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Apple's Big Week, More OpenAI Changes and TikTok's Tests
Plus - Top UX Tips, Product for Gen-Z, Navigating AI Bias
Alastair Preacher
May 27, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes
We track Product so you don't have to. Top Podcasts summarised, the latest AI tools, plus research and news in a 5 min digest.
Hey Product fans!
Welcome to this week’s 🌮 Product Tapas. If you’ve been forwarded this you can sign up and check previous editions here.
What’s on the menu this week? 🧑🍳
📰 Not Boring - The UK has opened an office in San Francisco to address AI risks, while Apple is gearing up for potential announcements at WWDC. OpenAI has been busy, removing a Scarlett Johansson-like voice from ChatGPT and disbanding their long-term AI risk team. On the brighter side, they’re rolling out new features like interactive tables and chart integrations from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Perplexity teams up with TakoViz for enhanced data visualisation, and Geoffrey Hinton suggests a universal basic income to counter AI-driven inequality. TikTok is testing hour-long videos, Spotify introduces a new font, and Stripe adds passkeys for logging in. If that’s not enough, we’ve also news from Microsoft, Anthropic, TikTok and more.
⌚ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs - This week, we're focusing on tools to turbocharge product discovery, tidy up your browser tab mess and become better at prompting. Plus, for those on the job hunt, we cover a fantastic tool that helps filter job roles by useful factors like risk, industry, investor, and stage.
🍔 Blog Bites - We’ve dug up two great articles to help you improve your UX skills from Peter Ramsay and “laws of UX”, followed by Tom Kerwin from Trigger Strategy Group’s thought-provoking piece on why sports metaphors might not always be useful in business. We then close out this section with a link to Chetan Zawar’s piece on why traditional product management may not suit Gen Z and Jaryd Hermann's case study on Shopify's rapid growth into the enterprise market.
🎙️ Pod Shots - We close out this week with a summary of the latest episode of The Product Experience, where John Haggerty, shares his insights on navigating AI bias. He covers essential strategies and tools for mitigating bias, the importance of continuous monitoring and much more!
Plenty to get stuck into - off we go! 🚀👇
📰 Not boring
UK opens office in San Francisco to tackle AI risk
Apple and OpenAI may announce something at WWDC (June 10-14)
Apple also announced a load of accessibility features including eye tracking, music haptics, and vocal shortcuts
Speaking of OpenAI, they’ve pulled the Scarlet Johansson soundalike voice from ChatGPT
Perplexity teams up with TakoViz to “bring advanced knowledge search and visualisation to users. Now, you can search, juxtapose, and share authoritative knowledge cards in Perplexity”. Basically looks like a neat way to better share data and visualisations
Geoffrey Hinton, the computer scientist regarded as the “godfather of AI” says the government will have to establish a universal basic income to deal with the impact of AI on inequality
TikTok is testing hour-long videos
Spotify made its own font, and it’s going everywhere inside the app “The new Spotify Mix typeface is a ‘remix’ of various fonts inspired by the ‘evolving nature of audio culture.’” Apparently.
Stripe have added passkeys as an option for logging in
Bing’s API went down, taking Microsoft Copilot, DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT’s web search feature down too. Not immediately ground-breaking news, but goes to show how dependent the web is on just a handful of tech companies
Microsoft announced Recall, a feature that records everything you do on your laptop. There are a number of these already available as standalone products but it seems the UK’s data commissioner has confirmed they’re looking into how the feature works. Interesting to see how this unfolds
Other interesting updates from their Build 2024 event include
Build your own business AI agents
Custom emojis in teams 🥱
Real-time video translation
AI powered “advanced” paste
Mike Krieger (Instagram founder) joins Anthropic as Chief Product Officer 👀
Tiktok announced a stack of things at its world 2024 around creative, performance and brand. Too much to include here but follow the link for more
⌚️ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs
This week’s tips on how to turbocharge your productivity:
fforward.ai - “Accelerate your product discovery”; analyse customer interviews and spot trends faster
Phew AI Tab - organise your tabs more effectively, allowing you to access what you want faster
Prompt Whisperer - “Explore a vast and ever-expanding collection of specialized prompts designed to cater to a multitude of tasks across industries”
Prospect - help filter job roles by useful factors like risk, industry, investor, stage etc. Great for those on the job hunt
🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams
Design: Latest UX BItes from Built for Mars
Peter Ramsay’s latest UX Bites are out. This week I especially enjoyed the OneSec example of showing your behaviour back to you to ensure you follow-through and the Hopper predictive prices. Go check these and more out here.
