I found 6 ways to improve the pioneering Rabbit R1 AI assistant
This is Part 2 in a series. To learn why Rabbit is important and how I got here, Read Part 1: Helping Rabbit for free until they hire me.
My Goals
Perform user testing and market research to answer these questions:
- How do people perceive the Rabbit R1 device?
- How do people plan on using it? What do they think it will be good for?
- What are their motivations and feelings surrounding the device and company?
My ultimate goal is to impress Rabbit’s team with my capabilities and get a job with them. As someone who has built a career around helping fast-moving teams launch new products in undefined areas, I am confident that I can bring value to their team.
🌟 It turns out that the CEO is letting me shoot my shot. Wish me luck!
Methodology
I conducted eight, one-on-one interviews via Zoom. I did not have access to an R1 device for this project. (Having a working prototype shouldn’t stop anyone from seeking product insights).
Half of the subjects had little or no knowledge of the device and the other half were pre-order customers. Customers were recruited from Rabbit’s Discord group, others were first or second-degree connections.
In my experience, qualitative research provides deep insights into user behavior, motivations, and feelings. Engaging directly with people helps build empathy and a deeper understanding of their needs, challenges, and experiences. It also offers the flexibility to explore new topics or questions that arise during the research process.
As Jacob Nielsen famously said in the context of user testing, the more people you talk to, the less you learn. For example, I stopped user-testing Rabbit’s website after talking to 3 people.
Disclaimer
I'm sure Rabbit's small team is resource-constrained and prioritizing tasks related to their imminent product launch. Many things that I noticed were not surprising and are likely already well-understood by Rabbit's outstanding team.
Regardless, I remain hopeful that the team will uncover some valuable insights. It is possible that my report could be of assistance in identifying high-impact, low-complexity items for further exploration.
Finding #1: Pre-order customers envisioned an inspiring array of ways that they think the Rabbit R1 could improve people’s lives
These findings reminded me of why I am such a fan of Rabbit’s mission and potential. I believe the company has an incredible opportunity to improve humanity across education, wellness, accessibility, research, social good, and so on.
Education
I want a customized learning plan to learn a new software language or a spoken language like Japanese. I tried Rosetta Stone but it felt very rigid and structured. Maybe if I had the Rabbit, it could teach me in a way that suits my interests […] like anime.
One University student said that in-person math tutoring hasn’t worked out. He is currently using a combination of perplexity, and ChatGPT with the Wolfram GPT. It doesn’t always work out — he would like to take a picture of the problem with the R1 and get an answer with an explanation.
He went on to talk about a Beta feature that was mentioned in the Rabbit Discord:
I’m very excited about the note-taking feature
So if I decide to take notes or listen, it’s like one or the other. So I prefer to listen now to at least remember and absorb information, then be focused on writing down notes. So hopefully this will be able to write down the notes while I actively listen.
He imagined the transcript would be saved in the “Rabbit Hole” or emailed to him.
Neurodiversity
Several people imagined that the R1 could help visually impaired people and one took it a step further:
I bought an R1 for a friend who is vision-impaired
One subject wondered if the R1 could help their neurodiverse child:
I have a child that is neurodiverse and we bought them a watch that had 6 timers on it to remind them of things they need to do.
Another subject shared that he has a sister with special needs and hopes that the R1 that he gifted to his parents could help his sister “close the gap” amongst her peers.
Diet
Several people were interested in cooking-related use cases. One subject shared that he was on a weight loss program and lamented all the time it takes him to manage it. He has to create a meal plan, break down the ingredients, scroll through pages and pages of his grocery store app, etc.
He imagined that the R1 would handle all this for him.
Mental Health
A subject shared some of his struggles with mental health sharing a recent example where he was unable to contact his therapist over the weekend. He wanted an AI companion to help him work through the issue through mindfulness exercises to ground himself.
Other Use Cases
One subject wanted the R1 to manage his small resale business. He would train the R1 on how to do a Facebook Marketplace using teach mode and then:
- Photograph the item using the R1
- The R1 would understand what the item is and create a new listing with the photos and an appropriate title and description
- Later, the R1 would handle customer inquiries like “Is this still available”?
I want it to level up my video game characters, […] so it takes away the boring parts of games
Someone enthusiastically cited a Wired article where Lyu mentioned teaching an R1 how to survive in the video game Diablo IV.
Recommendation #1: guide users to the R1’s superpowers
Users will dream up an endless amount of use cases for the R1. But it simply can’t be good at everything. Focus is required.
Every time Siri does one task well, it messes up the next 30. New users are left wondering how they should use the device.
This is an inherent problem with voice assistants. There are no pre-set menu options, or buttons to tap. Instead, you say whatever is on your mind and hope the device can do it. I call it “Say and Pray”.
Rabbit is doing a great job of managing user expectations. And, the LAM technology and teach mode should address shortcomings found in Gen 1 assistants.
But my concern is that once people get the device in their hands, they will start experimenting and get disappointed with the things that it can’t do well yet.
I don’t have the answers, but onboarding and engaging users sounds like a really fun product and design challenge.
Finding #2: The Rabbit R1 requires an investment to understand
The Rabbit R1 received a tremendous amount of Buzz, driving 5M keynote views and dozens of articles coming out of CES. Many people took the time to delve into the 30-minute keynote video and new reports. But, all the subjects that didn’t, found the device perplexing.
The Rabbit website is unclear
After viewing the Rabbit.tech website without prior knowledge of the company, three of my subjects could not understand the purpose of the R1.
Does the camera upload to Instagram maybe? The camera on the top right reminds me of the Instagram logo.
The landing page mostly listed technical specifications.
The only clues were “your pocket companion” and “a personalized operating system through a natural language interface”, but 3 subjects didn’t understand what this meant.
