🚀 How to deliver magical moments

3 tactics to deliver magical moments

🪄 Frontload the ‘wow’ twice

• Identify what makes the product special or better than alternatives (e.g. speed, convenience, insights, etc) in solving users' needs, desires, or pain points

• Redesign onboarding (e.g. remove distractions, fillers, or setup friction) to surface what’s special at the soonest—if value isn’t obvious early, adoption drops quickly

• Design for a second ‘wow’ moment that shows value again and builds habit (e.g. real-time team collaboration features after user engages with useful templates)

• The first converts by accident, the second retains on purpose

🔄 Make change as painless as possible

• Change is pain—minimize change as much as possible

• Embed into users’ current workflow as much as possible through auto-detect and preload configurations, prebuilt templates, plug-ins and integrations, etc. (e.g. email productivity tool that auto-detects Gmail threads and preloads templates) 

• Avoid major overhauls like code rewrites, new syntax, infrastructure changes, etc. unless absolutely necessary ​​(e.g. developer API adding features via backward-compatible extensions to prevent breaking existing code)

💡 Help finish something meaningful

• Ensure every new user builds something immediately, not eventually 

• Guide towards an output that:

  • Is complete and functional

  • Holds standalone value outside of the product

  • Reflects user ownership

• Examples:

  • A data ingestion tool → complete and fully running connector

  • A web app Platform-as-a-Service → deployed application with public endpoint

2 traps to avoid

🚨Shipping with missing must-haves

• Missing must-have features that users rely on severely (e.g. productivity shortcuts, muscle memory triggers) creates frustration

• Identify non-negotiables from users’ existing workflow or tools (e.g. command syntax, keybindings, runtime speed) 

• Match those expectations early in the user experience or communicate limitations clearly during onboarding

🚨Thinking magic moments are not needed for sales-led growth

• Buying decisions from the top ≠ adoption and usage 

• If end users don’t experience the product’s value quickly and easily, resistance builds even if leadership pushes it

• Ignoring end users’ buy-in risks slow adoption, low engagement and usage, and eventual churn

1 tool to leverage

📖 Best practice on delivering magical moments

• Aim to deliver at least a 2.5x better experience within the first 15 minutes of product use

• Leverage tools like Figma to prototype the experience

Bonus: 1 trend to spark startup ideas

📈 Insurance is ripe for an AI-native overhaul

• Property & casualty insurance premiums crossed $1T in 2024 but software spend remains under $30B

• Legacy systems can't keep up with climate risks, customer expectations, or compliance demands

• Insurance workflows are primed for AI automation

  • Structured data flows (policy documents, claim forms, repair estimates)

  • High repetition at scale (millions of similar claims every year)

  • Clear outcomes (approve, deny, pay X)

• Three high-growth opportunities with AI:

  • AI-first brokerages: Automating distribution, risk assessment, and quotations—replacing PDFs and phone calls with faster, cheaper, and more personalized coverage

  • Compliant communications: Drafting regulatory claims notices and ensuring precision—saving claims adjusters 4+ hrs/day

  • Catastrophe underwriting: Using real-time data from satellites, drones and IoT devices to assess risk, detect damage, and price coverage with greater speed and accuracy