Riding the AI Shift at Decktopus

The situation

When generative AI arrived, every presentation tool was about to add "AI" to its homepage. Being one more name on that list would not be enough. We had to decide early what AI should actually do for our users, and how to say it so people would try it.

What I did

I started before the wave of AI wrapper tools hit the market. I dug into search data to see how people looked for help with presentations, and the same words kept coming back: "maker", "generator", "creator". That told us what people expected AI to do for them, so we built the AI features around those jobs: an outline generator, a slide maker, a slide writer. Then I owned the positioning and the launch, from the website to Product Hunt. On launch day we streamed our office live on Twitch around the clock, with the whole team launching on camera. People kept telling us how cool it was, and it is still one of my favorite days at work.

What I learned

Search data tells you what people expect from a product before they ever see it. And in a crowded launch, being memorable matters as much as being early.

What changed

The launch brought 1.5M new users in six months and set up the AI-first product Decktopus is today.