No One Wants Ads on Their Fridge

At a Glance

• Samsung’s latest “innovation” is an $1,800 fridge that shows ads

• Smart features still fail without real user feedback

• Companies keep launching features no one wants

• AI is fueling the same mistake at scale

• True innovation starts with understanding customer needs

Hey folks,

We’ve all seen this before: a flashy new feature rolls out and somehow makes the product worse. It’s sold as innovation, but nobody asked for it.

This time, it’s Samsung.

Their latest “smart fridge” now shows ads… on the door.

– Jeff

Your $1,800 Samsung fridge will now serve you ads

Samsung recently confirmed that their Family Hub “smart” refrigerator (retail price $1,800) will show ads when the screen on the front door is idle. They claim this is innovation. I claim it’s bulls**t and I suspect you do too. Can you imagine installing your brand new, state-of-the-art refrigerator only to have it show you ads on the screen that’s supposed to show, well, whatever a “smart” refrigerator screen is supposed to show?

Once again we find ourselves with a feature that no one asked for, no one wants and will undoubtedly hurt sales of the product. Why does this continue to happen? The answer is simple: a lack of customer-centricity and greed.

Serving customers means understanding them

I suspect the Family Hub refrigerator is actually a decent appliance. Generally speaking Samsung products work well at their core function. It’s when they try to expand beyond those core functions with “smart” and “innovative” new features that we run into trouble.

Years ago I was at a Super Bowl party at a friend’s house. He had just bought a brand new Samsung Smart TV and was eager to show it off. As the roughly 30 party-goers gathered at his house to watch the big game the TV began to behave strangely. It would change the channel, increase and decrease the volume or change a setting. No one could understand why at first. We quickly realized the TV came with “voice command” functionality. This means that you can yell at your TV to do certain actions. What it doesn’t account for is a room full of people talking, cheering and generally, you know, having a good time at a party.

It’s not clear to me in what world voice command makes sense for a TV but, at the very least, you would have thought Samsung product designers and engineers would have tested this “innovation” in a few core, common scenarios.

The same holds true for the fridge. When they showed the screen full of ads to would-be consumers, did they fall over themselves to pre-order it? When they talked to customers about the idea of putting ads on a screen, did they say this was something they wanted in their refrigerator?

They didn’t. You know why? Because they were never asked and the product was never tested.

There isn’t a customer in the world who would want to pay $1800 to put a digital billboard in their kitchen. This is simply an attempt to drive yet more revenue from this product line.

This will only get worse…before it gets better

We are in the midst of the biggest technological revolution since the smart phone. The AI frenzy is undoubtedly going to exacerbate the problem of products with features no one asked for or needs.

This AI arms race is impacting every industry and in the overwhelming number of cases, these rushed initiatives with no proven customer need are delivering exactly zero value – to the consumer and to the business.

LinkedIn is now opting every user in by default to using their profile and content to train its AI models. If I was a gambling man (and I’m not) I wouldn’t bet that users are flooding LinkedIn’s customer support channels with requests to have their content repurposed for the greater good of…LinkedIn.

The list of examples here goes on and on.

Technology, customers and profit can all go hand-in-hand

I am a huge believer and proponent of technological innovation. I believe in its power to transform human experiences for the better.

Companies can exploit these new technologies, like AI, and evergreen as well as newly developed human needs to create amazing products, services and experiences that actually provide real value. And it’s from that value delivered to the market that the company can extract value for itself. Everybody wins.

The only way this happens is by understanding customers and their needs. “How can new technologies provide a better product or service?”

That’s a great question to ask rather than, “How can we use these new technologies to squeeze ever more money out of our customers?”

You already know when you’re working on a feature nobody asked for. Rather than just blindly building it, now is the time to stand up and say:

“No one wants ads on their fridge.”

What I’ve Been Up To

I’ve spent the better part of September ramping back up after nearly 6 weeks of vacation this summer. Over the course of my summer vacation I drew inspiration from my co-founder and long-time business partner (and friend) Josh Seiden to immerse myself in the world of AI. I learned a ton and emerged energized and full of new ideas. Not only that I am motivated to build again, in a way that I haven’t felt in a few years. 

This is all manifesting as updates, improvements, and additions to Sense & Respond Learning. We’re growing our trainer network as well as our training offerings, incorporating what every product manager, designer and team leader needs to know about building AI-powered products. You can see everything we offer here and see a list of all of our upcoming public classes here. 

Free Webinar: OKRs, Nudges & the Science of Behavior Change

📅 October 23
🎙️ With me, Josh Seiden, and special guest Rich Visotcky

We’ll explore how behavioral nudges shape customer (and team) behavior, and how OKRs can go wrong without them.
👉 Register here

On the personal front, my wife and I are entering a new phase of our lives as empty nesters. We dropped our youngest at university about a week ago and are getting used to the silence back at home. It’s a transition for sure filled with a lot of new opportunities and, of course, a bit of sadness.

Read, Watch, Listen

What I’m Listening To

Arc de Soleil– continuing in the vein of Khruangbin and similar artists, Arc de Soleil takes mellow, groovy guitar riffs to an ethereal level. What I particularly like is that his songs are melodic, even if there aren’t any lyrics.

What I’m Reading

The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington – What started off as the most read essay the Economist had ever published has turned into a perennial bestseller about the roots and causes of global order, chaos and conflict. It’s not an easy read but I particularly enjoyed the clear differentiation in the opening chapter about the concept of civilization (singular) and civilizations (plural). If you’re a global politics fan, this is a worthwhile book to explore.

What I’m Watching

Invasion (Season 3 on Apple TV+) – If you’re a long-time reader you know that I can’t resist sci-fi shows. Invasion is no exception despite its slow burn and minimalist treatment of the actual aliens in the storyline. Now in its third season the aliens-invade-earth-but-we’re-not-sure-why drama (with occasional action) starts to reveal some key plot elements that we’ve wondered about since the show first aired. Watch this if you love sci-fi for the impact on humans more than for the wild imagining of alien life and worlds.

As always if I can help you or your company in any way please don’t hesitate to reach out. Just hit reply on this email and let me know how I can help.

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