The Rabbit R1 teaser video was a little more helpful
A pre-order customer said:
The closest thing I’ve found to something simple was that very first video that they launched where everyone was holding a blurred-out version of the R1. And it was like, order me a ride… get me this food. I really like this recipe.
After viewing only the website and the teaser, one subject said:
I’m assuming it’s some kind of an artificial intelligence device that is your personal assistant. Maybe, you know, a better version of Siri.
Recommendation #2
✍️ Spend some time to nail the value prop and positioning. Once this is done, it can be used to help shape how the R1 is communicated to consumers.
Here’s a typical format for a positioning statement: For (Target Customer) that (Needs), our product is a (Solution) that (Benefit). Unlike our competitor, our product is (Unique Differentiator).
Apple’s Siri may look like this:
For technology users who value convenience and efficiency in their daily interactions with devices, Siri is a virtual assistant that provides quick, personalized, and hands-free help. Unlike other virtual assistants, Siri is integrated deeply into Apple’s ecosystem, offering a seamless and intuitive user experience across all Apple devices, leveraging the company’s commitment to privacy and security.
You aren’t going to find that in a Siri ad, but it could align Apple team members who need to talk about the product.
Finding #3: The Rabbit R1 is hard for customers to explain
Pre-order customers struggled to explain the Rabbit R1
Even people who invested hours watching Rabbit’s CEO explain his product struggled to answer my favorite question: “How would you explain this to a friend”?
It’s hard to summarize in 30 seconds or less
Others feared comparing it to Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa because people have been let down:
It’s tough to describe this product. You can’t say it’s going to be Siri 2.0 because that brings PTSD to a lot of people as far as like, no, I don’t want another Siri. I hate talking to that thing.
Some used sci-fi comparisons such as C3PO or Data from Star Trek:
Sometimes I say, “Jarvis in an orange cube”
Many referred to it as an assistant of some kind, such as this subject:
It’s an assistant that automates tasks — makes tasks streamlined and easier so you don’t have to do the legwork
another subject called it:
A supportive AI device that would aid you in quick tasks that you need to get done without a complicated UI
Several themes emerged regarding the perceived value of the device. It’s not just a personal assistant - it can perform tasks and it can learn from you. The device appears to be unconstrained by what apps happen to be supported by Apple or Google. And, unlike today’s voice assistants, it appears actually to work! Unsurprisingly, the R1’s bold design and simplicity were top on every customer’s list.
Recommendation #3
✍️ After nailing the value proposition and positioning, shape that into consumer-friendly language for communications.
▶️ Create a dynamic 60-second video that communicates the R1s positioning with real people, using it in real-world scenarios.
I can’t overstate the value of a short, well-executed video. At my last startup, I created “Real World MarioKart with RC Cars”. That hook got people’s attention, but it wasn’t I shot a sizzle video that people fully understood the experience. This video became my calling card and opened a lot of doors. The only thing I would change today would be to make it 45 seconds.
📱Review and adjust language across all consumer touchpoints (website landing page, FAQ, socials, business profiles, etc).
📄 Incorporate this language into tools such as an internal messaging document so internal and external team members can pitch influencers, journalists, and media.
Finding #4: Pre-order customers struggle to evangelize the R1
The first two findings are driving this issue.
Rabbit inspired over 75,000+ early adopters to pre-order the Rabbit R1. From my experience interacting with the community on Discord and interviewing several folks, they are ready to bend over backward to help make the company successful.
Every person I spoke to either purchased a second device for someone or tried to convince a friend to buy an R1.
Well, I’ve convinced my girlfriend to get one, and she was not on board at first. She’s like, that’s silly. I’m not into the AI thing.
▶️ Arm customers with the tools they need to spread positive word of mouth by creating content such as a teaser video natively tailored for key platforms (e.g. Web, TikTok, X, Podcast).
💡 Equip new customers to be successful salespeople. For example, promote the most valuable, differentiated, and performant use cases so customers can provide great in-person demos.
💡Enable your early adopters to feel like heroes. Add some delightful “party tricks” or meme-able features to the device. You did this correctly if the feature gets a huge reaction from a group of friends at a restaurant or bar.
🎁 Incentivize customers who are already in love with your brand with a program that rewards them with “money can’t buy” items such as exclusive merch.
Finding #5: the price is great, but some expect it to change
All interview subjects, regardless of their interest in the R1, thought that a $199 price point was a fair price for a “tech gadget”.
Pre-order customers felt that they didn’t have much to lose. Even if it only did a couple of things as advertised. The $200 Perplexity Pro credit made it a no-brainer.
Some subjects thought that a subscription may be introduced in the future and most were open to that, depending on the value delivered
If they do introduce a subscription, depending on how well it does its job, I might consider it, but a subscription is such a big turn-off for me […] because I don’t want to pay for something that I already bought
Finding #6: It’s unclear how the R1 will co-exist with your mobile phone
Comparisons to cell phones came up over and over for obvious reasons. This naturally raises concerns about the R1’s place in one’s life, necessity, and utility.
Recommendation #6
✍️ Clarify the positioning of the R1 concerning mobile phones. For example, in the R1 keynote, Jesse Lyu stated that mobile phones are for entertainment and social media. Meanwhile, the R1 gets stuff done for you.
This is brilliant, double down on it in marketing and communications.
One thing in your pocket is a time waster and the other thing is a time saver. One invites doom scrolling, and the other fosters being present. And so on. I can see the ads now!
What’s Next
I’m curious if you pre-ordered a Rabbit R1 and what you want to want to do with it. Let me know in the comments!
Watch my quest to get hired by Rabbit unfold in real time on X: @mauronic
