Insights Unlocked: Redefining a Beloved Brand — What Zoom’s Transformation Teaches Modern Business Leaders

Podcast: Insights Unlocked
Episode: Redefining a Beloved Brand: What Zoom’s Transformation Teaches Modern Business Leaders
Date: December 1, 2025
Host: Johan Reed, CMO at UserTesting
Guest: Kim Storen, CMO at Zoom
Producer: Nathan Isaacs

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Johan Reed sits down with Zoom CMO Kim Storen for a candid, thoughtful look at what it means to lead transformation at scale—especially when managing a brand with near-universal awareness. Storen discusses how Zoom is evolving beyond its pandemic-era identity, the challenges of category expansion, the imperative of real customer understanding, and the future of authentic connection in the age of AI and remote work. The program is rich with actionable advice for marketing, product, UX, and CX leaders seeking to drive growth, loyalty, and measurable business results.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Constant Challenge of Change and Transformation

• Early Reflections on Change

  • Kim highlights change as a consistent challenge, noting it’s hardest not on strategy or technology, but on culture—both internal and external.
  • Quote:
    “You can have the greatest strategy in the world … but the culture … can make or break that strategy.”
    — Kim Storen [02:09]

• Balancing Optimism, Pragmatism, Curiosity, and Restraint

  • Kim and Johan discuss embracing curiosity and optimism while grounding strategy in pragmatism and restraint.
  • Memorable Analogy:
    “It’s sort of like four … two axes where you’ve got optimism and pragmatism and curiosity and restraint, and then finding the sweet spot … is probably where success lies.”
    — Johan Reed [04:51]

Zoom’s Brand Paradox: From Ubiquity to Reinvention

• The Double-Edged Sword of Brand Awareness

  • The pandemic made “Zoom” not only a household name but a verb, creating deep brand affinity—but also risk of being typecast as “just the meetings platform.”
  • “Our challenge as a brand is to take that love that the world has for our core product … and translate that into awareness and ultimately love and advocacy for the rest of our portfolio.”
    — Kim Storen [06:02]

• Expanding Beyond Meetings

  • Unknown to many, Zoom has built platforms for webinars, events, customer experience, sales acceleration, and employee engagement—yet market awareness lags.
  • “We really have to show the world that we’re more than meetings.”
    — Kim Storen [07:09]

Storytelling and Cohort-Based Strategy for Transformation

• Product Storytelling and AI Integration

  • The path to new product adoption is leveraging the trust in core products and connecting it to adjacent solutions (e.g., Zoom’s AI Companion).
  • “Tapping into that core competency is really important, and so is context … your AI … sits next to you day in and day out, understands the context of those meetings and [is] able to help you go from meeting to milestone.”
    — Kim Storen [08:55]

• From Funnel to Cohorts

  • Marketing focus has shifted from breadth to depth—targeting CXOs and functional leaders with solutions tailored to their unique needs and journeys, not one-size-fits-all branding.
  • Quote:
    “We can’t try to be everything to everyone. We have to be everything to you.”
    — Kim Storen [12:23]

Building Genuine Community — Beyond Content and Campaigns

• Humanizing B2B and Building Community in Digital-First Work

  • The role of community is paramount in combating AI-generated content overload; authenticity is key.
  • “People don’t want to be sold to. They want to do 80% of their research before they talk to a seller. So how do you … create that fame, if you will, as a brand that … really holds that mental availability in someone’s brain in an authentic way?”
    — Kim Storen [16:08]

• Emotional Stakes in B2B Purchasing

  • Kim calls out that B2B decisions—like choosing Zoom—are highly emotional, sometimes more so than B2C.
  • “If I buy the wrong pair of shoes … not much on the line … If I spend a million dollars on … software that doesn’t work … my job’s on the line. What’s more emotional than that?”
    — Kim Storen [17:57]

• Community as a Strategic Asset

  • Zoom’s “fans” resemble those of Apple:
    “I take pride in being a dedicated Zoom user. If I get a link for the competitor’s platform, I don’t want to go to that meeting.”
    — Kim Storen [22:46]

The Collaboration Paradox: Productivity, Friction, and Platform Choice

• ROI of Collaboration Tools

  • Recent research with Deloitte shows ROI isn’t just about platform consolidation or meeting volume: real value comes from adoption of next-gen features—especially AI-powered tools.
  • “Ultimately, the real ROI comes from adoption … [Organizations using] AI powered capabilities … are saving three hours per week on average.”
    — Kim Storen [26:22]

