Gammarama²
Gammaramagammarama
If you'd rather watch me present this, that's an option too!
Let's go back in time…
It's October 2021.
Ryan Gosling has just been cast in the upcoming Barbie movie🧍‍♀️
We're one year away from the greatest soundbite that GBBO has ever produced 🥑
…and a little startup called Gamma has been building a "memo" product for about six months 📝
AT THIS POINT…
Our signature features don't exist,
Gamma is a pretty primitive product,
and we only have a few users…
…most of whom are friends and family 🏡
To know what was (and wasn't) working, we needed more feedback.
But…
We didn't have anything that could be described as "volume".
So what's a startup to do?
We didn't have the feedback and insights that come with real usage
And we weren't sure who we were actually building for at that point anyways
So we manufactured ways for us to learn what it's like to use our product
Because if we had waited around, we wouldn't be here today
I've heard that some people don't like [the] term [dogfooding] and prefer a term like "drink your own champagne".
I think that's totally wrong.
I think the whole point is that it tastes like shit — and I think champagne tastes pretty good.
Jon Noronha
The real value of Gamamrama comes after the conclusion.
In the early days, we would take notes and discuss our feedback after each session.
We'd talk about…
🐛 Bugs
😍 Things we liked
🙋‍♀️ Questions we had
Notes from the very first Gammarama →
And as the tradition continued…
1
1
We started seeing themes in our internal feedback
Usability, visuals, feature requests — anything and everything is fair game.
2
2
We tackled the problems that we identified
Often by prototyping and rapidly iterating on solutions
3
3
We shipped our solutions
Sometimes they were fixes — sometimes we found out we had created new problems altogther.
We also found a loooooOoooOOoOOOot of really weird bugs and we got to learn how Gamma performs live in a room and virtually over Zoom
Gammarama is fun!
It also shines a powerful light on the work that we've been doing.
It exposes the papercuts and open wounds that our customers face every day.
It gives us an opportunity to really use Gamma, celebrate the work that we're doing, and see how far we've come…
…and it gives us an opportunity to connect with one another.
So…..
How do
I make one
?!??!!?!
Pick a topic
  • Choose something that you're actually interested in!
  • When you're passionate about your topic, you'll
Figure out the story
  • More on this…
Make the thing
  • Do it in whatever way feels most natural to you!
  • Ask ChatGPT/Claude to make you an outline
  • Use the generate, paste, or upload flows
  • ?????
Present the thing
  • And have some fun doing it!
Gammaramas tend to fall into one of these categories →
Educational
Examples

Narrative
Examples

Mix
Examples

And the best Gammaramas have…
1
A topic that you're excited to talk about
2
Some degree of storytelling or narrative arc
To build your narrative, you might approach it in one of these two ways →
1
The linear approach
2
Mise en place
Approach #1
The linear approach
Best for when you know exactly what your message is and how you want to tell it.
Why this topic?
I'd heard it in college and it stuck with me.
I thought it had some interesting takeaways, especially in 2023 (less than 6 months after we launched our AI features).
How did I approach the storytelling?
This story is pretty linear, so I built it out from start to finish and pulled in pieces that best supported the overall drama and story.
How did I make the gamma?
I started from blank and then went card by card, writing content or pulling a visual in and then writing copy to support it.
The styling and AI images came last!
Approach #2
Mise en place
Best when you have a lot of content that you could include but you're not quite sure what the narrative is…yet
Why this topic?
I really like T-Pain.
How did I approach the storytelling?
I gathered a TON of information about T-Pain — his life, career, autotune, etc.
Then, once I had a lay of the land…
I chose some story beats as anchors
  1. The moment on the plane with Usher
  1. Cher's Believe
  1. T-Pain finding the Autotune plugin
  1. The Tiny Desk concert & winning The Masked Singer
And then connected the dots
I pulled in info from my research to connect the main story beats and build a narrative arc.
You can use a storytelling framework like The Hero's Journey as a foundation.
Having trouble finding the beats?
Ask yourself…
What drew me to this topic?
What's my favorite thing about this topic?
What is the most important thing for people to know?
What are the main takeaways?
What's the weirdest thing about this topic?
To summarize, great Gammaramas…
Are not about "x" — they're about why YOU like "x"
Because that's way more fun and we get to learn about you!
Build empathy
For customers building in Gamma and for their audiences, who consume gammas
Help us understand what Gamma is capable
By pushing the limits…or being burned by them.
Don't read the slides and touch peoples hearts, even if its about a sandwich.
Zach Leach
And when in doubt,
Just remember…
(:
The end 💫
We can't wait to see what you create!
Bonus advice:
You don't need to write that much, let your unhinged ai images do the talking!
Jon Noronha
FAQs
Do I have to give a Gammarama?
It's voluntary, but you should consider giving at least one (especially as a new employee). Gammaramas are really, really useful for understanding the product and they're a fun way for the rest of the team to learn about you!
I don't know what to talk about!
Just sign up for a slot and let it come to you 🤪
I'm scared of presenting
Don't worry about being super polished, that's not what Gammarama is for.
But, a few things you can try —
  1. Pick someone you're comfortable talking to and just present as if they're the only person in the room
  1. Take a deep breath and feel free to pause if you need to reset
  1. Know that most people in the room are totally fixated about whatever weird bug just happened