The smartphone you hold in your hand is the result of an endless array of choices. They are the answers to questions about design, function, pre-installed applications, new features and old ones. It’s all things that add up to your experience, the customer experience.
If there’s one person who focuses on what it’s like to use a new Samsung Galaxy Z fold 5 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, for example, it’s Patrick Shomet, Samsung’s VP and Head of Customer Experience.
Shomet, who sat with me at Samsung Unpacked in South Korea, focuses on product design and feature experiences, as well as the choice of features, apps, and partnerships that help make them.
“We’re proud to be able to say, ‘I want the best music.’ So we have to work with Daniel Ek at Spotify,” Shomet said.
Work closely with design and product teams. Shomet helps define products and manage key partnerships, such as the one with Google. While Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones competes with Google’s Pixel line, the two companies have thousands of employees working together.
Plus, as two very large companies, it’s pretty easy to tell apart the parts that shouldn’t be talking.
“We like to compete,” Shomet smiled, “We call it co-competition.”
Competition versus rationalization
But that competition has sometimes led to confusion. Many Android partners, such as Samsung, produce dual core apps for Messages, Web Browsing, Photos, and Email, for example. How does allowing those things continue the relationship and “co-competition”?
“10 to 15 years ago, Android was the main operating system for many OEMs, and it’s fair to say that many OEMs tried to reproduce each app to differentiate themselves,” Shomet told me. “That phase is over,” he said, “Differentiation is not being different, differentiation is being better.”
1There is an abundance of great ideas, but “much more than the customer can understand or marketing can market,” he said.
Samsung is now focusing, Shomet said, on assets where they have something customers want. “In the future, we will see more rationalization.” He pointed to examples such as Chrome now being the default browser on US devices, and the integration of RCS into messaging, a charge Shotet personally led.
That said, there will still be instances where Samsung and Google both have a thing. All Samsung Galaxy phones currently come with both Google Assistant and Bixby. Shomet said if you have more Samsung devices you get more out of Bixby and if you have more smart Google devices then Assistant might be your choice. In other words, there is a reason why they can coexist on your Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Serial killer
Shomet’s job includes identifying the right features or partners to bring in, as well as what needs to be left out.
“I have a weird job here,” Shomet said. “Sometimes I’m called the ‘serial killer’. My core innovation is mostly killing,” Shomet laughed. However, it is an important role. There’s an abundance of great ideas, but “much more than the customer can understand or marketing can sell,” he said.
Shomet focuses on what is meaningful to people, which is easy if you follow what they’ve been doing.
Many of the choices that Samsung makes or that Shomet guides are based on anonymized customer telemetry, which is collected through the usage data of Samsung account holders.
For example, they know that Samsung users use Samsung Notes on their Galaxy phones, so Samsung invests in that. Likewise, Samsung account holders are big Samsung Smart Thing users, so that’s where investments are made.
When not to change
However, I wondered how Samsung and Shomet’s interpretation of user needs was in sync with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the lack of changes compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4. I offered Shomet my theory, that the foldable market is so small that , for most people, the category is entirely new. Why anticipate customer needs that you don’t even understand yet?
“You’re right,” Shomet said, adding, “Most people, you’re right, will be new users, so they’re looking at this thing in itself.”
Shomet also defended the lack of feature updates, explaining that what Samsugn did was based on customer requests.
“The feedback from existing Fold users is there are no issues, great device, we love it, ‘please guys keep doing it.’ Second, “Can you make it thinner and lighter?” which we did. Third, “Can you improve the speed?” what we did with CPU.”
There were also requests around productivity and software, which have received a number of usability updates.
“We need to change what needs to be changed,” he said.
Follow an innovation trajectory
However, Shomet wanted to make it clear that the product teams are not simply picking and choosing new directions with each product iteration. The arc of Samsung’s vertical product development is long and, it seems, crystal clear.
There is an identity and direction for every Samsung product category for the medium to long term, Shomet said, outlining the main identities for each of Samsung’s current core categories:
- Galaxy Buds: perfect fit and intelligent audio
- Galaxy Watch: fashion, health and sleep
- Galaxy Z Fold Fold: productivity and big screen viewing
- Galaxy Z Flip: fashion and personalization
“We’re investing in a very clear product direction, so it’s not ‘sleep this year’ and something else after that. We don’t change identities every year, which makes it easier for people to say, ‘Which direction should I innovate in?'” Shomet explained .
Sometimes the innovation is not quite ready or it is slow to get going. Shomet held up the new Galaxy Z Flip 5 and said, “I’ve wanted this for five years.”
However, what Shomet envisioned wasn’t a foldable device, it was an ultra-compact, square phone with a single screen. Shomet acknowledges that they didn’t do it because it didn’t work as a product.
“Three years later, we have that concept of the compact device. When the technology is ready, it will make sense,” Shomet said, holding up the Flip 5 again and smiling, “I feel justified, I told you we were a compact device. need. “