[MUSIC PLAYING]
Rachid: Welcome back to the "Made by Google" podcast.
I'm your host Rachid Finge.
And this is the final episode of season two.
And it's an important one.
But before we start, make sure you subscribe to the podcast
so you can hear past ones.
And you'll also be ready for the upcoming season three
kicking off not too long from now.
So today, we're talking Pixel, how it started, how it's going,
and how AI sets Pixel apart from the rest.
And we have the perfect guest with us today.
Joining me is a product manager on the Pixel team.
Let's say hi to Shenaz Zack.
Shenaz, welcome to the "Made by Google" podcast.
Please tell us a little bit more about your role and how you ended up here.
Shenaz: Thank you, Rachid.
I am thrilled to be on the "Made by Google" podcast.
And currently, I lead the Pixel software, PM, and UX team.
Well, if I tell you how I ended here, it's a very
long journey, and a long, winding road.
And it will take the full podcast.
We can skip that.
I've been at Google for over 16 years now.
And I thoroughly, absolutely enjoy working on Pixel software
primarily because it aims to deliver experiences
that can make your day-to-day problems into helpful experiences.
And I personally really enjoy solving problems.
Rachid: Wonderful.
We'll get to how Pixel helps solving problems.
Now, regular listeners of the "Made by Google" podcast
know that we have this internal directory at Google,
where you can look up everyone in the company.
And then, there is this, like, motto or mission statement
that every person can have up there.
And yours is, "precious Pixel perfectionist."
Please tell me a little bit more about that.
Shenaz: Sure.
I did write that a little while ago.
But I have to say, I joined the Pixel team on the day of Pixel 1 launch,
which was October 4, 2016.
My daughter's birthday is on October 4, was very, very precious to me.
And we've been launching phones on October 4 for a couple of years now,
a day on or off.
Pixel also has become extremely precious to me.
And as the Pixel is designed to deliver, again,
like I said earlier, a level of personal intelligence
that helps you with your day-to-day problems,
I kind of want to be a perfectionist in helping you do that.
So I aim for higher for me and the team.
And also, "Lord of the Rings" is one of my favorite movie series.
And in that movie, the ring is very precious, especially for Gollum.
So the Pixel is very precious.
My mother calls my Pixel my oxygen. She's like,
you cannot be without your phone.
Can you?
So I put my motto as "precious Pixel perfectionist."
Rachid: Today's guest is a longtime Googler
who joined the Pixel team the same day the very
first Pixel phone was launched.
Shenaz Zack started out working on YouTube,
and then moved on to search, Android, and finally on that fateful day
in October 2016, the Pixel team.
Shenaz thrives on making Pixel evermore useful by listening closely to what
people tell us Pixel should do next.
As you'll hear, it's perhaps not technology itself that excites Shenaz.
It only excites her when it can fix problems that people
in their real world face every day.
I hope you'll enjoy the final conversation of this season
of "Made By Google" podcast.
I'm just wondering, Shenaz, what do you remember about that very,
very first Pixel launch.
Shenaz: Oh.
It was so exciting.
So I was on another team that was delivering something for Pixel as well.
And it was extremely exciting to launch this new phone.
I remember, I can visually still remember the hardware design of it.
And apart from the euphoria, that I still
remember of launching this device for Pixel, the excitement for me of joining
the team and being like, wow, this is so much more
that we can deliver with the phone.
And this is just the start.
Rachid: And it was.
And people already loved the camera back then.
It was well received.
Now, you blink your eyes twice.
Suddenly, we're at the seventh generation
of smartphones, Pixel smartphones.
What do you think differentiates Pixels today?
Shenaz: I will say that it's fair to say we've
learned a lot over the last few years.
And beginning in 2021 with Pixel 6, you saw a huge advancement
in Pixel phones built with Google Tensor,
our custom designed SOC that brings AI right to the center of Pixel
experience.
And with our seventh generation, which we're referring to as Pixel 7 Pro,
you can really see the benefits of bringing
together our foundational technologies, AI, Android, and Google Tensor.
Over the years, listening, learning from our users, and as you rightfully said,
the camera is still amazing and leading and helps
you capture the right moment at the right time of the people
you care with amazing photography.
Or also, like erasing people or photobombers from that picture
that you want to share.
And I just did that for my son's prom.
He had gone for the prom.
And he shared pictures with me.
And I was like, oh, these just don't look right.
Let me help fix them for you.
Rachid: That's amazing, you helping him with that.
That's wonderful.
Shenaz: But once, like, you know, it's a teenage boy.
He was, like, yes, Mom.
Thank you.
I love Pixel too.
