Teen iMessage Group Chats contain a treasure trove of growth & product development insights (yes…

Imagine being in a group chat with teenagers all day? Sounds crazy, right?

One of the best gateways to valuable insight for any company’s marketing and product strategy is understanding the end user or customer. The more you understand how your users think and make certain decisions, the better informed your macro and micro decisions will be. Here at Fam, we live by this philosophy, quite literally.

For over three years now my co-founder, Franco Iudiciani, and I, have “lived” in various teen- based group chats, some of which have been active for well over a year now, and it’s been a part of our other co-founder, Kevin Flynn’s product development cadence. Members of these group chats have ranged from 14 to 19 years of age, and hail from all over the United States. The average group chat has anywhere from 10 to 20 people. Given the sheer volume of texts the average teen sends per day in group chat, there is a treasure trove of information to be discovered.

Learning about our audience has been essential to Fam’s successful growth and product development. This kind of research can help a product strategy team (1) discover new trends for the target audience and stay in sync with those trends; (2) utilize an instant focus group to provide important insight in minutes; and (3) become more like the audience to understand what motivates them.

Discover new trends and stay in sync

Watching teens chat all day could not possibly deliver significant insight….right? Think again. In mid October 2016, Game Pigeon stickers began spreading like wildfire, shared by many members in the group chats we were observing. Initially, it didn’t seem significant, but soon the same people were using it increasingly day to day, and it became clear that this was a behavior we should pay attention to.

Game Pigeon is an iMessage app with a collection of casual games, such as Tic Tac Toe, Connect 4, 8 ball pool, etc. App users select a game, share it in an iMessage group chat, and begin playing with another individual. This insight, which came only one month after the iMessage App Store launched, led to Kevin’s vision for Fam. This knowledge helped us launch the Fam group video chat app and quickly grow to 1 million+ users in just a few weeks. Observing the way group chat members interacted with Game Pigeon helped us strategize and figure out how to draw users to our product.

Action item: Setup a framework for living in Gen-Z / young millennial group chats. It may sound weird at first, but to design and build a product for this young demographic, knowing them is a pre-requisite to providing a great experience. A great way to do this is to start a brand ambassador program and make participation in a communal group chat a requirement.

Get immediate feedback in the form of a ‘rapid’ focus group, or survey

iMessage Group Chat with 15 participants (including myself)

As an operator, when you think ‘focus group’ you probably think about challenges like scheduling, finding the participants, coming up with the questionnaire, incentives and compensation. A lot of time and resources are devoted to conducting focus groups or surveys, but the reward is feedback and insights necessary to further your efforts. The beauty of ‘being one’ with your user base is that conducting focus groups and surveys has never been easier.

For example, at Fam, we were in a meeting brainstorming for a marketing campaign and wanted a rough idea of what Netflix shows are relevant to today’s teens. Instead pausing the meeting, or scheduling a subsequent one once everyone has had a chance to survey several teens, we turned to a group chat of like-minded end users for immediate feedback. The screenshot below shows group chat members naming their favorite Netflix show. While our brainstorming meeting continued, I received seven responses in four minutes, and an eighth response five minutes later. Who would have ever thought Beverly Hills 90210 was still a thing? Also — look at how much time was saved!

We do not pay any of the users in these group chats, so this approach saved money as well.

Please note: By no means am I discounting traditional in-person focus groups and surveys. My goal with this guidance is to point out that with a little bit of creativity and thinking out of the box, you can form operational habits that will aid your product and marketing efforts in both subtle and significant ways.

Action item: Internalize your audience’s speech and tone from observing conversations, and then ask questions that are relevant to their lives. Setup a framework for living in these types of group chats, and immerse yourself into occasional conversations so members feel comfortable giving their honest opinion.

Become more like your target demographic!

This third and last point is the most important. Regardless of what kind of business you operate, tech related or not, understanding your customers is the end all, be all. Yes, there are different factors that go into understanding your audience, such as what trends appeal most to them today and what their opinion may be on a particular matter, but encompassing their personalities is what really allows your gut instinct to evolve, and thus your team’s decision making, to the benefit of the end users. This particular guidance may seem incredibly arbitrary, but that is why it is important to be maniacal with every habit you form in your everyday work routine. One my habits is participating in these group chats, both actively and passively, even if it makes me sound like I just turned sixteen years old. Plus, it gives me an excuse to improve my ‘Cup Pong’ iMessage game skills.

Participating in group chats with our target audience has been essential to our success, and any entrepreneur looking for an edge should consider this kind of immersive approach to understanding the end user.