Pocket: Missed Opportunities
Despite being a loyal user of Pocket, I haven't been compelled to upgrade
I have used Pocket for ~7 years and have almost 1800 pieces of content saved. In the past few years, I’ve become a weekly active user. It’s where I store anything I want to remember from the internet, for either later reading, purchasing, making, sharing, and referencing. And yet, I’ve never been compelled to upgrade to the paid version.
This bums me out for a couple reasons:
I like supporting the products and companies I love but need to believe in the value of the paid version
I believe there are many ways to expand Pocket features and gate them so people like me will pay for it - such a missed opportunity!
Here’s a breakdown on how I would expand what Pocket does to grow its user base and drive more engagement. BTW, this is not a tear down — my critiques come from a loving place! After much time spent thinking about the lacking functionality, I thought it would be a fun exercise to break it down from my perspective as a product person and user.
Let’s keep their goal in mind: We're building a company that enables people to save and consume content that is worthy of both their time and attention.
First, let’s talk use cases, assumptions, metrics for success
Most of this post is based on my own use cases for Pocket (current and desired) and the BIG assumption I’m making is I am one of the core personas Pocket should care about.
Persona:
Female, tech-savvy, 30s, frequently pays for software products
Tech career, think: more Twitter/less TikTok 🤣
Avid consumer of books/articles for learning, on-the-job application, leisure, staying up-to-date with what’s happening in the world
Use cases (current):
I thought about my own behavior when it comes to Pocket and realized something interesting. Whenever I have a semi-familiar problem I’m trying to solve, I often visit my Pocket first, then Google. Why do I do that?
I believe that the things I’ve saved are high quality
I’ve already done the work to read them (probably) at least once and curate them
If you really think about this, that’s crazy. I visit my Pocket before Google! If I don’t find what I’m looking for, then I’ll go to Google and supplement. If I find new valuable articles related to the topic at hand, I’ll save those back to Pocket for next time.
Metrics for success
Based on Pocket’s goals and use cases, below are a few of the key metrics that I would prioritize and make improvements to increase.
Return rate to saved content: user retention
I chose returns to saved content over content saves for a key metric because I believe you truly unlock the value of Pocket when you actually revisit the material you’ve saved, not just in saving it. It’s an incomplete habit loop if you save things but don’t return to them.Annotation of saved content: user engagement
This indicates a deeper level of engagement with the content in Pocket and could include adding tags, notes, and highlights, or saving content to a particular list (one of the ideas up ahead). The goal of this metric is to drive the behaviors that make the content saved in Pocket even more valuable upon return.Sharing of saved content: user reach / acquisition
This final metric aims at bringing new users into Pocket or encouraging existing users to return for a new behavior (seeing what someone else shared). One critical improvement in Pocket functionality would be to drive people back to view other people’s Pocket “collections” (something that doesn’t exist today but I explore ahead).
Minimal improvements for my current use cases
Current state: Pocket is a poorly organized, not very searchable, dumping ground of many things I found on the internet
Dream state: A personal, curated library of internet things
Tag management
Tag management is important for the curation and discovery jobs of Pocket. The current tag capabilities are quite simplistic. A few semi-basic but powerful enhancements might look like:
Multi-tag search / filter
Being able to search for content by multiple tags would help me filter my own library. For example: I might tag something with “data” + “design” if it’s about data visualizations and I might tag something else with “design” and “leadership” if it’s about, well, design leadership. Being able to select multiple tags and see what content I’ve saved with that combination would be very powerful. The current state only allows one tag to be selected.
Also, currently, the search does not match the query to a tag — it matches the query to words in the title or in the body (premium). So if I search “design” and design doesn’t show up in the title and but I tagged with “design,” it wouldn’t show up. Tagging and discoverability improvements could warrant an entire separate post.
Bulk-tag management
With any product that gives you the flexibility to label and group data, things get messy. Here are all the tags I’ve created roughly related to design, product and UX:
user experience | usability | user research | UX design | UX research | product development | product | product management | design | research personas | buyer personas
😖 ^^ this upsets me a lot but there’s no easy way to bulk manage the tag mess I’ve created. I’d love to be able to combine tags and rename them into one new tag and move all content with one tag to another tag. You can apply tags to multiple pieces of content at once, currently.
Tag hierarchy
To better organize the tags (and therefore the content), I’d also like to organize tags hierarchically. The main goal would be to improve the visibility of the tags I’ve created and how they relate. The current view is just alphabetical, which means I’m constantly skimming and scanning up the list or having to search to know what tags I’ve already created — user research doesn’t show up close to design or product or research methods.
Saved Content Metadata
There is a lack of data in Pocket and therefore, there is a lack of filtering and analytics available to users. For example, you can’t tell when you’ve saved something, how many items you’ve saved, or filter by something like “source.” These improvements would help with content management.
Source
The only way to know the source of something you saved is by seeing the URL — and the URLs aren’t necessarily tabulated in anyway that you can then see everything that you’ve saved from say “First Round Review.” This would again help with content discovery and management.
Dates
I want to easily be able to see both when I saved something (honestly, I’m not sure why but I do often wonder about this) and the original publishing date of the piece of content. Currently, to get the publishing date, I have to click to the original content, which is frustrating. Why dates? Sometimes I want to see how outdated something is, particularly before sharing it.
Count per tag
Ok, this is mainly for some apparent form of OCD I have. I just want to know how many articles I’ve saved and also per tag. It’s like I know I have a ton of emails but I don’t know how many, so if I organize or read them, I don’t get the sense of progress or completion that I’m looking for.
