Slick: Running Product Research for a Gen Z Dating Feature
Interviewed founders and product managers across dating apps, synthesized findings into a memo, and drove feature implementation.
Abhisomya Sharan
GTM, Fundraising, PM etc at Orbitel Labs
From their time as
Founder's Office - Growth & Strategy
KNOT • 2023 - 2024
Overview
Abhisomya was part of the founder's office at Slick, a social networking app for Gen Z, during a period when the team was evaluating whether to build a dating product. His job was to understand what made trust work in dating apps and what features were worth building.
The Story
Abhisomya was part of the founder's office at Slick, a social networking app for Gen Z, during a period when the team was evaluating whether to build a dating product. His job was to understand what made trust work in dating apps and what features were worth building.
He ran a structured research process. He interviewed founders of dating startups and product managers from established dating platforms, including Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. The goal was to understand the design decisions behind their products and what implications those decisions had for a new entrant.
The conversations surfaced a non-obvious finding: a small structural detail in profile design created a significant trust layer that materially improved the gender distribution of the user base. He also learned how a competitor's icebreaker feature worked, using profile data to generate personalized opening messages for matches.
He wrote up his findings in a Notion memo, walking the team through each product he had researched, the user journeys behind specific features, and the implications for Slick's product. The memo led directly to feature decisions. The icebreaker feature, which he and the founder researched extensively by testing different AI models against real profile data, was implemented on the basis of his recommendations.