From the CPO's desk: Katmai Product Roadmap - Review and Preview

The last six months at Katmai have been all about refinement, depth, and momentum. As a product team, we’ve been laser-focused on one goal: making virtual interaction feel as natural, powerful, and human as being in the same room.

Every update, every release, and every small UX improvement has been driven by the same philosophy - that the best digital experiences don’t fight human behavior; they follow it.

When people use Katmai, they shouldn’t feel like they’re “on a platform.” They should feel like they’re together - moving, connecting, and creating in real time. The past six months were about solidifying that foundation. The next six will be about building on it.

What We Built (April – October 2025)

We’ve made Katmai faster, smarter, and more intuitive across every dimension of the experience. Here’s a closer look at what shipped - and why it matters:

• Updated Meeting Menu – A clean redesign that declutters the screen and shortens the path between intention and action. Every control is now exactly where your instincts expect it to be.
  
  
• Turning the Green Light Off – Small detail, big psychological impact. Giving users control over their “presence light” helps balance visibility and privacy, empowering teams to work without the constant feeling of being watched.
  
  
• Auto Screenshare Mode – When you start presenting, Katmai automatically detects and shares the right screen. It’s fast, foolproof, and removes one of the biggest friction points in meetings.
  
  
• Floating Joystick for Mobile – We brought natural movement to mobile. Whether you’re walking the floor of your virtual office or joining a breakout pod, navigation now feels fluid and tactile.
  
  
• Voice Visualization – Subtle, responsive animation that makes conversation flow more naturally. You can see who’s speaking, even in group settings, without the awkward interruptions that plague most video calls.
  
  
• Space Personalization (2D) – Your space, your identity. Teams can now display logos, artwork, and custom visuals that make the environment unmistakably their own - whether for brand, team culture, or client experience.
  
  
• Emotes – Quick, expressive reactions that make collaboration feel alive. They add warmth, humor, and human cues to digital interaction without slowing the conversation.
  
  
• Office Hours – The simplest way to create structured moments of availability inside the virtual office. Drop-in time for coaching, mentoring, or connecting across teams - just like real life.
  
  
• SSO Integration – Seamless, enterprise-grade authentication that brings Katmai in line with the security, compliance, and convenience standards global customers expect.
  
  
• Background Blur – A privacy-first feature that lets users stay present without revealing their physical surroundings. It’s about comfort, focus, and control - especially for teams working from home.
  
  
• Prompt to Complete Profile – A subtle nudge that helps users personalize their identity inside Katmai, improving discoverability and connection across teams.
  
  
• Updated Meeting Mode Icon – A small but meaningful change: a chair icon that signals “sit down” in your space. It’s intuitive, human, and mirrors real-world behavior - you take your seat, you’re ready to talk.

Individually, these updates make Katmai more intuitive. Together, they redefine how teams use presence to work.
We now see users spending over 23 hours per week ambiently connected in Katmai, with the vast majority of collaboration happening spontaneously, in short bursts of high-impact interaction. That’s exactly what this platform is designed for - fewer scheduled meetings, more real connection.

What’s Next (October 2025 – April 2026)

The next phase of Katmai’s roadmap expands beyond refinement into transformation.
We’re taking everything we’ve learned about presence, flow, and usability - and scaling it for larger groups, deeper integrations, and enterprise adoption.

Here’s what’s coming:

• Honeycomb Mode (2D) – When a space fills beyond a comfortable size, avatars seamlessly shift into a beautiful 2D honeycomb layout. Everyone stays visible and organized - no shrinking faces or visual chaos. When the room clears, it transitions back to full 3D. It’s dynamic, fluid, and fully toggleable by the user.
  
  
• Mobile (Next Generation) – A rebuilt experience that puts full participation in your pocket. Move, meet, and collaborate from anywhere with high fidelity and ease.
  
  
• Katmai in Slack – Presence meets productivity. You’ll soon be able to see who’s in your Katmai space - and join them - directly from Slack. It’s a bridge between asynchronous messaging and real-time collaboration.
  
  
• Interview Loop – A new experience for hiring teams, combining Katmai’s immersive environment with structured data capture. It helps recruiters conduct fairer, faster, and more human interviews - and helps candidates feel connected from the first conversation.
  
  
• Jump to User – Instantly locate and join any teammate across your space. No searching or messaging - just one click to meet.
  
  
• Map – A live, bird’s-eye view of your organization’s virtual environment. You can see where everyone is, what’s happening, and where to go next. It’s presence, visualized.
  
  
• Mini Theater – A purpose-built space for presentations, all-hands, and training sessions. Scaled for intimacy and visibility - because great communication should feel natural, not staged.
  
  
• Enterprise White Labeling – Full branding and customization options for our enterprise partners. The Katmai engine, fully yours - your domain, your design, your identity.
  
  

Every one of these features reinforces the same belief: that digital workspaces can do more than connect us - they can transform how we experience each other in a distributed world.

The Road Ahead

Looking back, I see a product that’s become dramatically more capable. Looking forward, I see a platform that’s just beginning to show its full potential.

Katmai isn’t another meeting app. It’s a new operating system for human connection at work - a place where presence replaces scheduling, where visibility replaces isolation, and where collaboration happens as naturally online as it does in person.

As we move into 2026, we’ll keep listening, iterating, and building. Every feature, every detail, will keep serving the same mission: to make digital collaboration as intuitive and meaningful as real-life interaction.

If you’d like to see what’s new - or what’s coming - I’d love to show you personally.
Reach out to me anytime at dan@katmaitech.com, and join me in our Virtual HQ for a live walkthrough.

See you in the office,
Dan Kosh
Chief Product Officer, Katmai