senior year of college for the first time, and that's what introduced me to comedy. And everyone was like, you're wasting your time, and I was like, no, I want to learn something new, let's do this. And I did it, and I was like, oh my God, everything comedians do UX designers can learn from, and we kind of do too. So I think also just exposing yourself to different creative forms that are outside design can help with your design practice.

[00:12:54] Host: And have you used it in a workspace, not from a corporate space, but even to get a team member on side? How have you used comedy personally from a work perspective?

[00:13:07] Nitya: Yeah, again I think like in the kind of prompts that you use when you want to get people involved in sharing ideas and posting, and even in icebreakers. Those are like the little things that can help really come up with good ideas.

[00:13:25] Host: Yeah, that's nice. You could pitch it in with a solution tree session, to add a little bit more spice. No, it's just an interesting one of how to add it into corporate environments a bit more. We all are so focused on the outcome and the delivery that we don't incorporate fun and comedy into all of the work that we do. So for me it's nice to hear what you said and break it into different layers, from your own personal brand but also then the team and the processes that they use, and then obviously at a company level. So that was really insightful. And you mentioned content jams, but what tools do you use that's really good for putting this into practice?

[00:14:11] Nitya: Yeah, I mainly love FigJam. I recently even saw their AI feature which makes it easier to have all sorts of templates.

[00:14:24] Host: Nice, yeah, it's really good. And I guess, what's the best example that you've used or you've seen throughout companies of using good comedy that goes beyond the examples that you've seen, so from a corporate or company perspective? Have you seen any recently?

[00:14:46] Nitya: Yeah, honestly I think it just goes everywhere. Like when I was talking about New York Times and Morning Brew, I've seen those kinds of examples and mission statements in a lot of different companies. I've even seen one of my friends recently, he is making a journal app and he just got his first funding, and in that app he had a lot of different problems, and we were talking about comedy there to get people to open up and just have different types of journals and make that a personal experience. And so he started incorporating comedy in his new journaling app, which I thought was really cool.

[00:15:36] Host: Yeah, that is really nice. I love it. For me, ChatGPT writes all the jokes in the world for me now.

[00:15:40] Nitya: Funny, and you also got Rory.

[00:15:42] Host: Yes, well, yes. No, so, great, thank you so much for all of that. I really, really appreciated it. It was really insightful and I love the angle on it, so really, really great stuff. And keep in touch and I'll talk to you soon.

[00:16:00] Nitya: Yes, thank you for having me.