Also, since I use articles as a way to learn skills for my work, there would be satisfaction in seeing that I’ve read 10 meaty pieces about design leadership if that’s a new skill I’m working to improve.
Analytics ideas
Lastly, there are no analytics about your behavior on Pocket. People love seeing data about themselves and I think Pocket analytics would appeal to people’s desire to be (and frankly, look) productive. Some ideas:
Number of pieces of content saved (organized by tag)
Hours spent reading on Pocket, either organized by tag or source (you’ve spend 5 hours reading articles from First Round Review)
Comparison metrics — you read X % more than the average Pocket user
Shares and rereads — how often you’ve shared or reread a piece of content
Top content — these are the top X items you return to most frequently
Expanding beyond the current use cases
Some of the behaviors that I have with Pocket, lend themselves nicely to expanded use cases that can make Pocket more than a “reading list.”
Pocket in its current state is a difficult to organize collection of the things you found on the internet. But with some strategic improvements, Pocket could become your curated view of the internet. It could become a valuable tool that helps you share resources, learn more effectively, and discover new content.
Here are some of my desired use cases for Pocket:
I want to easily share the resources I’ve saved
I want to remember key takeaways for the things I’ve saved
I want to see what other people have saved and curated for my own learning purposes
Let’s break down each of these use cases further.
Use case #1: I want to easily share the resources I’ve saved
Why?
To help someone with something (someone asks for advice on how to get into PM or how to run a design sprint)
To share my point of view on something I’ve read or share something valuable I learned
To share something to start a discussion, maybe with my team at work or my sister and husband
Current state:
I return to my Pocket and copy links into either an email, text, Slack, Medium article or Twitter, to share.
Frequency: Since I use Pocket heavily, I’m probably copying links out of Pocket on a weekly basis. Pocket currently has this capability but there are a few key issues:
The user experience of recommending content and viewing someone’s recommended content is not intuitive. There is also no incentive for me to recommend content within Pocket (no social interactions)
You can’t customize how your recommended content is organized
Ideas for how to enable this:
In addition to tagging content, you could publish it to a public list, organized by whatever theme makes sense for you — this would expand on what “curation” means within Pocket. It could look something like this when published:
(Huge caveat — I am NOT a designer but felt a visual would be a better way to show the value and power of something like this)
As a curator, I can publish the content I’ve saved to different “collections” with my own commentary.
Engaging with someone’s collection is like looking at their personal library and hearing their POV
With these additional capabilities there are new rich sharing and social interactions made possible:
Following a person and all the collections they post
Following a specific collection of content if it’s relevant to my interests
Liking, commenting, sharing, and saving individual pieces of content from someone else’s Pocket and also their collections of content
Use case #2: I want to see what other people have saved and curated for my own learning purposes
Why? As an avid learner and reader, I want to see what other people are reading and thinking when it comes to my areas of interests. This is one of the ways I expand my thinking, learn and grow.
Current state:
Twitter is the main source for this type of information. I used to frequent Medium but have found a lot of the content there to be redundant lately. I also ask people for resources (i.e. “do you have any good resources on understanding adult learning behavior”).
Ideas for how to enable this:
This would be the “consumer” view of the public list (see image #2 above). To have a successful curator / consumer view, you’d want the typical social interactions (liking, commenting, following, saving). The expanded social behaviors could theoretically allow Pocket to acquire users in a much faster and cheaper way (network effects). It also creates a new value proposition — even if your own Pocket doesn’t have a ton of content or isn’t well organized, you can find a lot of value in seeing what others have saved, curated and shared.
Use case #3: I want to remember key takeaways for the things I’ve saved
Why? I want to make it easier to remember what I learned from a piece or liked about it. I’ve already invested time into reading something so being able to take notes while reading, highlight the content, and add notes to highlights, would enrich the experience of consuming in Pocket and also make revisiting Pocket saves more valuable.
Current state:
Sometimes I use the highlights feature but the lack of annotation in Pocket, means I do any note-taking outside of Pocket. Often, annotations show up as the text around the links when I share, whether that’s via email, Twitter, etc.
Ideas for how to enable this:
There would be three levels of annotation/notes in my version of Pocket:
Leaving a note about the whole piece of content
Highlighting a piece of the content and annotating the highlight
Leaving a note on someone’s “public list”
This could 10x Pocket’s value proposition. By seeing all the notes you’ve taken, along with highlights and being able to sort and filter those, you have an annotated, curated view of your personal library.
The simplicity of being able to save any type of content, from anywhere is a powerful use case that Pocket does well. However, almost all the other Pocket capabilities leave something to be desired. Systematic improvements to the basic features of Pocket could pave the way for Pocket to fundamentally change how people curate content and engage with the content they’ve saved. These additional opportunities also introduce a new set of value props that could be a part of the premium membership. I know I’m biased but with these improvements, I would certainly be compelled to upgrade 😁.
In an age where more and more free content is published to the internet, Pocket could redefine how we save, share, and engage with content.
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This is so well articulated. Thanks for sharing your thoughts & ideas with us!
Hi Bhavika, came across your article several months ago while searching for how to improve Pocket. Great and most detailed / productive article that I've seen! Having felt similar painpoints, I decided to create my own product to Pocket. I'm about to launch and is looking for iOS beta testers. Would you by any chance be interested in checking in out? Leave me a note here or shoot me a message at sang.ha.park@outlook.com :) Thanks again! Best, Sang Ha