Sample readout
This is an example. Quillbee is a made-up AI meeting notes app and these 20 interviews are illustrative, written to show what a WentWith readout looks like after one pilot month. A real readout uses your own users' words.
The headlineQuillbee isn't mainly losing to Granola. It's losing before users ever see a summary. Fix the first meeting and the comparison with rivals gets a fair start.
Every interview starts with one question: what are you using instead? The answer is rarely just a competitor.
| Went with | Type | Interviews |
|---|---|---|
| Granola | Named rival | 5 |
| Didn't switch (old habits or nothing) | Nothing / old habits | 5 |
| Fathom | Named rival | 2 |
| Otter | Named rival | 2 |
| Zoom's built-in summaries | Workaround | 2 |
| ChatGPT with pasted transcripts | Workaround | 1 |
| Google Meet's built-in notes | Workaround | 1 |
| A Slack bot the team built | Built in-house | 1 |
| ChatGPT, occasionally | Workaround | 1 |
Each interview is coded to the decision that failed. Each one has a different owner and a different fix.
4 of 20
"I was just curious."
No real struggle pushed them to look. These are targeting misses, not product misses.
Fix targeting: stop counting launch-day tourists as lost trials.
9 of 20
"I never got it working."
The struggle was real, but they never reached a first summary, so they never judged the product.
Fix onboarding and time to first value.
7 of 20
"It worked, but we went with something else."
They saw the value and still chose another option, usually one already paid for.
Fix positioning, team buying and the case for switching.
Grouped by the pattern behind each story, largest first.
They signed up with a real need, connected a calendar, and the notetaker failed to join their first calls. They never saw a summary, so they never saw the product.
"I set it up on Monday and by Wednesday it still hadn't joined a single meeting."
"It kept saying 'no meetings found' and I had six calls that day."
Went toGranola (2), Fathom, Otter, Zoom's built-in summaries, Handwritten notes
Quillbee worked for them, but notes are shared. A teammate or manager was already paying for something else, and one person can't switch a team alone.
"It was great, honestly. But my manager said we already pay for Granola and he wasn't adding another tool."
"The whole company moved to Otter the same week. I wasn't going to fight that."
Went toGranola (2), Otter, Fathom
No meeting-notes problem pushed them to look. They clicked through from a launch post or newsletter and left without a job for the product to do.
"I was just curious what it did. I don't really have that many meetings."
"It looked cool in the newsletter. I never really had a problem with my notes."
Went toNothing new (3), ChatGPT, occasionally
They hesitated to let a visible bot into calls with customers or candidates, so they tested it on internal meetings only or not at all.
"Two prospects asked 'who is Quillbee?' and that was the end of it for customer calls."
"I need to control where the recording goes. Pasting it myself feels safer, even if it's clunky."
Went toGranola, ChatGPT with pasted transcripts, Her own notes
The meeting platform they already pay for started summarizing calls. Quillbee was better, but not better enough to be a second bill.
"Meet started doing it for free. Quillbee was better, just not $20-a-month better."
"For agency check-ins, Zoom's summary does the job."
Went toGoogle Meet's built-in notes, Zoom's built-in summaries, A Slack bot the team built
To pay, a trial user has to change what they believe, one shift at a time. Each interview is coded to the first shift they didn't make. 4 of 20 never started, because no real struggle brought them in (Act). The other 16 entered the ladder below.
Access
“I'll give it a try”“It works in my setup”
Granola (2), Fathom, Otter, Zoom's built-in summaries, Handwritten notes
16 reached
6 stalled
Safety
“It works in my setup”“It's safe to use for real work”
Granola, ChatGPT with pasted transcripts, Her own notes
10 reached
3 stalled
Proof
“It's safe to use”“It does the job better than my current way”
No one stalled here
7 reached
0 stalled
Worth
“It does the job better”“It's worth paying for, on top of what I have”
Google Meet's built-in notes, Zoom's built-in summaries, A Slack bot the team built
7 reached
3 stalled
Team
“It's worth it to me”“My team will use it too”
Granola (2), Otter, Fathom
4 reached
4 stalled
9 of the 16 who entered stalled in the first two shifts, before they could judge whether Quillbee was better. No one stalled at Proof: everyone who got it working in a real meeting saw the value.
Every switch is a contest between forces that move people forward and forces that hold them back. They pair up by what they're about: the situation, the outcome, and the solution. The counts show how many interviews named each force; the quotes are a sample.