So again, there's so many helpful features.
Another one for me personally is Call Assist.
Helping our users when they're calling.
Because it is a phone. Pixel is a phone.
People forget that. It's a phone.
You still use to make phone calls with the phone.
With call screen as part of Call Assist is ignoring the people
you don't want to speak to, or spammers, like helping with spammers.
I will say, I do call screen my kids as well sometimes.
Rachid: Oh, really?
Shenaz: Because when they're calling me three times, I'm like,
why are you calling me?
And they will say why they're calling me.
And I'm like, OK.
I don't have time to answer right now.
So they call me.
And go Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, answer.
But another feature that I do want to talk about is translate.
I'm bilingual.
I speak a lot of languages.
And so last year, we launched a feature called Live Translate,
or I think the year before. I forget.
But we keep working on it.
Where you can translate, apart from speech also chat.
So like if you're on a chat and if you're
bilingual, for me, my mother-in-law or my school school friends to forward me
messages in Hindi, which I do know how to read.
But it takes me a longer time to read.
Responding takes me longer as well.
But now with Live Translate, right in that chat, I can see the translation
and respond in that language.
So again, it's going back to how do we help turn day-to-day problems
into helpful experiences?
Rachid: Just wondering, how do you decide in which area
you're going to work to make Pixel helpful for people?
I mean, there's, I'm guessing, there's probably
a list of 100 things you could do.
So how do you prioritize what to work on?
Shenaz: Sure.
There is a long process to do that.
Right?
First and the most important thing is listening to our users.
Listening to our users.
Interviewing our users.
I personally [INAUDIBLE],, the team, personally spend a lot of time
on Reddit, on Twitter, on forums reading about how users
are using these features, what are the pain points they have with the phones
after that.
The team goes through a massive exercise of building on this list.
We put them to user research, multiple rounds of user research.
Which includes both quantitative and qualitative.
We evaluate how good is the tech to do some of these features?
Right?
Like, we started with [INAUDIBLE] screen.
How good is the tech?
Because you don't want to put out something when the tech is not good.
So I think that's a process.
And it's always finding the problem and then the tech
rather than having the tech and finding the problem to solve.
Rachid: I think that's an important lesson
for most people in tech listening.
Now, we started with phones of course.
Pixel Buds followed soon after.
Then, we got to watch.
And of course, soon the tablet as well that we announced last year.
Why is it important to develop several of these Pixel product areas?
Shenaz: Primarily because Pixel is a portfolio of devices.
Right?
And it's a vision that we want to build launching a very impressive lineup
of beautifully designed Pixel phones, watches, earbuds, and as you said,
we've announced the tablet, that come together
to, again, like I said, going back to the statement of making
your life easier and delivering the helpfulness of Google straight to you
by solving the problems.
Because you do use other devices than just your phone.
You have your watch. I have my watch.
Right?
I need a larger screen sometimes to unwind, to see some videos,
play some games.
Or earbuds, like especially when I'm walking, or running, or walking my dog.
And I think having that portfolio, because it's
connected and unlocking all kinds of helpful ambient experiences,
is extremely important.
How about when you're taking a selfie, but you want to put your phone away
and take your watch to take a picture from your phone.
You can just click on your phone rather than
running back and forth from that phone, which you put for a selfie.
And there's no more selfie arm in the group.
Again, I'm not very tall.
So my selfie arm is pretty big.
So I love using my watch to take that group selfie of me and the kids
many times.
Rachid: So let's dive into that a little bit deeper, not specifically
the group selfie.
But what I mean is creating those individual Pixel products, I'm sure,
is a challenge in and of itself.
But then, of course, you also want them to work together.
Is it just about making the best product then
getting them to talk to each other?
Is there more to it?
Shenaz: I think there's a lot more to it.
It's connecting the products.
It's, again, like I said, going back to helping our users in their lives
based on all the products that they're using.
So a common one is wi-fi credentials and finding your device.
You shouldn't have to log into the same wi-fi
network with your different devices.
It's like, why doesn't this just work?
And so you log in with your Pixel phone.
And the Pixel Watch will just connect.
Or how many times I go I remember my kids were, like, oh, my god.
I can't find my Pixel Buds.
I'm like, you can use "find my device" to find your Pixel Buds.
Again, thinking of those where they feel just like, duh, this should just work.
And that's the philosophy of that these devices should just work together
and, like I said, also helping you take a picture.
Rachid: Those are some great features indeed across the whole ecosystem,
making it all come together.
Now recently, we had episodes on spatial audio
and also fall detection, both of which were actually
launched through feature drops, which I think is something
you're also heavily involved in.
