u/Jawdee_97

Hey everyone!

I'm currently working full-time, but I've been learning product management on the side and using the learnings I am building a few small tools for personal use along the way. Lately I've been trying to figure out if I can solve a real world problem that is worth spending more time on.

While thinking that through, I looked at my own day-to-day and realized how much time I personally lose just drafting the "proper" email, especially professional ones. I work in retail banking, and over the years I've had a lot of conversations with small business owners who have shared: That between chasing vendors, dealing with merchants, and sorting out with banks, getting the wording right to their emails eats up more time than it should.

A lot of people lean on AI chatbots for this now, but I've found it's not always a clean fix. It often takes several rounds of prompting just to get something that sounds like you instead of being robotic, and if you're not used to prompting well, it can end up taking just as long as writing it yourself. I am trying to think of ways to bridge this but I want to understand it from a bit depth.

I understand this post is not directly related to this group but it will be a gateway to start my own small side project on the side. I just want to understand if this is a real, widespread problem before I go further with it, or if it's just something I've noticed anecdotally.

If you've dealt with this, I'd love to hear about it in the comments: what kind of emails take the most time, what you've tried, what's frustrating about it. If you'd rather answer a few structured questions instead, drop a comment and I'll DM you a short survey.

Really just trying to validate whether this is worth digging into further. Appreciate any thoughts!

Genuinely can't tell if this is just me or an everyone thing, so I figured I'd just ask.

I'm a product management student, and I've got a course project where I need to find a real problem and come up with a solution for it. Rather than invent something random, I started paying attention to what actually annoys me during the week, and email kept coming up.

There's honestly more of it than I expected. I'm doing a remote program, so a lot of my coursework runs over email, and i am also working so I'm emailing customers and going back and forth with colleagues and my manager. Between drafting new ones and replying to what's already in my inbox, it eats up a good chunk of my day. I've tried templates, they need customization most of the times for specific situation, and when I lean on AI it comes out too robotic and doesn't really sound like me.

So I'm curious how it is for everyone else. Do emails eat more of your time than they should? And if they do, what's the part that slows you down, figuring out what to say, the tone, or just getting started?

Would love to hear your take in the comments. And if anyone's up for helping a bit more, I've got a quick anonymous survey, just drop a comment or DM me and I'll send it over. But honestly just looking to hear your thoughts, survey just gives a structure to it.

Hi everyone!

I'm a product management student doing a small personal research project, this isn't commercial and isn't tied to any company or product. I'm just curious how different people actually approach writing their everyday and more important emails.

It's anonymous, takes about 3–4 minutes, and asks about your habits and any tools you use. No sign-up needed to take part, there's an optional field at the very end only if you'd like me to send you a summary of what I find.

It would really help me with the data that would be point me in the right place, thank you to everyone who participates

Link: https://form.jotform.com/261816387547065

Happy to post the results back here afterward :)