• Frictions of Forced Standardization

  • Mandating a single collaboration platform can actually hurt productivity; different teams self-select tools based on context and need.
  • “When you force everyone onto the same platform, even more friction begins … giving employees that choice … you start to see flexibility and productivity improving.”
    — Kim Storen [28:11]

• From Cost-Cutting to Value Creation

  • The paradigm shifts from measuring platform success in tool count or uptime, to outcomes, adoption, and delivered human connection.
  • “We are so conditioned to think about how many tools … instead of how much value do our people get from the tools that we use.”
    — Kim Storen [31:13]

Leading Transformation: Advice for Modern Marketers & Leaders

• Three Essential Traits

  • Kim closes with practical advice for any leader navigating transformation:
    1. Curiosity: Looking forward, being optimistic and open to change.
    2. Agility: Being able to look back, assess what works, and quickly pivot.
    3. Calculated Risk-Taking: Combining art and science to move fast, scale what works,—and kill what doesn’t.
  • Notable Quote:
    “Curiosity, agility and calculated risk-taking are what I think is the formula for success right now for marketers.”
    — Kim Storen [37:51]

• Bonus Wisdom

  • “If anybody’s going to take a risk in the enterprise, it’s got to be marketing … and be best friends with your CFO while you do it.”
    — Johan Reed & Kim Storen [38:49]

Memorable Quotes by Topic

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |----------:|---------|:------| | 02:09 | Kim Storen | "Change is hard. ... The culture ... can make or break that strategy." | | 06:02 | Kim Storen | "Our challenge ... is to take that love that the world has for our core product ... and translate that into ... advocacy for the rest of our portfolio." | | 12:23 | Kim Storen | "We can't try to be everything to everyone. We have to be everything to you." | | 16:08 | Kim Storen | "People don't want to be sold to. ... How do you ... create that fame ... in an authentic way?" | | 17:57 | Kim Storen | "B2B marketers ... it is such an emotional purchase." | | 26:19 | Kim Storen | "Meeting friction is everywhere. ... Employees ultimately spend about 25 hours per week ... on coordination versus actual creation." | | 28:11 | Kim Storen | "When you force everyone onto the same platform, even more friction begins." | | 31:13 | Kim Storen | "Shift from ... consolidation to thinking about outcomes, adoption and human connection." | | 37:51 | Kim Storen | "Curiosity, agility and calculated risk taking ... that's the formula for success ..." |

Key Timestamps by Segment

• 00:00 – 04:50: Intro, Kim’s approach to transformation, culture as the glue
• 04:51 – 07:11: Brand awareness as double-edged sword, Zoom’s expansion challenge
• 07:12 – 14:30: Storytelling, cohort focus, “everything to you” approach, building brand to demand connection
• 14:31 – 18:46: Building community, co-creation, authenticity, B2B’s emotional stakes
• 18:47 – 24:45: Community-building’s impact, pandemic behavior shifts, tailoring solutions, user advocacy
• 24:46 – 31:13: Research on ROI, friction, the failure of forced consolidation, next-gen features, real adoption
• 31:14 – 38:53: Emphasizing outcomes, connecting to users, aligning IT and user needs, Kim’s success formula

Actionable Takeaways for Leaders

• Balance optimism and curiosity with pragmatism and restraint for successful transformation.
• Leverage existing brand affinity while communicating new capabilities—avoid trying to be everything to everyone.
• Focus on deep understanding of specific buyer cohorts, tailoring messaging to each journey.
• Community-building is core in the AI age: foster authentic connections offline and online.
• Adoption of next-gen features, especially AI tools, is the new metric for collaboration ROI.
• Empower teams with flexibility in tool choice to reduce friction and increase productivity.
• Cultivate curiosity, agility, and a bias for calculated risk to lead (and market) at the speed of change.

Final Thought

Kim’s episode delivers a masterclass in human-centric transformation, offering both the vision—and the practical levers—needed to “unlock” growth and belonging in modern business. For marketers, product, and CX leaders, the message is clear: deep customer understanding, cultural agility, and authentic risk-taking matter more than ever.

For more show notes and resources:
usertesting.com/podcast

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