Going with some out of town friends to downtown SJ to watch the game. Not looking for the watch party but a bar or restaurant with a likely contingent of Mexico fans.
I got sucked down a rabbit hole watching videos on "futuristic" kitchen gadgets (eg AI powered, robotic, etc), and it got me thinking about a product trap. At first glance, the core problem makes total sense: making cooking easier. Who doesn't want fast, affordable home-cooked meals? (I mean, I do, since I went down this rabbit hole)
But to me, these new robo-chef companies are targeting the completely wrong sub-process. If you break down the user journey, it includes deciding what to cook, grocery shopping, meal prep, cooking, serving, and clean-up.
For most people, I believe that the highest-friction pain points are prepping and cleaning. Sure, automating the cooking part is cool, but it doesn't solve the friction of dicing chicken beforehand or cleaning out the various “futuristic” containers that these products use to separate out the food. The product feels worthless when it either doesn’t address or exacerbates the painful parts of the journey, especially for a > $1k price tag with an ongoing required subscription.
Then again, maybe there's a niche persona who can afford a pricey gadget and a monthly subscription, yet remains too cheap for takeout. Or it's made for those with severe dietary restrictions. Though to me, it just looks like a solution in search of a problem.
Curious what the community thinks? And this is purely a thought exercise, though I realize that it sounds annoyingly like a LinkedIn Product Guru post.
If you’re curious the videos in question are here: Josh Weissman - I Tested The Most Futuristic Kitchen Tech, ShortCircuit - I can finally be lazy - Posha Robot Chef
Edit: added context and clarification