The situation
Problems with the old way that pushed them to look
Comfort, preference or loyalty that held them where they were
The outcome
The progress they wanted to make
The outcome they wanted to avoid
The solution
What attracted them to what they chose
Worries about Quillbee or about switching
All six forces in one sentence, one per segment. Each should sound like something these users would say about their own week. These are the briefs for onboarding, positioning and the next round of copy.
The bot never made it into a real meeting6 of 20
When back-to-back customer calls fill the week, the founder or seller struggles with remembering what was promised on each call, and would switch to a notetaker that joins every call with no setup, so they can send accurate follow-ups the same day, if it shows up reliably without needing access to their whole calendar, and they could avoid looking unprepared in front of customers.
The team already had a notes tool4 of 20
When a teammate or manager already pays for a notes tool, the individual user struggles with handing off call context to the rest of the team, and would switch to the tool the team already uses, so they can keep every note in one shared place, if switching doesn't mean leaving their own notes behind, and they could avoid being the one person on a different tool.
Uneasy about a bot joining customer calls3 of 20
When calls involve customers, partners or regulated work, the sales or partnerships lead struggles with keeping consistent notes, and would switch to a way to capture calls with no visible bot, so they can share accurate notes with the team, if nobody on the call feels recorded without being asked, and they could avoid breaking a partner's recording policy.
Built-in summaries were good enough3 of 20
When their meeting platform starts summarizing calls at no extra cost, the manager struggles with justifying a second notes bill, and would switch to the built-in summary that needs no setup, so they can get good-enough notes with zero effort, if the quality gap doesn't matter for internal calls, and they could avoid another login and another expense to defend.
Ranked by how many lost trials each change would have reached, and how cheap it is to try. Each one targets the shift where those users stalled.
Shift 1: Access
6 of 20 never got the bot into a real call. Add a test meeting during setup, read Zoom links from event notes as well as the location field, and fix Outlook sync. This is the cheapest win in the readout.
Shift 2: Safety
3 of 20 wouldn't let a visible bot near customers. A local-capture mode, or a clear consent message sent before the call, removes the objection that sent them to Granola and to pasted transcripts.
Shift 5: Team
4 of 20 liked Quillbee and lost the internal vote to a tool the team already paid for. Add teammate invites during the trial, shared notes, and a HubSpot sync, and price the pitch around replacing a seat.
This is what lands in the founder's inbox after each interview. Here are three, one from each of the largest segments. Open any record to see the detail.
Connected Google Calendar on day one; the bot missed both investor calls that week. A friend showed him Granola working on a call and he installed it that night.
"I set it up on Monday and by Wednesday it still hadn't joined a single meeting."
Typing notes into Notion during calls
Losing details from investor calls
Walk out of every investor call with the follow-up already written
Forgetting what an investor actually asked for
Saw Granola work live on a friend's call
Missing another important call
Used Quillbee daily for a week. Company-wide Otter rollout landed before the trial ended.
"The whole company moved to Otter the same week. I wasn't going to fight that."
Action items in a spreadsheet
Ops meetings with no action items
Every ops meeting ends with clear owners
Paying out of pocket for a work tool
Company-wide rollout already decided
Paying personally for a work tool
Wasn't comfortable with a third-party bot in calls that touch patient workflows. Records locally and pastes transcripts into ChatGPT.
"I need to control where the recording goes. Pasting it myself feels safer, even if it's clunky."
Local recordings in a folder
Investor and partner calls piling up
Partner calls captured without slowing him down
A compliance question he can't answer
Control over where data goes
Compliance questions from partners
Her calendar has external Zoom links in the event notes, not the location field. The bot never found them. Granola didn't need the link.
"It kept saying 'no meetings found' and I had six calls that day."
Recording voice memos after calls
Writing follow-up emails from memory
Same-day follow-ups that quote what the buyer said
Sending a follow-up that gets the details wrong
Granola works from the laptop, no link needed
Looking unprepared on follow-ups
The bot joined one call late, after the important part. He tried Fathom's free plan the next morning and it joined on time.
"It showed up eleven minutes late, after the customer had already said the thing I needed."
Copying call notes into HubSpot by hand
Handoffs to the support team missing context
Handoffs where support already knows the account
Customers having to explain themselves twice
Fathom's free plan joined on time
Customers repeating themselves
Uses Outlook; the calendar sync silently failed. Support replied after the trial ended. IT already had an Otter license he could request.
"By the time support answered me, my trial was over and IT had already given me Otter."
Taking notes in OneNote
Research calls with no record
A searchable record of every research call
Building on a half-remembered user quote
Otter license already approved by IT
Asking IT for yet another tool
Bot didn't join her first two interviews. Her company's Zoom plan added AI summaries the same month, so she stopped trying.