And I’ve included the Predicted prices piece below 👇️
Hopper is a price tracking app for flights and hotels, and it frames the value of a booking by showing a timeline of the predicted prices over time.
Design: Progressive Onboarding (Onboarding for Active Users)
Product tours can be a great way to onboard customers to your product. However, can be a hindrance to more knowledgable, active users. This article from lawsofux argues “onboarding should be designed with active users in mind, making guidance accessible throughout the product experience.”
The Paradox of the Active User is the tendency for users to never read manuals but start using the software immediately.
Fast forward to today and the need for instructional manuals to operate computers is increasingly rare. Operating an internet-connected device has become second nature to many. However, this paradox can still be observed when people encounter a new product or service, and nowhere is this more apparent than during the onboarding process. Traditional product tours can be a hindrance to active users. Instead, onboarding should be designed with active users in mind, making guidance accessible throughout the product experience.
Leadership: Beware Sports Metaphors
Here, Tom Kerwin (Trigger Strategy Group) talks about how sports metaphors aren’t always that useful in business. It’s a thought provoking piece, and my favourite bit is at the end. He includes a short flash-card on idea generation using snowmobiles as an example 👀
Source: Tom Kerwin Trigger Strategy Group
Customer: Why traditional product management may not work for Gen Z users
In this Mind The Product article, Chetan Zawar, a product lead at TikTok, explores the evolution of product management in the digital age, highlighting differences between Millennials and Gen Z in technology use and values.
Generation Z (Gen Z), born from 1997 onward, is coming of age in a markedly different landscape. Growing up fully immersed in digital technology and social media, this generation has been shaped by the rapid advancement of technology and the economic uncertainties of the post-2008 financial crisis world.
These factors contribute to their distinct consumer behaviors, marked by a higher emphasis on authenticity, ethical practices, and digital nativity compared to previous generations.
Trends covered in the article include:
Mobile-first, Sustainability, Ethical business practices, Relatability and accessibility in products, Smaller scale environments, Higher barrier to entry and lower purchasing power, Embrace feedback and adapt quickly, Customize for connection, Champion values
Case Study: How Shopify Grows (part 2)
Here’s a great addition to the original Jaryd wrote in 2022 now that Shopify are very much in the enterprise game (back then they were the #1 platform for entrepreneurship).
In Nov ‘22, they were valued at $42.48 billion.
But, at breakneck speed… they’ve quickly launched themselves into the enterprise category and are already leading this section of the market.
Today, 18 months later, their market cap is $73.48 billion.
Yes, Shopify has deep resources to invest in expansion and aggressive go-to-markets to help win a pool of customers faster than most of us could ever dream of. But resources alone are not it—there are of course companies who’ve had war chests larger than some countries GDPs who have failed to get into new markets.
Shopify have executed this push to building the enterprise commerce operating system off so well, because they’ve focused on first-principles:
Spot the macro trend
Craft your insight
Lean into your unique advantages
Develop a strategy that stays true to the core mission
Clear the path of side quests, say no, and focus on main quest only
Find where the main value is, and amplify it
Find where the main friction is, and remove it
🎙️ Pod Shots
AI is revolutionising various industries, but it's not without its challenges. Bias in AI is a significant concern that can have far-reaching consequences. In this recent episode of the The Product Experience, John Haggerty, founder of The PM Insider and former VP of product management at Highway.ai, shares his insights on navigating AI bias.
The product experience - MTP
🎥 Watch the full episode here
📆 Published: 22nd May, 2024
🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes. Time saved: 35 minutes🔥
The Journey into Product Management 🌟
John Haggerty's path into product management is a testament to the serendipitous nature of career development. Starting at a broker-dealer in Minneapolis post-9/11, John crafted a solution for documentation compliance using basic Microsoft tools and macros. This ingenuity marked the beginning of his product management journey, leading him through roles at Wells Fargo and eventually to Highway.ai. John's story underscores the importance of problem-solving and adaptability in product management.
