For fourteen years, Kipsu has worked to redefine what it means to engage with guests and customers through digital messaging. As a SaaS company, adapting to the fast-evolving digital landscape is crucial to our innovation, and our growing Product team has played a key role in making sure Kipsu truly helps our partners in the best way possible.

Starting at Kipsu as a Product Analyst six years ago, Cara Sego has been instrumental in our product development. From paving the way with new positions to fulfill the needs of our company and partners, to the innovative development of our software, Cara has seen the trajectory of Kipsu and has great insight into what is to come. This year, Cara was promoted to Director of Product, leading the team into developing our digital messaging software to work for our customers and its users. We sat down with Cara to discuss the growth and achievements of both Kipsu’s digital messaging as well as her career with Kipsu!

You’ve recently been promoted to Product Director - congrats! How has your experience at Kipsu prepared you for the position? 

Thank you! My time thus far at Kipsu has prepared me in a variety of ways. I was able to spend my first year (at Kipsu) on three different teams, building a holistic and broader understanding of the business and how the teams work together. 

After that year, I started in a role that hadn’t formerly existed: Product Analyst. From there on out, each role I stepped in was created as we built out the product function and eventually the Product team. Throughout the next five years, I gained experience in building - building products, building processes, and building a team.  And as we’ve built this team at Kipsu, it’s been invaluable for me to have done each role along the way and been guided and mentored by others throughout the process, better preparing me to do the same for the Product team as we grow.

The product function sits between a lot of teams - Engineering, Business, Customer Success, etc. As such, I gained experience not just in the product craft, but how to engage and collaborate effectively with other teams. But most importantly, my time here has prepared me with grit in solving challenging problems. Kipsu’s core value of “We Go Beyond, Together” really resonates with this.

Since you’ve been at Kipsu, what are some product features or developments that have been implemented that you are most proud of?

There are a few product developments I’ve been very proud of. Some developments aren’t “flashy” but they are effective. Like the verbal consent capture and healthcare consent capture - it’s a subtle feature, but incredibly impactful for brands and compliance and across industries, especially HIPAA, and is an important step in distinguishing us as service-based messaging.

Another development that has been integral to our product is the integration with additional messaging channels (Apple Business Chat, Google Business Messaging, LINE, WhatsApp, WeChat); each channel comes with a unique set of considerations and constraints that we had to work through, but the eventual outcome has broader support for guests. It’s been interesting to learn how messaging practices and preferences vary globally, too. 

How does Kipsu stay innovative with our software in an industry that is constantly and  quickly evolving?

Our curiosity and a willingness to roll up our sleeves to understand the details helps us evolve. We are constantly asking, “what is the right problem to solve and why?” And to answer that, we engage with customers to regularly hear what changes they are experiencing, we read through thousands of messages to better inform algorithms and sentiment regardless of direct application to Kipsu, and solve the unglamorous problems in order to provide a meaningful solution.

I also think our close relationships with customers and the people in the field day in and day out help keep us learning and in the loop on changes in the industry. This helps to ensure we are focused on solving real human problems rather than just building a product for product’s sake. One of the best ways to field test an idea is to collaborate closely with a customer partner throughout the process, and in particular, a partner that doesn’t settle for the status quo. An interesting/innovative idea goes a lot further if it is both vetted out and supported by an eager customer to join along the journey.

On a practical level, executing on curiosity and innovation that stands the test of time requires resources and dedicated capacity. As the Product team continues to grow, we are able to dedicate resources to various functions like product developments for new markets, integrations, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) features.

What are trends that you predict will play a major role in messaging software in the next few years?

There are several trends that could factor into our product development. Artificial intelligence and automation is a big one. A key way Kipsu is continuing to innovate in this area is through dedicated capacity focused on AI and NLP technologies. We want to help customers deliver top tier customer service by strategically leveraging automation where applicable and humans where necessary in an increasingly automated world. Digitizing and leveraging AI technologies in service delivery necessitates having a channel to codify the communication. We are in a very strong position to do so, given all communication in our product is already digitized via the digital messaging channels. This is very helpful as we seek to expand our product offering of automation capabilities.

Another trend we are seeing, especially in the hospitality sector, is frontline efficiency. With staffing shortages persisting, efficiency with the available resources on the frontline will continue to be a big focus while the quality of service guests expect increases, even amongst all the automation.  Answering the questions of “how do we keep doing what we do (at the front desk, call center, leasing office, etc.) with fewer people?” But more importantly, it’s how to maximize efficiency while also maintaining strong customer service and value to guests. 

I also see collaboration between team members trending in digital communication software. Excellent customer service often involves multiple people and teams in order to see a request through intake, assignment, execution, follow-up, etc. As guest requests are increasingly digitized, having a digital solution for team members to communicate internally, seamlessly, and in real-time becomes increasingly important.

And lastly, enterprise visibility. As messaging becomes more of an expectation from guests rather than a nice amenity, it plays a larger role in overall guest satisfaction and therefore importance in brand-wide analytics. Additionally, with all the data already digitized and evolving AI/NLP technologies, the ability to understand guest sentiment and experience in the moment rather than after the fact via a survey becomes increasingly possible and valuable. We anticipate brand-level visibility into insights and trends relative to messaging and guest fulfillment to be a continued need over the next few years.

When developing our product, what are some factors that you and your team consider in your decisions?

Oof, lots! Our job is to put ourselves into the shoes of a variety of users and think deeply about the details and the big picture. The first and biggest thing we consider is “What is the problem that we’re trying to solve?” Who (i.e. what users) encounter the problem? Why is it a problem and what would make it better? How do we solve the problem at hand? How does that solution impact other functionality and how do we not introduce more problems, or regressions? What environmental factors occur outside of Kipsu that could also impact the user’s experience? What changes are needed now to support the users? How could we sequence this out into phases to deliver value over time? A lot of solutions and ideas are proposed amongst stakeholders, and our job is to help think thoroughly and strategically about how to solve the right problem in an effective way

It’s also important to question what we think we know. Asking “why” helps get to the root of that. “Why is this problem worth solving more than another?” or more simply, “Why is X important?” We want to make sure there is value to our solution.

What is your vision for Kipsu and the product team in 2024 and beyond?

We have an exciting few years ahead of us! Propelled by continued expansion with brands, growth in the living environments sector, and more and more international properties, we certainly don’t lack momentum at Kipsu! I see operational excellence - continuous improvement and thoroughness of how we do what we do - and strategic design - designing not just for the problem at hand, but forward and cross-vertical thinking - as two main areas of focus for us. I don’t want our team to get too comfortable with the status quo both in how and why we do what we do. 

For 2024 and beyond, we want to grow deeper in industry and product component expertise. That could be different team members diving into different domains of product development, helping build ownership among the team and having that dedicated capacity in key areas of focus. There are a lot of exciting years ahead of us!