There’s been a lot of talk about the consumerization of IT in the workplace. But in the case of Zoom, the pandemic forced the high-flying video conferencing service to rapidly shift gears in the other direction, resulting in some painful lessons along the way.
Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan said despite the company’s culture of always trying to see the world through its customers’ eyes, it had to rethink many of its assumptions when suddenly a wide range of consumers began using Zoom for everything from distance learning to having virtual cocktails with friends.
“On the one hand, we were very excited, because after many years of hard work your dream is coming true of helping people stay connected,” Yuan said. “But then suddenly, you have 30 times more growth than you were expecting, so how do you handle that? You’ve got to work harder.”
Yuan spoke on day