Understanding AI: Definitions and Distinctions 🧠✨
AI is often misunderstood, with terms like "machine learning," "deep learning," and "generative AI" used interchangeably. John breaks it down succinctly:
AI: The universe of making machines smarter.
Machine Learning (ML): Algorithms that learn from data and improve over time.
Deep Learning: A subset of ML involving neural networks like RNNs and CNNs.
Generative AI: Utilising Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate new content.
These distinctions are crucial for product managers and developers to accurately communicate and implement AI technologies.
Risks and Challenges with Generative AI ⚠️🤔
Generative AI, while powerful, is fraught with risks:
Hallucinations: AI generating plausible but incorrect or nonsensical answers.
Bias: Reflecting societal biases present in the training data.
Trust Issues: Difficulty in verifying AI-generated outputs.
John emphasises the need for a "trust but verify" approach, ensuring AI results are checked and validated before use.
Mitigating AI Bias: Strategies and Tools 🛠️🔍
To tackle AI bias, John suggests several strategies:
Define Fairness and Bias: Clearly outline what constitutes bias in your context.
Premortems: Anticipate worst-case scenarios and plan mitigations.
Use Fairness Testing Tools: Employ tools like IBM's AI Fairness 360 and Google's What-If Tool to test for biases.
Human-in-the-Loop: Incorporate human oversight at key decision points to catch biases early.
These strategies help ensure AI systems are robust and fair.
Continuous Monitoring and Longitudinal Testing 📊📈
AI products require ongoing vigilance. John advocates for continuous monitoring to detect and correct biases over time. Longitudinal testing helps track AI performance and bias evolution, allowing teams to make proactive adjustments. This approach parallels the iterative nature of product development, ensuring AI systems remain aligned with fairness goals.
The Role of Human Moderation 👥⚖️
While AI can augment many tasks, human judgment remains essential. Humans bring empathy, context, and nuanced understanding that AI currently lacks. John highlights the importance of human moderators to oversee AI outputs and make informed decisions, balancing automation with human insight.
The Future of AI in Product Management 🌐🚀
AI is here to stay, transforming how we develop and manage products. For product managers, this means:
Embracing AI Tools: Leveraging AI for tasks like qualitative and quantitative research, market analysis, and competitor insights.
AI Product Management: Managing AI products involves extreme agility, continuous feedback loops, and iterative development.
John sees AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, the fundamental skills of product management—curiosity, empathy, and learning agility.
Exciting AI Tools to Explore 🎉🔧
John shares his favourite AI tools:
Perplexity's Cloud3 Opus: For prompt engineering with follow-up questions.
MidJourney: For creating lifelike images with advanced camera settings.
AI in the Product Development Lifecycle 🔄📅
Incorporating AI into product development requires a nuanced approach:
Start with Experimentation: Use AI for exploratory research and data analysis.
Define Testing Frameworks: Establish metrics and tests for AI outputs, ensuring they align with user expectations and fairness standards.
Monitor Continuously: Regularly check AI performance to catch and correct biases.
AI's role in product development is evolving, but the principles of thorough testing and continuous improvement remain constant.
Conclusion: Embracing the AI Revolution 🌍✨
AI represents a significant shift in technology and product management. By understanding its nuances, mitigating risks, and continuously monitoring for biases, product managers can harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical and fair outcomes. John's insights provide a valuable roadmap for navigating this complex but exciting landscape.
As AI continues to evolve, staying informed and adaptable will be key to leveraging its full potential. Embrace the revolution, but do so with a critical eye and a commitment to fairness and accuracy.
Want to know more quickly? Just ask the episode below [web only]👇️ 🤯
or if you prefer, 🎥 Watch the full episode here
📅 Timestamps:
[00:07:07] Risks of generative AI.
[00:09:46] Fairness in AI testing.
[00:14:39] Detecting biases in generative AI.
[00:17:31] AI and believability in chatbots.
[00:22:45] Systems hallucinate and make things up.
[00:26:54] Testing AI tools.
[00:29:29] AI in product development.
[00:34:49] AI tools and photography.
[00:37:39] Product managing an AI product.
That’s a wrap.
As always, the journey doesn't end here!
Please share and let us know what you would like to see more or less of so we can continue to improve your Product Tapas. 🚀👋
Alastair 🍽️.
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