"I didn't have time to debug it. Zoom just started doing summaries anyway."
Scorecards filled in after the day ends
Writing up candidate feedback late at night
Candidate feedback done before the day ends
Late-night write-ups after a full day of interviews
Zoom summary already in her account
Candidates noticing a failed bot
Calendar connection asked for permissions he didn't want to grant on a shared founder calendar. He skipped it and never got a summary.
"It wanted access to everything on the shared calendar, so I just didn't connect it."
A paper notebook he likes
Too many calls to remember
Keep up with calls without hiring help
Handing an app the keys to the shared founder calendar
Nothing in particular
Giving an app full calendar access
Used it on internal standups and liked it, but law-firm prospects asked who the bot was. Switched to Granola because nothing joins the call.
"Two prospects asked 'who is Quillbee?' and that was the end of it for customer calls."
Notes in the CRM after each call
Inconsistent notes across the sales team
One consistent set of notes across the sales team
A prospect feeling recorded without being asked
No visible bot on calls
Prospects thinking they were being recorded without asking
School district partners have strict rules about recording. She never turned the bot on for the calls that mattered.
"Half my calls are with school districts. I'm not putting a bot in those."
Shorthand notes in Google Docs
Partnership details getting lost between calls
Partnership details that survive between calls
Breaking a school district's recording rules
Nothing in particular
Breaking a partner's recording policy
Loved the summaries. When she asked her manager to pay, he pointed out the AE team already had Granola seats.
"It was great, honestly. But my manager said we already pay for Granola and he wasn't adding another tool."
Sharing notes in a Slack thread
Call notes not reaching AEs on handoff
Handoffs the AE can act on without asking her
Being the one rep on a different tool
Team already on Granola
Being the one person on a different tool
Summaries were better than Fathom's, but Fathom pushed notes into HubSpot and the team lives in HubSpot.
"Your summaries were better. But if it doesn't land in HubSpot, nobody on my team reads it."
Team checks HubSpot before every call
Account context scattered across tools
Account context waiting in HubSpot before each call
Two sets of notes nobody reconciles
Notes sync straight into HubSpot
Duplicate notes in two places
His co-founder had been using Granola for months. Shared notes mattered more than which app was slightly better.
"My co-founder already had a year of notes in Granola. Mine needed to be next to hers."
Weekly founder sync over shared notes
Two founders, two versions of every call
One shared history of every customer call
Losing a year of his co-founder's notes
A shared history of notes
Losing old notes in a migration
Workspace admin turned on Meet's note-taking mid-trial. It covered 80% of what he needed at no extra cost.
"Meet started doing it for free. Quillbee was better, just not $20-a-month better."
Meeting notes in Google Docs
Standups with no written record
A written record of standups at no extra cost
Defending another line on the software bill
Already included in Google Workspace
Justifying another expense
Mostly internal meetings on Zoom. The built-in summary was good enough for agency check-ins.
"For agency check-ins, Zoom's summary does the job."
Follow-up emails written from memory
Agency calls with unclear next steps
Agency calls that end with clear next steps
Another login to manage
Zero setup, already in Zoom
Another login to manage
An engineer wired a transcription model into Slack over a weekend. Rough, but free and theirs.
"One of our engineers built a version in a weekend. It's rough, but it's ours."
Decisions logged in Slack threads
Design reviews with lost decisions
Design decisions captured where the team already works
Sending code discussions to an outside vendor
Free and customizable
Sending code discussions to a vendor
Clicked through from a launch post to see the AI. Doesn't run many meetings.
"I was just curious what it did. I don't really have that many meetings."
Few meetings to begin with
None
None
None
Curiosity about the launch
None
Signed up after a newsletter mention. Bills by the hour and takes notes as part of the work.
"It looked cool in the newsletter. I never really had a problem with my notes."
Notes are part of billable work
None
None
None
Newsletter recommendation
None
Collecting AI tools for a list of startup resources. Never used it on a call.
"Honestly I was making a list of AI tools for my cohort."
No regular meetings
None
None
None
Building a resource list
None
Tried it once on a recorded webinar. Uses ChatGPT for the rare summary she needs.
"I needed one summary, once. ChatGPT does that fine."
Rarely needs meeting notes
One webinar to summarize
A quick summary of one webinar
None
ChatGPT already open all day
None
Take the two-minute interview yourself, then apply for one of 10 founding seats. The pilot month runs January 5 to February 1, 2027.