Problem Statement

Professionals waste 8.8 hours weekly managing Gmail inboxes, struggling to prioritize critical unread emails amid clutter, leading to missed communications. Manual filtering often fails, and bulk deletion or unsubscribing is time-consuming. Users report stress from inbox overload and distracting notifications, highlighting the need for intuitive tools to streamline prioritization and cleanup.

Target Audience

The core audience consists of professionals, students, and heavy email users overwhelmed by high unread email volume and seeking smarter, time-saving management solutions.

User Research and Idea Validation

Analysis of Survey Feedback

Key Findings from User Survey

3 key pain points I uncovered after surveying 17 users - 

1. Overwhelmed by volume of unread emails and newsletters

   Over 55% of respondents reported having at least 50 unread emails, and mass unsubscribing or scanning quickly are common coping strategies. For example, users describe either leaving emails unread to read later, unsubscribing, or setting up smart inboxes to manage overflow.

2. Difficulty prioritizing and finding important emails

   Users frequently mention stress trying to locate important emails amidst clutter or high volume. About 52% of employees worry about missing crucial communications. Strategies include prioritizing emails by sender or keywords, starring and setting aside emails for later reading.

3. Need for bulk actions to manage emails efficiently

   Bulk actions like mass deleting, unsubscribing, archiving, and filtering are crucial to reduce inbox clutter. Around 50% of time spent on emails is on non-essential or unwanted messages. Users report using filters, bulk-archiving, and automations to regain control.

Product Opportunity

A email unread email summarizer, powered by AI, that will:

• Automatically prioritize and summarize unread emails by urgency and topic.

• Offer one-click unsubscribe, bulk cleanup, and customizable filters (e.g., by sender or domain).

• Provide a clean, mobile-friendly interactive UI with smart notifications.

Market Potential

Email management and productivity tools are in high demand as inboxes grow, with 376.4 billion emails sent daily globally in 2025, of which Gmail processes ~131 billion. Integrating AI-driven unread email summarization and bulk management functionalities can attract Gmail’s professionals, students, and heavy email users overwhelmed by inbox clutter. The productivity and AI-enhancement niches are growing at a 21% CAGR, offering potential for browser extensions or SaaS products. However, Gmail’s free features and low user willingness to pay for email tools limit adoption, requiring a competitive freemium model.

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Global Gmail Users: Approx. 2 billion active users in 2025.

Target Segment: 5% of Gmail users (100 million) who are professionals, students, or heavy email users experiencing inbox overload and likely to consider productivity tools. This accounts for the fact that many users are satisfied with Gmail’s free features or use alternative tools.

Serviceable Available Market (SAM)

Average Annual Spend: A more realistic price point, based on competitors like Clean Email ($9.99–$29.99/year) or Boomerang ($4.98/month for premium features), is $4.99/month = $59.88/year.

TAM Calculation: 100 million × $59.88 = $5.99 billion

Target Segment: Focus on professionals, students, and heavy email users in North America, Europe, and Asia, representing 50% of the TAM (50 million users). This aligns with regions where paid productivity tools have higher adoption due to higher disposable income and tech penetration.

Conversion Rate: Assuming a 3% conversion rate to paid subscriptions (typical for freemium productivity apps), the addressable paid user base is 50 million × 3% = 1.5 million users.

Annual Value per Customer: $59.88 (premium tier at $4.99/month).

SAM Calculation: 1.5 million × $59.88 = $89.82 million.

User Persona

Prototype: How Does the solution works?

Prototype Link

Rapid Prototyping and User Feedback-Driven Design Process

For my Unread Email Summarizer prototype, I employed a rapid prototyping approach to quickly transform an idea into a functional model. The initial prototype, built to streamline email management by summarizing unread emails, was developed using Figma to test core functionality. Focusing on key features like automated summary generation and user-friendly output, I created a lightweight version to gather early insights.

To validate the prototype, I distributed it to a small group of users and collected feedback via a Google Sheets survey. The survey targeted usability, clarity of summaries, and overall value, yielding actionable insights (e.g., “Users requested customizable summary lengths”). This feedback loop drove iterative improvements, refining the prototype to better align with user needs. The process underscored the power of rapid prototyping and user-driven design in creating intuitive, impactful solutions.

What People Said: Portfolio Feedback Results

1. Feature Usability Insights

   The most valued features by users are automatic highlighting of important unread emails and one-click unsubscribe options, followed closely by inbox cleanup tools and priority marking. This indicates a strong user need for efficient email triage and simple management capabilities, suggesting these should be prioritized and further refined in the next iteration. 

2. User Requests for New and Enhanced Features

   Top new feature requests focus on reducing clutter through grouping and prioritizing content, as well as automating deletion of unread advertising emails. Enhancement requests emphasize improved filtering and organization by priority or category and a cleaner UI with contextual bulk actions. These insights indicate a priority on better organization and streamlined usability.

3. Customer Sentiment and Satisfaction

   Net Promoter Scores and Customer Satisfaction Scores show a majority positive sentiment with several highest scores, but there is still a spread indicating room for improvement. Enhancing user experience by addressing the requested organizational features and clear dashboard improvements will likely boost these satisfaction metrics further.