How do you align all the work of all the teams,
making sure that all these things come together in a feature drop?
It seems like a lot of planning going into that.
Shenaz: Oh, definitely.
And it is a lot of effort.
But it has been so exciting over the last few years
that we launched feature drop, seeing how our users appreciate them.
But I think stepping back, one of the philosophies at Pixel that we have is
that you your device gets better over time.
I kind of feels like, oh, my device is not getting better.
Your device continues to get better over time with features and updates.
And so that is the philosophy we had when we started feature drops.
Apart from celebrating the features that we give our users
and creating awareness, again like we said, we have a long list of features.
We work on a long list of features.
But how do you create that awareness for the user as well that,
OK, these are the new features that we just shipped.
And so we package them and even create awareness on the phone of all
the features that we have shipped, like night side, quick
tap to snap, portrait blur, so that users know that their devices
are continuously going to get better.
The analogy that I draw is celebrations.
You have New Years. But that's only one.
But then, you have your birthday.
You have your anniversary.
There are all these different celebrations in your life.
And feature drops are like celebrations where we are helping you celebrate
your phone by dropping features on a regular cadence
rather than only when you get a new device.
And that's the philosophy that the team worked on to constantly provide
updates as part of feature drops.
Rachid: Yeah, so it's like Christmas four times a year,
actually, maybe eight times a year if you take into account
a Pixel Watch, which also gets feature drops of course.
Now, Shenaz, it's not long until Google I/O, for those who didn't know,
it's on May 10th.
That's when it kicks off.
And those kind of events really keep us at Google
busy, like also with a "Made by Google" events that we have in October.
So what is your role in events like that?
Like, what keeps you busy sort of the final few weeks
before we present things to the world?
Shenaz: There's a lot that goes in the final mile,
to be very honest, and more importantly, the attention to detail.
And that's another thing where I have my "precious Pixel perfectionist."
I try to spend a lot more time in the attention of detail
to make sure that the experiences that we are shipping to our users
are ready for our users.
We know that there are certain fundamentals
that have to be just right in terms of product quality, battery life,
connectivity.
And so we have to pay extra attention to these areas
and to make sure that we're constantly improving on them.
Rachid: Absolutely.
So it's just a busy time just getting everything as right as possible
before people get it in their hands.
Shenaz: And then, the excitement of the feedback we're
going to get from our users, it's like when a movie gets released.
When you release a film and all of the initial ratings and reviews come out,
it's so exciting.
It's like that euphoric moment of, like, when users get the phone.
And there's good.
And there is bad feedback.
Obviously, because everybody has a very different point of view and what
they use.
But it's just exciting to have that product in the hands of users
and giving the feedback.
Rachid: That's incredible.
So those events are busy in the run up.
And then, you get a lot of feedback.
And it's busy all over again, of course.
Shenaz: Yes.
And that's the fun of it.
Because you are constantly using your mind,
and challenging yourself and the team to how
to build better products for everybody.
And I am a user too.
Like, everybody's a user on the phone.
I use my phone all the time too.
Rachid: Now, Shenaz, we close every episode
with a top tip for our listeners.
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Do you have a favorite tip for one of our Pixel devices
that you'd like to share?
Shenaz: My favorite app on the Pixel, one of my favorite apps in Pixel
is the recorder app.
Because the recorder app, especially when you're doing interviews
or when you talk in a meeting, you can just plop your phone
and tell people you're recording.
But the recorder just grabs the transcript,
whether you are in an offline, like even if you have no internet connection,
and just last year we shipped a feature called Speaker Labels, which
now identifies the different speakers and says
speaker one, speaker two, speaker three.
I think it is just so convenient to go look back and help you.
Again, like rather than, oh, my.
What was that?
What did the interviewer say?
I missed that.
Just go back to the transcript and easily plop the transcript
down with the speaker labels.
That's my top tip.
And that's something that I am very excited that the team worked on.
And it was a tough product to launch.
But the team did it.
Rachid: Well, Shenaz, thank you so much for joining
the final episode of this season of "Made by Google" podcast.
Good luck with Pixel.
Can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Shenaz: Thank you.
It was really good to be on the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Rachid: Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Thanks again to Shenaz for coming on the "Made by Google" podcast today.
Yes, isn't it a thing of marvel?
The recorder app, so if you have a Pixel 3 or later, do give it a try.
It absolutely flew past, season two of the "Made by q podcast.
But fear not, because I promise season three is just around the corner.
Now, if you've missed any of the episodes, just subscribe to our podcast
and hear what we've been talking about over the past several weeks
or even revisit season one.
So thanks again for listening.
Take care.
And talk to you in season three.